FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Carrera Heuer 02T 'Dubai Boutique' Limited Edition

 

CAR5A8AA.EB0262

As you may or may not know, TAG Heuer recently opened a new flagship boutique in Dubai and to celebrate they not only projected TAG related images all over the enormous Burj Khalifa skyscraper (click HERE for video) but also released this limited edition 45mm tourbillon in the colours of the UAE flag. 

Neda at the boutique very kindly supplied some photographs of the watch, but as you can see (and by her own admission) it's not the easiest watch in the world to photograph... especially in boutique lighting. 

Just ten pieces of this limited edition have been produced and the only place you can buy it is the aforementioned Dubai boutique. It comes in this rather nifty display box (which I believe is also a watch winder) and comes complete with a green perforated rubber strap.

I really like these boxes and it is super cool that they have had them trimmed in red and green to match the watch, the plaque on the right hand side is a nice touch too as is the storage space for the rubber strap.

The dial is skeletonised and highlighted in green, while the tourbillon cage is red, further red accents are found on the outside of the case and around the top pusher; the watch also features a carbon bezel and lugs.

Flipping the watch over we find the text 'Dubai Limited Edition' marked on the back of the case and we also see that these watches are numbered individually out of 10 rather than just saying 'One of Ten'.

Which is all well and good, but you just know that red and green colour scheme is going to have its detractors... right? Well we will get on to that shortly, but this watch has also brought a question to the fore, that being why does it have the Nanograph dial when it isn't a Nanograph?

At least I don't think it is. I haven't been able to get a definite answer on that, but I can't help thinking that if this was a Nanograph then TAG Heuer would be telling us it was, and as we can see from the shot above the movement doesn't feature the special hexagon-perforated rotor that the Nanograph wore.

(Plus I've also noticed that the 'Nanograph' text is missing from the ring around the tourbillon, so I think it's probably safe to assume that this is a regular Heuer 02T)

Which also poses another question, what happened to the red accented Nanograph that was expected a few months ago? Has it been canned and the parts re-used to make this limited edition? It could well be. 

I strongly suspect that this watch looks a lot better in person than it does in these photographs, but even so the red tourbillon cage is perhaps a step too far. I think the red accents on the case, top pusher and hands would have sufficed, since there is already a strong green accent to the dial, and especially as red and green are always a difficult pair of colours to combine in a elegant manner.

I don't dislike this as much as some members of the COCO Council, but it's not one that's going to keep me awake at night either. I've given it a score of 6/10, but without the red tourbillon cage that would have probably increased to a 7 or a 7.5... but enough about me, lets turn this over to the hyenas of the 'COCO Council', who as usual aren't holding back on this one!

CAR5A8AA.EB0262: 3.8/10

"I think this watch is for a die hard TAG Heuer fan who is visiting Dubai and wants to have a permanent memento of the visit. Being a raving fan of their flag's colours (Algeria, Oman, Hungary, Mexico, Maldives, Italy, Ghana, Libya, Malawi, Kenya) would probably help with this palette. A 6.5/10 for me."

"It’s basically a Nanograph Tourbillon (which I like) with some differences in dial colours and strap, so I like it too. It’s a properly numbered Limited Edition of 10 pieces, so it’s a 8/10 for me."

"Very busy face, not something I could read at a glance, carbon an unnecessary luxury merely adding to the cost? Not on my list. 4/10."

"My watch safe is in the closet. I have no skeletons in the closet. I now know why. Not a fan. 6/10. Interesting colours used but another lazy LE from Tag I feel."

"What is the point of such a watch? So tasteless. Don’t know if the oligarchs still have the cash to buy these. Had Jack known in the ‘60s his Carrera would evolve into something like this, he would have opened a tyre shop."

"A Richard-Mille-Aspiring Tag. The green parts recalls a football!"

"The hexagonal pattern on the dial was used on the Nanograph watch to indicate the hexagonal molecules of the carbon hairspring. So if this watch is not a Nanograph I would give it 5 points. If it IS a Nanograph I would give it 8 points for the technology, which is really avantgarde. Design-wise it does not much for me..."

"If they had stopped at the green, they'd have come up with a fairly interesting-looking watch. But true to form, TAG couldn't stop overdesigning and had to set the tourbillon cage in red so they ended up with something that looks like a cheap Christmas decoration. 1/10."

"3/10. On the one hand it’s carbon and tourbilllon. On the other hand it’s ugly AF."

"Messy. I'm not keen on the carbon effect with the skeleton movement. The colour adds nothing for me except more mess. And it'll be expensive. 4/10."

"1 for me - someone better have a good story to tell when trying to sell this. That is an ugly watch to me."

"2. It looks absolutely horrible!"

"Hmm, that is lacking any sort of design coherence. It's not Bamford awful but it's only a 4 out of 10 from me."

"I just don't get it! Visually or its need. Not for me 3/10."

"This is real right ? 6/10. If only I could see better photo I might give different opinion... (after seeing better pictures) ...it looks better for me on other pictures. 7/10 "

"I quite like some aspects of this watch, like the honeycomb dial effect and the hits of green on the sub dials and markers. However, it is a bit of a mess and too busy1 Plus the TAG logo just disappears! It almost looks like a bad fake! With all that in mind I will give this an overly generous 6 out of 10."