Things ain't what they used to be, so goes the saying, and when it comes to TAG Heuer's catalogues that's certainly true. Pre 2015 TAG Heuer's catalogues were extensive, showing pretty much everything the company had at any one time, save for a few limited production pieces. But the world has changed and so has the watch game. In 2021 the idea of a catalogue with everything in it seems impractical at best: there are so many limited editions now that a catalogue without them wouldn't be very representative and a catalogue with them would spoil the 'surprise' of each (staggered) release.
And so we come to the TAG Heuer 2020 Catalogue... I mean, I'm assuming that's what it is. Unlike previous catalogues there's no actual date on this (usually TAG Heuer's catalogues ran from one year to the next '2019-2020' and suchlike), but this just has 'The Catalog' on the spine so... I don't exactly know what it's supposed to be or for how long it's supposed to last.
With the 'terminal' move to digital, catalogues are becoming ever more irrelevant (albeit I pity the historians of the future who try and make sense of the watch world without catalogues - good luck working things out from an utterly transient website!) and since 'touching things is bad' nowadays, and 'printing things is also frowned upon' (although TH don't seem too concerned about the planet given the cardboard 'chest of drawers' they sent my orange F1 to me in...) I guess it's no surprise that printed catalogues are ever harder to come by.
But I saw this on eBay for £7.50 and took the bait, and it's a nice enough piece of ephemera. The catalogue has 100 pages of which about 10% are the usual 'history of TAG Heuer' stuff you'd expect (Steve McQueen, Jack Heuer, dashboard Autavias, etc) along with the obligatory Ayrton Senna shot.
The rest of the catalogue is divided up into model ranges, with a bizarre index page that defies the expected layout norms - (perhaps it's considered 'edgy' or avant garde...) and so I guess this is actually the 2020 catalogue. On the plus side, it's physically bigger than the last few catalogues, but on the minus side it's a softback rather than a hardback binding, and the paper feels cheaper and it's all a bit 'matt' finish, whereas you'd expect luxury products to be more glossily presented.
I mean, it's okay... it covers the basics and gives a representation of the basic 'core' range, but there's nothing overly exciting in here... still, for £7.50 I can't exactly grumble...
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