Once again it's Christmas Eve and that means it's time for our annual round-up of the ups and downs of our favourite watch brand. This time around I decided it might be fun to obtain input from some other watch enthusiasts, so I gathered together a selection of people (20 in total) to form the 'Council of Considered Opinion', henceforth to be known as 'COCO'.
Originally my plan was simply to add the council's scores onto this post, but as I got more feedback from the council and in one case, some very strident comments that were well worth sharing with you in full, I decided that what I would do would be to add the basic scores here, but hold back the top five - just to keep you guessing a little bit longer.
I know, so very mean... but this is the world we live in, gotta keep you coming back!
I asked each member to score each watch from 1-5 with one being the lowest and 5 being the highest. I also asked each member to choose a single 'Watch of the Year' (since one might wish to give several watches the full five points), these votes alone would determine the ultimate winner, earning it the title 'COCO Watch of the Year'.
Now my plan is to do a post dedicated to the 'COCO' scores and feedback on the 27th of December and also to reveal the 'COCO Watch of the Year', so make sure to come back for that. Until then, here are the 'Best and Worst' TAG Heuers of 2020...
CBK221B.FC6479
We started this 160th Anniversary year with a bang, and what a bang it was. I am actually rather surprised that this watch has already been around nearly a year such is the continuing buzz around it on the Calibre 11 forum. Granted it's not to my personal taste, but clearly it is a future classic and found itself many admirers over the course of the year. No surprise then that this one is in the top five.
COCO rating: XX/100
CAZ101AB.BA0842
Four years on from the original 'Red Bull' F1 (still a stunner) came the second version and while it makes a lot more sense as far as the colour scheme goes, I can't help thinking that it's not as striking or desirable as the original. With Aston Martin parting ways with the Red Bull team at the end of 2020 it remains to be seen how long this watch will be available; the back plate is engraved 'Aston Martin Red Bull Racing', so these could end up in the outlet sometime before the 2021 F1 season starts perhaps?
COCO rating: 62/100
WAY2018.BA0927
Following on from last year's potentially 'scintillating' jewel green Aquaracer, TAG Heuer followed it up with this.... brown dial version. Yeah, I mean... I'm sure it's great and everything, but it's brown. Don't get me wrong, I've tried on a brown Grand Carrera and I thought it was pretty stylish and maybe this is too (I haven't actually seen one as yet), but I was hoping for something a little less brown and a little more... red, perhaps? Oh well, maybe next year...
COCO rating: 48/100
WBD2117.BA0928 WBD1417.BA0741
TAG Heuer has a history of releasing limited edition watches for the Japanese market and this year was no exception. With four watches in total, these were released early on in the year and while good looking there's nothing to get particularly excited about unless you are particularly attached to the Japanese island of Amami Oshima. Undoubtedly these were designed to be bought by tourists visiting the islands, much like the other 'Island' watches TAG Heuer have produced over the years, though this year presumably tourists have been noticeable mainly by their absence?
COCO rating: 53/100
WAZ1018.BA0842
Now this one I have actually seen and while I didn't get a chance to try it on, it looked a lot better in person than it does in pictures. It's a very 'strong' look though and it certainly isn't going to appeal to everyone, but for the right price I might be tempted to pick one of these up at some point. I am slightly put off though by the fact that the TAG Heuer website doesn't show a lume-shot for this piece and I am left wondering whether there is in fact any lume on this watch dial at all?
COCO rating: 53/100
WAY201T.BA0927
Perhaps my absolute favourite TAG Heuer watch of 2020 (at least before the Bamford Aquaracer was announced), the 'Batman' Aquaracer is truly a stunning looking watch with the most amazing jewel-blue dial. I'm still somewhat ambivalent about the light blue GMT hand (and the GMT function as a whole, actually) but the overall aesthetic is a winner for me. The only slight negative is that that black/blue bezel is aluminium not ceramic, but other than that what is not to like?
COCO rating: 71/100
WAY101L.FC8222
One of TAG Heuer's less imaginative releases this year, the WAY101L took the colour scheme of the WAY101E and reversed it, but kept the khaki NATO. Despite that I think it's quite an appealing looking watch, but I don't get why you can't have it on a bracelet?
COCO rating: 53/100
WBD2120.BB0930
When I saw the render for this one I thought 'Wow', but when I saw it close up it was more a case of 'Oh...okay'. It was, I must say, a moment of genuine disappointment. On the face of it the blue dial and the gold should create something really luxurious, but somehow it looks rather gaudy. TAG Heuer seem to have tried to combat this by giving the bezel a kind of matt finish, which in turn achieves the spectacular feat of looking blingy and dull at the same time! Granted, a polished bezel would have been even worse (and a scratch magnet to boot), but this one really doesn't cut it and I'm starting to understand why two tone watches tend to have white or silver dials now!
COCO rating: 46/100
CBL2114.FC6486
COCO rating: 69/100
CAZ101AC.FT8024
This was another one that blew me away in the photos but left me a tiny bit disappointed in the flesh, not to the extent that the blue and gold Aquaracer did you understand, but I was expecting to be fighting the urge to flex my credit card in the store and I really wasn't. Perhaps it didn't help that I was transfixed by the Aquaracer 'Batman', but it wasn't quite what I was expecting. To be fair, I was hoping to check it out on the black rubber strap rather than the bracelet, but it wasn't to be. Maybe I need to see it again to be 100% sure one way or the other.
COCO rating: 58/100
Bamford Special Edition
One of the strangest releases of this (or any) year, was the Bamford Coffee Carrera. In most respects this is a bog standard Calibre 5 Carrera, which TAG Heuer custom collaborators 'Bamford' have 'modified' with a dial made of actual coffee. No really. Just twenty pieces were made and although I think it actually looks quite smart, for me the usual Bamford issue remains - they remove all the hour markers, date windows, etc... but then they leave the TAG Heuer logo and other text exactly where it was. It only needs to move out a little bit to stop it looking cramped, but it seems like they just can't be bothered... and the £5500 price tag is, well... hilarious.
COCO rating: 45/100
WAY201S.BA0927
Without getting into the whole 'Green Aquaracer' debacle yet again, I was hoping that this one would go some way to assuaging my disappointment over never even getting to see a 2019 steel bezel green dial Aquaracer. In short it didn't, and I quickly came to the conclusion that the green bezel was a mistake. The bezel is quite dull and seems to drag all the sparkle and life out of the dial. People who have seen the older version claim the dial is almost too bright, if this is actually the same dial (as I presume it is) then the bezel has surely killed it.
COCO rating: 59/100
CAZ201A.BA0641
Towards the end of 2019 someone told me that there was a Heuer 02 powered Formula 1 coming and it would have a price tag of £5000. Naturally my eyebrows were somewhat elevated and I was more than a little skeptical, but come June my source was proven correct when TAG Heuer dropped the second limited edition piece designed by Hiroshi Fujiwara (Fragment). Despite the eye-watering price, some people genuinely loved it, with some on the Calibre 11 forum claiming that since the F1 range now effectively uses the old Autavia case it wasn't a Formula 1 at all. Sadly, the back plate clearly states that it is a Formula 1 and no amount of reverse snobbery is going to change that. Again this was a limited edition (500 pieces) and again I haven't been able to see one close up. I do kinda, sorta like it... but the price is something else. At least they gave it a bespoke bracelet, it would have been hilarious if it had a pressed clasp for that money!
COCO rating: 72/100
WBC131F.BA0649
It seems the lady TAG Heuer enthusiasts have had a rather rough deal of it this year, with very few new pieces (save a few fairly innocuous and unremarkable Aquaracers) but this at least was loud and proud and as divisive as ever. On paper I liked the look of this, but when I actually saw it... boy did I go off it quickly. The dial is just too much, and I am not some old school conservationist, far from it. This one was available with diamonds or with lots of diamonds. Perhaps unsurprisingly these two occupied the bottom two places in the COCO league table. Next!
COCO rating: 45/100 (Plain bezel)
COCO rating: 42/100 (Diamond bezel)
CBK221C.FC6488
When I first clocked eyes on the second of TAG Heuer's 160th Anniversary 39mm Carreras I really thought they'd gone too far. Yes the colours where bright, but more than that they'd taken the dial from one watch (the Montreal) and slid it into a Carrera, and not just any Carrera, but the ultra conservative 39mm Carrera, the one the 'Heuer' fans actually like! So as release day loomed I gleefully waited for the onslaught of outrage, punctuated by the sound of leather backed gloves being slapped against palms... but in the end, all my fears came to nought. The Calibre 11 forum was generally accepting of this Frankenwatch, albeit with most favouring the classic appearance of the 'Silver' dial variant. Personally I can't really figure this one out, it's like someone took a classic Jaguar and painted lime green stripes down the side. Truly bonkers, but maybe in a good way?
COCO rating: XX/100
Carrera Sports Manufacture
Somewhere in Switzerland, someone said 'Chaps, what we need is another range of Carreras, because we simply don't have enough already', and lo was born a new Carrera. But, shockingly, this one was 44mm in diameter! Again, I expected the Calibre 11 forum to go into meltdown with shooting sticks raised aloft and a march planned to demonstrate against the proliferation of larger watches (with the appropriate Covid precautions, obviously). But again I was disappointed... yes, there were mutterings about the shorter lug lengths, but clearly you can't have a 44mm watch with the lugs from a 36mm Carrera, so common sense largely prevailed. I tried on the black/gold model back in August and on the wrist it genuinely did not feel like a 44mm watch, but it was very chunky... and very expensive!
COCO rating: 73.5/100 (Black/gold)
COCO rating: 64/100 (Blue)
COCO rating: 64/100 (Green)
COCO rating: 63/100 (Black)
WAY201N.FT6177
Back at Baselworld 2019, TAG Heuer showed a blue dial, quartz Aquaracer with an unusual looking 'tortoiseshell' bezel to selected journalists... and of course the pictures found their way onto the internet. This watch fascinated me for a long time and it was even given a part number (WAY101K) but as the months rolled by I resigned myself to the fact that this watch was never going to arrive. Then, at the tail end of July 2020 TAG Heuer announced not one but two new Calibre 5 Aquaracers with 'tortoiseshell' resin bezels. In the meantime TAG had switched up the colour schemes so we got the black/red ensemble above and a less striking blue dial/bezel variant. I haven't seen either model as yet, but I rather like the look of this one.
COCO rating: 58/100 (Blue resin)
COCO rating: 53/100 (Red resin)
TAG Heuer continued their association with the Indy 500 with just one watch this year, this limited edition 43mm quartz Formula 1 and while the dial is busy, busy, busy... it does seem like one of the better Indy 500 watches the brand have produced. For me the Indy logo just doesn't seem to fit on a watch dial, it's entirely the worst shape possible and always looks crammed in, especially here with the wings interjecting between the numerals on the 1/10th of a second sub-dial.
COCO rating: 65/100
CAR5A8E.FT6181
Easily the most expensive TAG Heuer on this list at over £21000, the 2020 Aston Martin Heuer 02T Carrera Tourbillon is a limited edition of just 150 pieces. While the watch is striking to look at I'm not overly keen on the Aston Martin logo being placed above the TAG Heuer shield, indeed someone on the Calibre 11 forum (King Hubert it turns out) photoshopped them the other way around and to my eyes it was a definite improvement. Not that it matters, since I'm hardly in a position to add one of these to my collection!
COCO rating: 70/100
Carrera Elegant Collection
Since a couple of months had gone by without a new Carrera collection, in September TAG Heuer dropped the 'Elegant' Carrera on us... and right away that name put me off. It's a bit 'on the nose' isn't it? I mean I guess you could say the same about 'Sports', but 'Elegant'.... really? The watches themselves look fine. I'm sure they are fine.. kinda like the Sports ones with short lugs, but without a bezel and 2mm smaller (presumably because 'elegance' has its limits). I wasn't wilfully disinterested, I just didn't really take a lot of notice because... I forget. The Council however, largely liked them, particularly the one with the anthracite dial.
COCO rating: XX/100 (Anthracite)
COCO rating: 68/100 (Black)
COCO rating: 68/100 (Blue)
COCO rating: 64.5/100 (Silver/gold)
CBL2113.BA0644
A black dial variation on the Heuer 02 Monaco wasn't exactly a massive turn up for the books, but few expected it to appear sporting a brand new bracelet (the first new Monaco bracelet since 2004!), and inevitably that became the 'story' of the CBL2113. Believe it or not, you can actually buy the black dial Monaco on a standard black leather strap if you so please. I think I like it, but I like the blue one better.
COCO rating: 74/100
CBN2A1D.BA0643 CBN2A1E.BA0643
The last of this year's 160th Anniversary pieces and limited to 1860 pieces per colour scheme, the 'Dato' Carrera measures (you guessed it) 44mm and has its date window at the 12 position. Let's be honest, if TAG Heuer did this on a chronograph as a brand new model it would be decried as the stupidest thing since the beginning of time, but since there is historical precedent for it with the Heuer Dato then it's clearly fine that the red chrono hand obscures the date. 🙄 That aside, I think they look pretty splendid. I gravitated towards the blue to start with but as time has gone on I reckon the silver and black might just edge it for me.
COCO rating: 72.5/100 (Blue/white)
COCO rating: 71/100 (Silver/black)
CAR5A8D.EB0212
Not two, but one Japanese limited edition Carrera Heuer 02T that comes with both a black strap and a funky camouflage one as well. 50 pieces only of this one, I like the camo strap, but I do not like the fauxtina lume used on the hands (but oddly not the hour markers). No doubt there's some 'reason' for this, but sorry, I think it looks absolutely dreadful.
COCO rating: 59/100
CAR5A98.FC6471
A 'properly limited' limited edition this one, with just 20 pieces made exclusively for the Nordic market and on the face of it it looks like one of the nicest Carrera Heuer 02Ts to date. Not unlike the 'Tete de Vipere' Carrera, albeit with a blue strap and a blue 'dial' (the TdV 'dial' is black). That said, I can't honestly say that it 'excites' me to any great degree.
COCO score: 64/100
The fourth and final of this years Japanese limited edition pieces and the pick of the bunch for me. I've been lucky enough to try on a previous Mother of Pearl dial Calibre 16 Carrera and I really liked it. This one looks even better, and for those of us who prefer the 6/9/12 layout it's nice to see the old Calibre 16 movement being utilised here.
COCO rating: 51/100
WBE5192.FC8300
Previously only available as a Chinese limited edition with the '1' numeral replaced by a character and a rodenty backplate, now finally you can get your hands on a bronze/red Autavia. I do kinda like it, but as someone pointed out when I posted it on Calibre 11.... it may be that it's just too much red. I'd like to see it on a black strap, I think that would tone it down a bit, but I still think I would prefer the bronze case with the green dial. This one stirred up some very negative reactions from the COCO, although in its defence it did garner one '5' point score from one of the members.
COCO rating: 53/100
Launched to celebrate Jack Heuer's 88th birthday this watch won't actually be available until next March, by which time we presume all 188 pieces will have found a home. With a slightly startling price tag of £15,300 this is clearly not something that I will be adding to my collection but for the most part I can appreciate it. I'm not sold on the whole '88' eternity symbol thing mind you, I think that's an unnecessary piece of clutter on the dial and just a tiny bit cheesy. But that aside, it's pretty nice.
COCO rating: XX/100
WAY208F.BA0638
Bamford do come in for a lot of stick in the watch community, but their carbon Monaco was pretty cool and this, their second official collaboration with TAG Heuer is easily my favourite release of the year. The case, bezel and bracelet are all made of titanium and this somehow captures the spirit of the 80s and the 3000 Series in particular. Well done George, two thumbs up from me!
COCO rating: XX/100
WAY201U.BA0927
When I first saw this Qatar limited edition (200 pieces) I really liked it, but as time has passed I'm becoming less and less sure. The council on the other hand were less than complimentary, with six of the twenty members giving it the lowest possible score. As such it finds itself right near the bottom of the league of 2020, with only the ladies Links beneath it.
COCO score: 45/100
CAZ201B.FC6487
Two more Senna editions this year, and with the Aston Martin tie up coming to an end (expect a 'Porsche' model in 2021) the yellow and grey colour scheme was free so.... why not? This one has an interesting idea on the leather strap, although I can't quite decide if I like it or not. I actually prefer the overall look of the quartz model and for sure the quartz price point is more where I would be aiming for one of these.
COCO score: 69/100 (Calibre 16)
COCO score: 62/100 (Quartz)
CV201AU.FC6292
Another genuinely 'limited' model is this nice looking blue dial Calibre 16. Just twenty four pieces made and available exclusively from Swiss jewellers 'Uhrenschmuck', this one retails for 4,6000CHF and is rather surprisingly still available on the Uhrenschmuck24.ch website!
COCO score: 62/100
Well, there we have it, another year done and dusted. So to recap, the top five pieces (in alpha-numerical order) are:
CBK221B Carrera 160th Anniversary Silver Dial
CBK221C Carrera 160th Anniversary Montreal
CBN2012 Carrera Elegant Anthracite Dial
CBN2041 Carrera Heuer 02 Jack Heuer '88'
WAY208F Bamford Aquaracer Calibre 5
But who came out on top in the popular vote, and more importantly who scored the most 'WOTY' votes to win the ultimate crown?
There's only one way to find out, come back here at midnight on Sat/Sun and all will be revealed.
As usual there won't be any posts on Christmas Day or Boxing Day. I hope you all have a good Christmas, or at least as good as it can be given the circumstances, and I look forward to seeing you all again on Sunday morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment