ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Autavia Heuer 02 Flyback Chronograph

 

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TAG Heuer Boutique / Touchwood Centre, Solihull, 20th March 2023

TAG Heuer boutiques seem to be popping up everywhere now, I'd love to know how many they actually have in the UK, considering a few years ago there was about three. Of course most of these new ones are not run by TAG Heuer themselves but by Goldsmiths/Watches of Switzerland, which doesn't affect the customer much apart from if you are looking to access some of the limited editions that come and go in the blink of an eye. 

This newish (opened about a year ago) boutique is quite nice, though it is one of the smaller ones I've been in. Still, how much room do you actually need to sell wristwatches? It's plenty big enough and they seemed to have a decent amount of stock. Demi and Megan were welcoming and friendly too, so that's a tick in the positivity box.

I'm quite up to date as far as trying things on goes, but the one thing they had that I hadn't already tested out was the new steel case Autavia. As you may remember from my 'First Impressions' post I wasn't overly excited about it on release and to be honest my excitement level didn't really spike once I wrapped the red-lined leather strap around my arm.

I get that for some fans of the original Autavia this is appealing, but for me I'm afraid I still can't shake the feeling that this is the 'L' to the black/green version's 'Ghia XL'. I guess nobody under 50 is going to get that reference... what I'm trying to say is this seems slightly underwhelming stripped of all the bells and whistles that made last year's version so interesting to me.

Don't get me wrong, it's still a 'nice' watch, and there's still a lot of things to like about it (it's a flyback chronograph for a start, which is pretty cool), but if I'm honest I was way more interested in the teal 36mm Aquaracer I found in the window of the Frazer Hart on the other side of the Touchwood centre. I was keen to get my wife to try it on but she couldn't be bothered as she knows 36mm is way, way, way too big for her tiny wrists. But she thought it looked great in the window too.

As you may have noticed, we seem to resting in a bit of a lull at the moment, the calm before the storm perhaps? Watches and Wonders is fast approaching (Monday!!!) and I think we are going to be hit with a deluge of new pieces there including the new 39mm Carreras. Also TAG Heuer kind of leaked their new 42mm Carrera tourbillon in their Watches & Wonders promotional material. Which was a bit odd...

Okay, that's it from me today. I am still sporadically working on the history of the Carrera by the way, so don't think that I have forgotten, it's just a very very big job and I don't have too much time on my hands just at the moment. No doubt by the time I get to post it TAG Heuer will have launched another twenty pieces, oh yes... plenty of Carreras coming this year for sure. And probably even more that I don't know about!