CBN2A1B.BA0643
If there's one subject that divides the watch community right down the middle it must surely be 'Limited / Special Editions'. Some people love them, some people hate them... personally I don't see a problem with them, but some people feel very strongly that they undermine a brand's integrity and point to Rolex as the absolute way to do things. Of course this conveniently overlooks certain anomolies but just think, if Rolex had made some more special editions along the way then maybe people wouldn't be so obsessed with 'water damaged' and just plain 'cracked'... I mean 'exotically patinated' dials.
In the past Limited/Special Editions were fairly straightforward, at least in my mind: Limited Edition meant 'X' number available, but may or not be individually numbered. This doesn't necessarily mean a low number though; in the fairly recent past TAG Heuer made a Kimi Raikonnen limited edition Formula 1 of 10,000 pieces - which by today's standards doesn't sound very 'limited' at all. Think about that for a moment, ten thousand watches at a grand each or somewhere close is £10M. Kimi must have been incredibly popular back in the late 00s!
CAH1014.BT0718
'Special Edition' is harder to pin down but could mean 'in production for one year or season' and/or an unspecified number of pieces (usually a variation on a normal production model - perhaps a different colour second hand, dial or PVD case). This might have some text or a picture on the backplate indicating it's 'Special Edition' status, but wouldn't be numbered.
But really, over the last few years it's all got a bit muddled. I always thought my WAZ1014 Senna F1 was a 'Special Edition' but the box it came in clearly states 'Limited Edition', and yet to this day it is showing on the TAG Heuer website as 'Special Edition'. I am not aware of any finite number of pieces made and the back is not marked in any way to distinguish it from any other F1 backplate... so what actually is it?
Recently TAG Heuer have thrown even more confusion into the mix, as I've seen models that were previously only available on straps like the Gulf F1 suddenly being sold on bracelets and described as 'Limited Edition'. Also we've seen the 'carbon' dial F1 being offered on a (ceramic centre link) bracelet and described as both a 'Special Edition' and an 'Online Exclusive' and again today we see the black dial CBN2A1B Carrera being offered on the black leather strap from the two-tone CBN2A5A and being described as a 'Special Edition'.
This really rather beggars belief. When the 44mm Sports Carreras came out, three models were presented on a bracelet while the two tone model came on a black alligator strap. I assumed that eventually all these models would become available on leather straps, and certainly the black one... but they haven't and now we have this so called 'Special Edition', I mean it's not as if you couldn't have bought that strap from your AD and put it on yourself. So can that really be called a 'Special Edition'?
CBN2A1B.FC6481
I mean I have no issue with TAG Heuer presenting their watches on different straps, it's something that was always done in the 90s - in fact the 90s was a veritable strap Nirvana, you could choose from multiple straps when you bought your watch back then, but please don't go putting a regular black dial model on an equally regular black strap and call it a 'Special Edition'; it's completely meaningless and makes a mockery of the whole damned enterprise!
It would be a different story if they had produced a unique strap that was only available on this model, then I would accept it as a 'Special Edition', but they haven't. That said, I do think it looks good. The two tone version looked great on the black strap and it was a no-brainer that it would work perfectly on the steel case/black dial version too. I am just mildly annoyed that they are insulting our intelligence by describing it as a 'Special Edition' when there's absolutely nothing 'Special' about it.
Unfortunately this is the world we are living in these days and I guess everything only 'exists' as long as it is cresting the wave of the hype curve. I would hope someone with £4000+ to spend on a watch wouldn't be taken in by such cheap marketing tactics, but unfortunately they probably will...
No comments:
Post a Comment