CAR5A8C.BF0707
Five years ago in February 2016 the master of chaos and disruption 'Jean Claude Biver' and TAG Heuer dropped a veritable bomb on the Swiss watch industry. For years the Swiss had been profiteering out of the 'tourbillon', a complication that was designed nearly two hundred years previously with the purpose of improving accuracy in pocket watches. Once the pocket watch became obsolete and wrist watches were the new normal, the tourbillon was largely redundant... but the Swiss saw an opportunity and the complication was transformed into an amusement for the extremely rich, indeed at the time of release the Carrera Heuer 02T was a fraction of the price of it's nearest rival at just £12000.
Now, nobody is claiming that the machine made Heuer 02T is comparable to the painstakingly hand crafted tourbillons offered by Breguet et al, and it's hard to imagine that TAG Heuer really 'stole' much business from those companies offering £100,000+ masterpieces; after all, if you shop at Harrods you don't suddenly start buying your tomatoes from Aldi because you suddenly realize you can get them cheaper, do you? No, if anything, TAG Heuer were trying to tempt customers at the top edge of their price bracket to leave Rolex and Omega and turn to the dark side, dangling the promise of a Swiss made tourbillon as bait.
And when you think about it, not only did TAG Heuer bring the tourbillon to the 'masses' (in a manner of speaking) but they also completely re-invented it's aesthetic and customer base. Prior to 2016 the tourbillon was usually to be found housed in gold cased watches of gentlemanly proportions, sometimes even hidden behind a solid case-back (only the truly rich would pay for a redundant complication that's only real purpose was it's aesthetic appeal and then hide that away so that it couldn't be seen), but now TAG presented the tourbillon right up in your face, housed in a gargantuan 45mm case and mounted on a (sort of) skeletonised dial that could not have been less fusty or dusty (or indeed gentlemanly).
And until last year, that has been the way of things... if you wanted a TAG Heuer tourbillon, then you have to have it in a 45mm case and on a (sort of) skeletonised dial. But not any more! 2020 saw the launch of the Mexico special edition Carrera Heuer 02T which for the first time saw the tourbillon mounted on a conventional 'solid' dial. Yes, the case was still 45mm and indeed it still is, at least for now... (who knows if that will change any time in the future, but if the Heuer 02 can fit in a 39mm case then surely the H02T should be able to fit in a 43mm or 41mm case too) but here we finally see a more 'generally available' solid dial tourbillon, albeit one that's still limited to 250 pieces.
Over the last five years the 'affordable' Carrera tourbillon has climbed from £12,000 to £14350 and this one will set you back another £3000 on top of that. Why? Well... the big selling point of this particular model is that it is made from grade 5 titanium (including the bracelet) so it's lighter than you might expect. Whether you think that justifies the price hike is between you and your wallet, to me it kinda looks like they've just slipped it in half way between the 'basic' tourbillon and the £20,000 rose gold version. I guess there's a case to be made that if you can afford to contemplate one of these pieces than price is less reliant on justification and material value than it is about personal taste and desirability; after all, it's not like there's a plethora of solid dial options to choose from right now!
Unfortunately my usual complaints about the Heuer 02 are just as valid here as on other models in the Carrera range; namely that I think it makes the bottom of the dial crowded and the top part displeasingly 'empty'. I know a lot of people prefer the 3/6/9 layout due to it's symmetry, but for me I really do wish we could have continued with the 6/9/12 variation found with the Heuer 01. At least this one doesn't have a date squeezed in between the subdials... but as usual the tourbillon looks like it's fallen down the dial.
CAR5A8C.BF0707: 6.4/10
"5/10 for me, and I'm being generous with that score because it kinda reminds me of Johnny Five."
"4/10: I don't really understand TAG's tourbillon line-up. Yes, it's a lot cheaper than any other tourbillon on the market, but it's high-end watchmaking in a massive sports watch and I just don't know who it's aimed at. Someone with that sort of money to spend is surely more likely to choose something nice from JLC if they want refined watchmaking, or a steel Rolex if they want a sports model."
"Not too sure on this one, these should elegant? But it’s not priced as some are, so 5.5 /10."
"6/10: A little too garish for my taste."
"6 for me too. The dial is pretty uninspired. I would pick one of the originals over this one."
"A few bits of conflicting info; AD says it shouldn’t have been released. It appears on TH website, then disappeared, then reappeared in search but lead to a 404. Whatever, it’s another botched “launch” so for that 2/10 for marketing. If it’s a LE as per Calibre 11's article, 6/10. If it isn’t, as stated on the TAG Heuer website 5/10."
"7/10: Not my colour but I could see myself wearing it. Would prefer the Nanograph tourbillon though."
"7/10: Pretty similar to the Viperhead, which is one of my all time favourites. I probably would like it even better on a leather strap. But to be honest, even if those are good value tourbillons, the price is pretty much beyond the money I would spend on a single watch."
"I would like it better on a blue leather strap too, but of these non-skeletonized Tourbillons, I like the Mexico LE much more."
"Better than a skeleton but still housed in that daft, oversized 45mm case with a bezel from Playschool. It's a 5."
"It depends on how I think about the ordinary price setting as a tourbillon, but I think this watch is a very aggressive and expensive price. If you recall the original price of the most basic tourbillon, it is quite expensive. TAG HEUER want to say it's expensive because the watch used titanium for the case and bracelet. Then will it be cheaper if the watch have a leather band? However, the quality of the blue dial is extremely high and very beautiful. The closed dial looks like a better for H02T watch. My score is 6/10."
"A kind 6/10. I wonder who buys this stuff."
READ ABOUT THE MEXICO LIMITED EDITION SOLID DIAL TOURBILLON HERE:
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