ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre 7 Watch

WBN231B.BA0001

TAG Heuer Boutique / Oxford Street, London, 28th October 2023

One subject that is guaranteed to get watch enthusiasts talking / arguing / nodding their heads sagely is watch diameters... you can barely a visit a watch forum without someone saying 'this is too big' or 'this is too small'. Actually it's usually the former, but with the release of the supposedly 'unisex' 36mm Carreras we're heard a little more of the latter, because honestly a pink 36mm Carrera looks kinda ridiculous on most men of any size.

And of course, watch sizes are not an end in and of themselves, there's a lot more to it than that. Case thickness also plays a huge part, as does design. For example, I thought this watch would look colossal on my wife's wrist; the biggest watch in her collection is a 32mm Aquaracer and when she tried on one of my 35mm plastic F1s she said that was too big too. So I was expecting her to like it, but to dismiss it on the grounds of it looking too big. Especially as she doesn't seem to like the 'oversize' look that some ladies go for. 

Surprisingly she said it looked big, but was just about acceptable. Well you can judge for yourselves from the picture above, I think it looks okay, but it certainly looks bigger than her largest Aquaracer (but not that much larger, and certainly not 4mm larger). As I said, chunkiness and design certainly plays a part in the overall equation.

I must admit I was a little surprised she liked the watch as much as she did. Admittedly the diamonds around the face look fantastic and the hammered dial is very cool, but the gold elements do give this a slightly 'Liberace' feel. Maybe she was too enamoured with the dial and the diamonds to notice? I'm not sure, but for a week or so it seemed like this was her new dream watch (just as soon as we can sell her two tone Aquaracer - listed on Ebay HERE). 

Ultimately she confided in me that she doesn't feel comfortable spending £4000 on any watch, least of all an automatic (which she doesn't like or want the hassle of). I must admit, historically speaking the majority of ladies have always preferred quartz and it seems to me that TAG Heuer are making a mistake by limiting the number of quartz watches available to women these days. But then all the watch brands seem to be pushing automatics on women through marketing and trying to get them to buy into the 'luxury' aspect of it recently.

In reality automatics (and particularly automatics with date windows) are a pain in the arse unless you are going to wear them everyday, and a watch like this isn't going to be an 'everyday' watch, certainly not for my wife anyway. A few days ago she saw the pink dial Watches of Switzerland Aquaracer and decided she liked that better than this one, but then that's also automatic (and still over £3000!) so I can't really see her buying that one either.