If you are a regular reader, you will probably be aware that behind the scenes here at 'TAG Heuer Enthusiast Blogspot' we have a team, or 'council' if you will, of people constantly on-call to appraise and rate all the new releases from our favourite watch brand. Of course we don't have access to the watches before they are released so our 'First Impressions' scores are just that, usually based off little more than photographs and perhaps a live video from one of the big websites.
And so, that is why every December, once all the releases are done, we take stock and look over everything again before giving our 'final' scores (which are then, and only then added to the cumulative leaderboard). Unfortunately, we still don't get hands on with all the watches, but hopefully we will have seen and tried on some of them, and at least the ones we haven't will have had a little time to settle in our minds. After all, some watches may burn bright on first acquaintance while some might take a little time to get us on side.
Now, as you probably know, Jim and I have recently looked back at the year's releases (links at the bottom of the page) so I don't want to spend too much time rehashing all that all over again, but I will make a few comments and reveal the scores for the fifty four watches that didn't make it into this year's top ten.
The top ten scorers and the 'Watch of the Year' (decided on a 'one-vote/one-member' basis, don't forget) will be revealed on the 27th of December, so make sure to come back then and find out which piece took the ultimate prize this year and joined the previous winners in the 'COCO Hall of Fame'.
But before we begin I wanted to share a little insight into the voting...
First of all, it's worth noting that watches released on a bracelet and a strap would be scored separately, but when it came to the WOTY vote their votes would be combined. This seems fair to me since essentially they are the same watch and it actually only applied to four watches this year, only one of which got any WOTY votes anyway.
I invited 33 people to take part in the voting, twenty eight COCO regulars (including two new members) plus five 'guests'. In total I received 29 replies, of which 22 gave full scores and a WOTY vote, 2 gave partial scores and a WOTY vote, and 5 just gave a WOTY vote with no scores at all.
As before, total scores were divided by the number of scores given for each watch to produce an average, which was then rounded to the nearest 0.1 to give the final COCO score.
Okay, enough waffle, let's get into it... and since there weren't any new 'Link' models released in 2022, let's go straight on to the Formula 1s!
FORMULA 1
Not a particularly good year for the Formula 1, at least in my opinion. The new Red Bull Special Edition was a definite improvement over the previous (and rather short lived) iteration and the Calibre 16 Mario Kart LE was certainly a high point, but elsewhere the Senna was particularly uninspired and the red/green/yellow models were absolutely ghastly in the flesh. Still it was interesting to see TAG Heuer introduce a tourbillon to the 'entry-level' Formula 1 range, even if the pricing was anything but! Let's hope for better things in 2023... and perhaps the return of the ladies Formula 1 too?
CAZ101AL.BA0842 / Red Bull Special Edition Quartz Chronograph: 5.7/10
CAZ101AL.FT8052 / Red Bull Special Edition Quartz Chronograph: 5.9/10
CAZ101AR.BA0842 / Indy 500 Special Edition Quartz Chronograph: 5.6/10
CAZ101AN.FT5055 / Red Dial Quartz Chronograph: 5.2/10
CAZ101AP.FT5056 / Green Dial Quartz Chronograph: 5.0/10
CAZ201E.FC6517 / Mario Kart Limited Edition Caibre 16 Chronograph: 6.0/10
CAZ5080.FC6517 / Mario Kart Limited Edition Heuer 02T Tourbillon: 6.4/10
CBL2180.FC6497 / Dark Lord Tribute Special Edition Heuer 02 Chronograph: ???/10
AUTAVIA
With the three handed Autavias clearly on their last legs (indeed as I type this pretty much the whole range is currently sitting in the Bicester Village outlet store at an attractive discount) TAG Heuer decided to take the line in yet another new direction, this time pushing the 'Pilot Chronograph' angle a little harder, but at the same time chucking in a 'Batman' GMT. I must say the flyback chronograph in black is a lovely, lovely watch and very nearly got my vote for Watch of the Year. The GMT on the other hand, well.... not so much!
CBE511C.FC8280 / Black Dial Heuer 02 Flyback Chronograph: 6.7/10
CBE511B.FC8279 / Silver Dial Heuer 02 Flyback Chronograph: 6.3/10
WBE511A.BA0650 / Blue Dial Calibre 7 GMT: 5.4/10AQUARACER
The new Aquaracer is clearly technically superior to the previous model and finally looks and feels worthy of its asking price, and yet I'm still to find a new Aquaracer I genuinely want to buy. I find the regular models too regular, the titanium model too expensive, the orange model not nearly orange enough and the Night Diver... well, on that one I just hate the octagonal black hour markers. I didn't like the blue and white GMT much when I actually got to see one either, and the Superdiver is way too much money for a tool watch.
Shall I go on? The 40mm models are okay, but the bezel is too flat, too wide and too simple... I do kinda like the fumé dials though, especially on the ladies models with the diamond hour markers. But sadly overall, it hasn't been the Aquaracer's year for me.
WBP5A8A.BF0619 / 1000M Automatic Superdiver : ???/10
WBP201E.BA0632 / Ibiza Limited Edition Calibre 5 Watch: 6.3/10
WBP201F.BA0632 / Orange Dial Calibre 5 Watch: ???/10
WBP231E.EB0247 / Naomi Osaka Limited Edition Calibre 5 36mm Ladies Watch: 5.4/10
WBP231G.FT6226 / Teal Dial Calibre 5 36mm Ladies Watch: 6.4/10
WBP231J.BA0618 / Pink Dial Calibre 5 36mm Ladies Watch: 6.5/10
WBP1110.BA0627 / Black Dial Quartz Watch: 5.7/10
WBP1111.BA0627 / Silver Dial Quartz Watch: 5.7/10
WBP1112.FT6199 / Solar Powered Quartz Watch: ???/10
WBP1410.BA0622 / Black Dial Quartz Ladies Watch: 5.4/10
WBP1411.BA0622 / Silver Dial Quartz Ladies Watch: 5.2/10
WBP1415.BA0622 / Blue Opaline Dial Quartz Ladies Watch: 5.8/10
WBP1416.BA0622 / MOP Dial Quartz Ladies Watch: 5.7/10
WBP1417.BA0622 / MOP Dial Quartz Ladies Watch: 5.0/10
WBP1450.BA0622 / MOP Dial Quartz Ladies Watch: 5.4/10
WBP2010.BA0632 / Blue Dial Calibre 7 GMT: 6.3/10
WBP2010 FT6198 / Blue Dial Calibre 7 GMT: 6.6/10
WBP2110.BA0627 / Fumé Dial Calibre 5 Watch: 6.5/10
WBP2111.BA0627 / Fumé Dial Calibre 5 Watch: 6.4/10
WBP2410.BA0622 / Fumé Dial Automatic Ladies Watch: 5.8/10
WBP2411.BA0622 / Fumé Dial Automatic Ladies Watch: 5.8/10
MONACO
Thankfully the Monaco has fared better than the Aquaracer, with two hits, one near miss and just one catastrophic disaster... But what a disaster! For the first time ever I scored a watch just 0.5 of a mark, that's how bad the Monaco Riviera truly is. And to think these are being touted around for prices in excess of £30,000.... it's absolutely insane. Thank goodness the Dark Lord tribute and the purple dial L/E hit the mark. And the Gulf...? While it's not my favourite Gulf Monaco, it's not actively offensive.
CBL2115.FC6494 / Gulf Special Edition Heuer 02 Chronograph: ???/10
CBL2117.EB0254 / Riviera Limited Edition Heuer 02 Chronograph: 3.9/10
CBL2118.FC6518 / Purple Limited Edition Heuer 02 Chronograph: 6.3/10
CARRERA
So the pressure fell on the Carrera to deliver this year; good job there was a lot to choose from! In fact of the 64 watches released this year, 27 of them were Carreras of some description - though the Carrera name does cover quite a variety of styles to be fair. My absolute favourite (and so clearly my pick for Watch of the Year) was the fabulously bonkers 'Polychrome' Carrera Tourbillon. In my 'First Impressions' post I said that I wasn't sure I would still love it in a year and that is why I would never buy one even if I had the money, but right here, right now it's absolutely my favourite TAG Heuer of 2022.
Elsewhere we started the year with the cool, blue 'Year of the Tiger' Calibre 5 Carrera and ended it with the slightly bizarre 'Year of the Rabbit' Heuer 02. Admittedly both of these are aimed towards a very specific market, but one of them scored a lot higher than the other when it came to my vote. I think you can probably guess which one is which!
Other highlights for me were the black and yellow Porsche collaboration which came towards the start of the year, the gold and black reverse panda (which proved not to be the JH90 in the end) and the 42mm Watches of Switzerland Carrera Elegant 'panda', though I certainly didn't love it as much as some people did.
Admittedly not everything was to my taste, but overall the Carrera line was were the action was for me this year, and next year should be even more Carrera focussed being as it is the 60th anniversary of the model which was launched in 1963.
CBN2A1AA.BA0643 / Black Dial Calibre 16 Chronograph: 5.8/10
CBN2A1AA.FT6228 / Black Dial Calibre 16 Chronograph: 5.6/10
CBN2A1H.FC6512 / Porsche Limited Edition Heuer 02 Chronograph; 6.4/10
CBN2A1J.EB0265 / Las Vegas Limited Edition Heuer 02 Chronograph: 5.1/10
CBN2A1K.EB0265 / Macau Limited Edition Heuer 02 Chronograph: 4.9/10
CBN2043.EB0261 / Cortina 50th Limited Edition Heuer 02 Chronograph: 4.5/10
WBN2012.FC6502 / Blue Dial Calibre 5 Day/Date 41 Watch: 5.6/10
WBN2013.FC6503 / Black Dial Calibre 5 Day/Date 41mm Watch: 5.9/10
WBN2050.FC6506 / Year of the Tiger Limited Edition Calibre 5 Watch: 5.3/10
CBN2016.EB0275 / Porsche 2.7 Limited Edition Heuer 02 Chronograph: ???/10
CBN2045.FC8316 / Porsche 2.7 Limited Edition Heuer 02 Chronograph: 6.2/10
CBN2044.FC8313 / Black/Gold Panda Dial Heuer 02 Chronograph: ???/10
CBN2018.BA0642 / Watches of Switzerland Limited Edition Heuer 02 : ???/10
CBN2018.FC6520 / Watches of Switzerland Limited Edition Heuer 02: ???/10
CBN2019.BA0642 / Japanese 'Samurai' Limited Edition Heuer 02 Chronograph: 6.3/10
WBN2111.FC6505 / Silver Dial Calibre 5 39mm Watch: 6.0/10
WBN2112.FC6504 / Blue Dial Calibre 5 39mm Watch: 5.8/10
CBN2A1L.FC6521 / Year of the Rabbit Limited Edition Heuer 02 Chronograph: 4.5/10
CAR5A8AF.FC6415 / Polychrome Limited Edition Heuer 02T Chronograph: 6.6/10
CBN5A90.FC8315 / Plasma Limited Edition Heuer 02T Chronograph: 5.9/10
CAR5A8AA.EB0262 / Dubai Boutique Limited Edition Heuer 02T Chronograph: 4.9/10
CAR5A8A.XXXXXX / Jimmy Butler Limited Edition Heuer 02T Chronograph: 5.4/10
CAR5A8AD.FC6415 / Omotesando Boutique Limited Edition Heuer 02T Chrono: 5.8/10
CBN2A1A.FC6537 / Blue Dial 44mm Sports Heuer 02 Chronograph: 6.2/10
CBK221G.FC6479 / Red Dial Limited Edition Heritage Heuer 02 Chrono: ???/10
WBN2450.BD0569 / MOP Dial Automatic Ladies Watch: 5.4/10
WBN2414.BA0621 / MOP Dial Automatic Ladies Watch: 5.5/10
Well there we have it (...so far). Incredible to see that of the 64 watches released in 2022, 29 were limited editions; the most limited of all being the Jimmy Butler Tourbillon of which there were only five pieces!
So to recap the ten watches that scored the most points are:
MONACO Dark Lord Tribute Heuer 02 Chronograph
MONACO Gulf Special Edition Heuer 02 Chronograph
AQUARACER Orange Dial Calibre 5 Watch
AQUARACER Solargraph Solar Powered Quartz Watch
AQUARACER Superdiver 1000M Kenissi Automatic Watch
CARRERA Red Dial Limited Edition Heritage Heuer 02 Chronograph
CARRERA Porsche 2.7 Limited Edition Heuer 02 Chronograph
CARRERA Black/Gold Panda Dial Heuer 02 Chronograph
CARRERA Watches of Switzerland Panda Dial Heuer 02 L/E (Strap)
CARRERA Watches of Switzerland Panda Dial Heuer 02 L/E (Bracelet)
The scores for these will be available on the 27th of December along with the final reveal of this year's 'Watch of the Year'. I guess you'd think it was safe to presume it was one of the watches listed above, wouldn't you..?
See you on the 27th!
(By the way, I have removed the page which shows the cumulative COCO scores as I have updated it with the 2022 models and putting it back up would spoil the surprise, this will go back up on the 27th too.)
FURTHER READING:
JIM & ROB REVIEW THE WATCHES OF 2022 - PART ONE:
JIM & ROB REVIEW THE WATCHES OF 2022 - PART TWO:
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