CBN201F.EB0356
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....
Tetsu Ikuzawa is a retired racing driver who, in the 60s and 70s, raced a variety of cars and in 1967 entered and won the Japanese Grand Prix in a Porsche 906 (hence the TAG Heuer connection). Although that doesn't mean he was a Formula 1 driver; the first F1 Grand Prix was not held until 1976 (where James Hunt famously became World Champion when Nicki Lauda retired the car due to safety concerns). Prior to that the title 'Japanese Grand Prix' was applied to a variety of racing series including Formula Libre, Formula 2000 and in the case of 1967 'Sports Cars'. Tetsu also raced in the British F3 Championship (1966-1969), the European F2 Championship (1970-1973), the All-Japan F2000 Championship (1974, 1976-1977) and the Fuji Grand Champion Series between 1971 and 1978.
The watch is based on the 42mm Carrera Chronograph (originally called 'Carrera Elegant') and features a white opaline dial with a red chronograph hour counter, red TAG Heuer shield and Carrera text and the 'Team Ikuzawa' logo in red at the '6' position (where the running seconds usually sits on a Heuer 02 powered watch). The date wheel continues the red and white theme featuring red numbers on a white background (and not just on the '8' as I at first thought).
The watch comes in a presentation box with a model Porsche racing car and also a strap made of Nomex race suit material. Unfortunately while this is a cool idea, it does rather bring to mind the abominable Moonswatch straps and in particular the 'Mission to Mars' Moonswatch, which I'm sure wasn't at all what George Bamford intended!
The watch is limited to 100 pieces, each of which is individually numbered and also features 'Bamford Watch Department' on the back (unusually there is no 'Bamford' branding on the dial). The price is £5250, which seems incredibly reasonable compared to other recent limited editions, but I am told that Japanese pricing isn't directly relatable to Sterling (though I'm not entirely sure why that is... it's not like Japan is the only country in the world with a stagnant economy - perhaps they just don't buy into the 'luxury' nonsense like the rest of the world does?). I'm pretty sure if the watch was actually available here in the UK it would have been at least £1000 more, otherwise it would have looked fairly ridiculous when sold alongside the standard models.
After his retirement from full-time racing Tetsu launched 'Team Ikuzawa' which fielded cars in various Japanese competitions and there was even a plan to launch a Formula 1 team in 1994, although clearly this didn't come to pass. Which is all very well, but why (you might wonder) should people care so much about 'Team Ikuzawa' in 2023? Well the 'Team Ikuzawa' brand has now become a popular 'Streetwear' fashion label in Japan, helmed by Tetsu's daughter Mai. Perhaps that explains the slightly curious outfit Frederic Arnault was wearing at the Japanese GP?
Honestly, as an Englishman of advancing years, this is all pretty meaningless to me... but I do like the basic colourscheme and I don't even mind that only one of the subdials is fully coloured. It's just a pity that because everything has to have a 'story' and 'history' and 'pedigree' and a spurious reason to exist and all that, we can't just have a red and white Carrera for the sake of it. Which is a bit of a shame really. But there we are. I'll give it a 6.5/10 anyway.
Okay, let's find out what the Council of Considered Opinion have to say about this one.
7.5/10: I like the red accents against the white and the 2 sub dials work well for me. Not sure about the logo. Don't mind the font just wish they'd balanced it better. Very much reminds me of the Omega Alaska project though.
4/10: Not for me but I've never heard of Team Ikuzawa before. Just not keen on the size or colour scheme, and why is only one subdial coloured orange, looks wrong. Don't like the logo on the dial - size, colour or font. Stitching and writing on the strap seems a bit sub-par - looks like the Moonswatch straps.
7/10: I actually really like this one. Crisp looking white dial which plays with the red sub-dial for that Japanese Flag effect. I actually like the large logo as it’s kind of the Japanese tuning thing and it follows the width of Carrera above. Yes, the strap lets it down long term, but it’s a frivolous piece so why not just dangle that out there from the start, like you really just don’t care!
7/10: I think this one is a pretty cool collaboration piece. I do wish the Team Ikuzawa logo was a bit smaller as it really draws my eye and seems disproportionate to the TAG Heuer logo, but overall, nicely done and unique piece.
4/10: Pfff, Porsche again. Japanese flag design is nice idea but not really for me.
4/10: I have no idea what Ikuzawa is but I do love me a nice logo on the dial like that. Logo on strap looks cool too. A strong 4 from me (one extra point included for the in-house misaligned date which really is becoming a true TAG Heuer signature). Good thing this one is not a Bamford edition, this means buyers will avoid having a dirty dial full of smudge and dust. Oh never mind, in the box it says Bamford so this means that polished parts like indices will have finger prints and moisture all over them and the dial will have hair and dust all over it too!
7/10: Cool colourway, great presentation in that box, and the removed running seconds is always an immediate improvement to these designs. But compared to the glassboxes, I find the 42mm 'Elegant' case design to be kinda lifeless.
3.5/10: Bad on the bracelet. Horrible on the strap.
8/10: I really like it. Without the Ikuzawa logo I’d give it a 9. With the logo I score it an 8 /10. Loving the red and white.
8/10: Proper JDM Motorsports x TAG Heuer pedigree.
8.5/10: I like this a lot more than the 911 Edition watch. It's like a Team Ikuzawa version of last year's Porsche Blue RS2.7, but with a cool asymmetrical flair. If only I lived in Japan!
9/10: I had decided to buy this watch even before it went on sale. It's a piece of Japanese motorsport. Including the minicar and box that came with the watch, it was amazing. I want you to know one thing about Ikuzawa. He is a legend of the Nissan Skyline. The Skyline has evolved into the GT-R you know so well. In the early days of Japanese motorsport, Ikuzawa surpassed Shikiba, who drove a Porsche 904 for only 1 lap on the skyline. It was amazing that a Japanese car surpassed Porsche. Later, Shikiba created a company called Racing Mate to sell car accessories. One of them is my vintage Monza.
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