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This is the last of the 'Watches and Wonders' releases to get it's 'First Impressions/C.O.C.O.' post, albeit 'First Impressions' is a bit of a joke since I can't honestly believe any of us mortals will be seeing one of these any time soon. To be honest, I've been rather unenthusiastic about doing this post because it's hard for me to grapple with a new TAG Heuer that is utterly beyond my wallet. I mean sure there are expensive models like the Carrera Tourbillons but they are still potentially attainable should I ever decide to sell a large number of pieces from the collection. This however, is a different story... should I wish to buy this watch I would need to sell my house and I don't think my wife would be very keen on that idea.
So it's kind of hard to look at this objectively, and while in the past TAG Heuer's mega creations were technological marvels that one could admire for the innovation on the movement side, realistically there's nothing here on that front that we haven't seen before in the original Nanograph. No, here the focus is squarely on the lab grown diamonds that are used to decorate the case and dial, and also to make the crown. Yes, you may not notice at first glance but the crown on this watch is indeed hewn from a man-made diamond (pretty crazy huh?).
Now I have to admit my knowledge of diamonds is pretty limited, and I somewhat foolishly assumed that the whole point of lab-grown diamonds was that they were cheap to produce! But given this watch carries a price tag of $375,000 obviously I was somewhat off the mark there... but it seems the point is that this watch is something of a showcase for what can be done using these diamonds (that couldn't with 'real' diamonds), namely contouring them to the shape of the Carrera case.
There's certainly a lot of diamonds in there, indeed the dial and subdials are made of sheets of diamonds formed onto a brass backplate. Then we have the baguettes used to mark the hours, not to mention the aforementioned crown and the 48 diamonds arranged in a random pattern in the case.
Personally speaking I can't honestly say that I find the watch overly appealing, although I have a nagging feeling that this is hard to capture in photographs and probably looks a LOT better in real life. It's not merely the fact that it has diamonds all over it, actually I am not phased by that at all. In fact I was rather taken with a Link Calibre 5 with a diamond bezel I tried on once at Bicester Village and wouldn't have minded owning that, so diamonds are not a problem for me. But I really don't like the gaping hole in the dial where the tourbillon sits: usually tourbillon Carreras are skeleton dials in darker colours, but the diamond plate dial here just accentuates the void too much for my liking.
I have to say I agree with some of the comments below from the C.O.C.O. Council, I admire TAG Heuer for pushing the boundaries of what's possible, but I can't get terribly excited about the final product. Ultimately I gotta be honest with you, if I was carrying this sort of coin I would buy myself a Flying 1000, a Monaco V4 and a bunch of other watches... this one just ain't for me.
4/10 - "Definitely not one for me."
9/10 - "So cool, great to see TAG flexing their muscles again, showing what they can do. Dial looks killer and diamond crown, wow! Not sure about fake diamonds grown in a lab though, real natural diamonds are cooler right?"
8/10 - "Not one I'd buy but great to see the different methods and pushing of boundaries."
5/10 - "Innovative use of diamond and restrained design means this came out not so bad. Still hilariously overpriced for lab-grown diamond."
8/10 - "An interesting exercise in the use of materials, and also in brand image. I would have liked it better in the previous 45mm Tourbillon case, which has a more personal and powerful design, but I like that the movement is a Nanograph."
7/10 - "Love the side case but overall it's not for me."
4/10 - "Meh! The dial is slightly interesting, as is the crown but the rest of the diamonds set into the case look naff. There isn't any new horological tech on display here which is what I would have expected with TAG Heuer returning to haute horlogerie as opposed to just 'haute prices' (CHF 350,000). As for lab grown diamonds, meh!"
4/10 - "While the fusion of diamonds and carbon may be innovative, this is the gaudiest looking TAG of Watches & Wonders. Hard pass!"
6/10 - "I love that they are doing something 'different' but I'm really not sure how I feel about this particular watch. I quite like it, but it's way too blingy and I'm not sure about the diamonds in the case."
6/10 - "Cool tech, don’t like execution of it though. I appreciate the stretch on putting some cool tech together, it just doesn’t look appealing to me."
7.5/10 - "Ugly but wow. Maybe 7? Amazing tech, definitely not for me. Maybe 8? Honestly I have no idea how to rank this."
To read more about the Carrera Nanograph Plasma click the link below:
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