ON THE WRIST: Victorinox INOX Carbon Mechanical Watch

 
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Victorinox Boutique / London, 28th October 2023

As I dedicated TAG Heuer collector and blogger, it's quite rare for me to talk about other brands. It does happen from time to time of course and I have written about watches I've tried on from brands such as Tudor, Rolex, Breitling, Maurice Lacroix, Bell & Ross, Chopard and even Roger Dubuis (their £168,000 twin tourbillon Exoskeleton is still the most expensive watch I've ever tried on, and probably always will be!) but over the course of seven years it's not much.

But I've been intrigued by the I.N.O.X. range from Victorinox ever since I saw the video where they drove over it in a tank, and while the bezel styling is 'interesting' shall we say, it's so refreshing to see a watch that doesn't look like something else. For that alone I would have to say well done Victorinox, thank you for looking forward in an industry that is OBSESSED with repeating the past. 

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Carrera 'Porsche 2.7' Heuer 02 Limited Edition Chronograph by Swiss Watch Expo

 

OWNED: TAG Heuer 3000 Series Quartz Chronograph

 
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Yet again I am writing an 'Owned' post as a formerly cherished watch heads out the door to its new keeper, and yet again I am surprisingly unmoved by the latest defection from my collection. Which surprises me in a way because I was so excited when this one arrived two and a half years ago from the USA. But over the last year or so my attitude to collecting watches has changed considerably and right now I'm sitting at 31 pieces, which means I've almost (but not quite) halved the number of watches I own with still probably more to face the door.

In my naivety I thought I could just keep collecting forever, amassing more and more pieces until either the money ran out or the wife left me... but then one day I realised that these things break, especially the older ones I was collecting - and when they break they cost money. Sometimes more than they are worth. Now that wouldn't be a problem if I had one or two cheaper watches that I really, really loved but when you have sixteen plastic F1s that are 30 years old you start to wonder if it wouldn't just be better to sell up. 

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Monaco 'Dark Lord Tribute' Heuer 02 Chronograph by WatchBox Reviews

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Carrera 'Gold' Glassbox TH20-00 Chronograph

 

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Back in May I visited London to meet up with my good friend Jim Dollares and together we spent a pleasant hour in the TAG Heuer boutique trying on lots of watches. One of the watches we tried on was last year's 42mm solid gold reverse Panda - the one we all thought was going to be for Jack Heuer's 90th birthday but ended up just being a regular gold R.P. Jim and I really liked that watch and my Swedish buddy suggested I should start saving for it for my 60th birthday (thankfully not until 2029 I hasten to add - but I'd still need to put away over £3000 a year!).

VIDEO: TAG Heuer 6000 Series Quartz Chronograph by Birth Year Watches

 

CORRECTION: A Correction and a Small Bit of News

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Some of you might have been a little surprised to see that the recently released Monaco 'Night Driver' (as pictured above) achieved an oddly low C.O.C.O. score of 5.8/10 in my recent 'First Impressions' post. But luckily, one of the aforementioned C.O.C.O. members brought this to my attention and on re-checking the scoring I found that it should have read 6.8 and not 5.8. I don't know how I managed to mess this up, I added up the scores correctly but an error crept in when it came to dividing the total by the number of scores. I have checked the other recent scores and they are all bang on, I will correct my original post as soon as possible.

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Carrera WV211A Automatic Watch by WatchBox Studios

 

ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 'Watches of Switzerland' Calibre 5 Limited Edition

 

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WATCHES OF SWITZERLAND / Regent Street, London, 5th September 2023

With just over ten weeks remaining of 2023, it seems timely to remind ourselves that last year a 'Watches of Switzerland' limited edition Carrera 'Panda' (CBN2018) managed to snag the much coveted 'C.O.C.O. Watch of the Year' for 2022 - joining previous winners the CBK221B Silver 160th Carrera and the CBK221D Dato 45 at the top of the C.O.C.O. tree. 

Now, obviously I'm not for a moment suggesting that this 'Watches of Switzerland' limited edition Aquaracer is about to repeat that feat, because frankly we all know there's only one watch in the running this year... the CBK221H 39mm Glassbox Panda. The watch that not only heralded the start of TAG Heuer's 60th Anniversary celebrations for the Carrera of course, but also the one most likely to blame for the six-eight months it took W.O.S. to sell a measly 250 pieces of what was and remains a very nice watch!

Honestly I still think TAG Heuer well and truly stitched W.O.S. up there, releasing a 42mm Panda when they knew there was a more desirable 39mm one coming (and let's not pretend we didn't know about it too). But hey, it's water under the bridge now... and as far as I know the W.O.S. Panda is now sold out - so all's well that ends well.

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Autavia Calibre 5 Watch by WatchBox Reviews

SPOTLIGHT ON: TAG Heuer x Bamford Carrera x Rowing Blazers 'Yacht Timer' Limited Edition Heuer 02 Chrono

 

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I'll admit my knowledge of the 'Rowing Blazers' brand is pretty limited but even a cursory glance at their website tells you pretty much everything you need to know. £50 for a baseball cap, £135 for nylon shorts, £310 for a jumper.. and £9250 for a TAG Heuer x Bamford x Rowing Blazers Carrera. Wait, what? Oh yes, you think watch enthusiasts are easy to extract money from? Well that's nothing compared to fashion junkies...

VIDEO: What Has Happened with TAG Heuer by Teddy Baldessarre

In this video (at 0:41) I notice Teddy has used my photo of the TAG Heuer factory, you can clearly see my wife standing under the tree on the left.... :)

SPOTLIGHT ON: TAG Heuer Carrera 'Las Vegas' Limited Edition Heuer 02 Chronograph

 

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Every now and then TAG Heuer release something which makes you stop and stare, and the CBN2A1J 'Las Vegas' limited edition 44mm Carrera Sport is truly one such watch. Now obviously it's not for everyone, but when you consider the environment in which it was being sold it kinda makes sense. What better way to remember the night you went to the Casino and came away with a few thousand dollars tucked into your money belt, eh? But in the cold light of day, maybe it's a harder sell... and perhaps that's why it's currently for sale on the Watchfinder website for just £2550. 

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Link Quartz Watch by Birth Year Watches

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Heuer Monaco Calibre 11 'Monaco Boutique' Limited Edition

 

Can you think of a better place to buy your Monaco from than the TAG Heuer boutique in Monaco? Well if you happened to have been there recently then you might just have seen one of these, a grade 5 titanium 'SMQ' with gold subdials, hands and indices. The watch is limited to just 50 individually numbered pieces and comes with 2 straps in a special box... and I should hope so given the asking price is an eye-watering €11,000!

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre TH20-00 Chronograph by WatchBox Studios

 

ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 'Tiffany Blue' Calibre 5 Watch

 

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TAG Heuer Boutique / Meadowhall, Sheffield 22nd April 2023

Admittedly, it's been rather a long time since my wife and I took a look at this one, but it's Thursday morning already and I need a post for Friday - that's how it seems to be at the moment, and so I took a look in my 'draft' folder and came up with this one. It was either this or my Top 5 Blue Dial TAG Heuers, and I really don't have time to sift through all the possible options right now!

It may have been a while ago, but I can say without fear of contradiction that my wife absolutely loved this one. A pity then that at 36mm it looked ridiculous on her tiny wrist - she doesn't own anything bigger than her 32mm WBD Aquaracers and even they look quite chunky on her. In fact she loved it so much that I think had it been smaller she might even have overcome her reluctance to buy another automatic. 

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 'Green Dial' Calibre 5 Watch by Brent Miller Time

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer/Bamford Carrera 'Team Ikuzawa' Calibre Heuer 02 Limited Edition

 

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You may remember me talking about the Wes Lang Bamford Carrera a while back and last year the RUF Carrera; when I spoke about them I explained that they did not constitute official 'TAG Heuer' releases as they did not have their own unique part number - rather they carried the part number of the base or donor watches delivered to Bamford to be modified. When I first saw this I assumed this would fall into the same category, but for whatever reason the TAG Heuer/Bamford/Team Ikuzawa Carrera does carry it's own original part number and indeed was sold on the Japanese TAG Heuer website. As such it is eligible for the C.O.C.O. Watch of the Year competition, though I don't think it's going to trouble the glassbox Panda somehow....

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre TH20-09 Tourbillon Chronograph by WatchBox Reviews