CBL2181.FC6515
TAG Heuer Boutique / London, 28th October 2023
I must admit the CBL2181 'Night Driver' Monaco wasn't at the forefront of my mind when I entered the Oxford Street boutique, in fact it had pretty much slipped my mind completely, until Ingrida asked me if I'd seen it. I'm glad she prompted a try on because I have to say I was rather pleasantly surprised. You may remember when I wrote my 'First Impressions' post I likened the dial to the sheet you print out when you're setting up a new printer; but in actual fact, the watch is much nicer in person than in any photo that I've seen - including my wristshot below.
Like the Porsche Orange Lava Carrera released earlier this year, this one has the look of a watch that costs a lot of money, and that's simply not always the case, especially when it comes to Monacos for some reason. Maybe it's simply that it has a polished finish to the titanium sitting beneath the DLC coating and that extra layer of lushness makes all the difference.
Which is just as well because there's simply no getting around the fact that this watch does indeed cost a LOT of money. At £8300 it's significantly more than the Dark Lord Tribute, and okay it is a limited edition of 600 pieces, but there's one on Chrono 24 already that isn't selling for £2000 less than that - so don't go thinking this is an easy flip!
Ingrida whipped out her mini torch to try and give me the full effect of the lumed dial, but I really couldn't get much out of it. It's hard when you are in an overlit environment to see lume and this was no exception. It didn't glow much, but then it didn't look like the torch was exactly blinding either, so maybe Ingrida just needs some new batteries? It's a shame really because I have seen some spectacular looking photos taken by 'Night Driver' owners.
The recent Monacos have been a pleasant surprise, with this and the 'Racing Blue' Monaco both coming across better than expected in person. But those price tags are a huge turn-off; whereas with the Porsche Orange Lava I genuinely did consider liquidating several watches and getting one, these are just out of the question (for me anyway - as Ariel from 'A Blog to Watch' said recently "If the price of a watch makes no sense to you, then the chances are that watch isn't aimed at you.")
Oh well, I'm glad I got to see this one as yet again it underlined my philosophy that you really can't properly judge a watch until you've had it on your wrist. I still prefer the Dark Lord Tribute though, and not just because it's cheaper. Speaking of which, Watchfinder had one of those on offer at just over £5000 the other day, so clearly these special Monacos aren't holding their value like you'd hope they would.
No comments:
Post a Comment