FEATURE: TAG Heuer is Finally Cool Again. So What?

Something weird has happened of late and I don't understand it. Ever since I properly joined the 'watch community' in early 2016 TAG Heuer was always the black sheep, always the butt of the joke, always the brand 'proper' watch enthusiasts looked down on. But it seems the script has changed and I can't for the life of me understand why.

No doubt some will say it's because of the new glassbox Carreras, but leaving aside my own ambivalence to them (at least in the 39mm format) I really don't see that as being sufficient to cause the overwhelming change of sentiment that's seemingly flowed through the influencing watch world in the last few months.

Now obviously to my mind TAG Heuer should never have been the black sheep, the butt of the joke or the watch company that 'proper' watch enthusiasts looked down on in the first place and the insistence that TAG Heuer made their own bed by making supposedly 'terrible' watches in the 1990s doesn't hold much sway with me either.

I have owned (and still own) many of these supposedly 'awful' watches and I can tell you they are anything but. Sure some may not appreciate the style of the S/EL, I get that... some things date well and some things don't, it happens (though I still like them), especially when you are trying to be innovative and Avant Garde in design. What's the alternative, just make things you know are 'timeless'... because you've already made them twenty times before? 

God save us from the tedium. 

So yeah you can point to the classic Carrera and say this is what TAG Heuer should be making, it's perfect. But to do so is to ignore the other watches that Heuer made back in the day. They weren't all perfect and to suggest they were would be ridiculous. You remember the good ones and forget the ugly failures and the same goes for all the other watch brands, most of them have some horror stories they don't want you to remember, it's just the way it goes. Is every Ferrari or Porsche beautiful? Of course not. But that doesn't mean we should just stick with what we know, that's so boring...

And I just don't see that the watches TAG Heuer are making today are significantly 'better' than what they were making 5-10 years ago - just different. Yes they have brought along in-house movements, but this was not through choice, rather it was forced upon them by Swatch playing silly buggers with supply. Until a few years ago everyone was perfectly happy buying watches that were powered by ETA movements, but now of course 'in house' is a 'thing'. But all the big players now have in house movements, so we're back where we started.

Again, I don't see that TAG Heuer making in house movements has had any bearing on the change of heart sweeping through the influencers in 2023. It's already been what, seven, eight years since TAG Heuer launched the Heuer 01 and not much less since we got the more genuinely 'in-house' Heuer 02. 

So what is it then? Why is TAG suddenly cool again? I don't have an answer honestly... maybe it's just their time to have the spotlight again - just as it feels like perhaps Audemars Piguet's time is running out. Content creators constantly need new 'content' and as much as I like the Royal Oak they've pretty much milked that particular cash-cow, so creators are looking elsewhere for new things to talk about. I'm not suggesting TAG is in because AP is out, but if everything stays the same forever there's nothing to talk about. How long before the '10 Reasons Why AP Sucks Now' videos start appearing on YouTube?

I mean I watch some YouTube channels obviously, but being as I've spent the last so many years hearing most of them trying to brainwash me by telling me how great Tudor is whilst completely ignoring TAG Heuer (or occasionally making one of the aforementioned 'The problem with TAG Heuer' videos) I've learned to take everything they say with a pinch of salt. So it would be ridiculous of me to start caring what they think now that they've finally seen the error of their ways. 

Let's be honest, most of these influencers are walking around with their heads up each other's arses anyway, scared to be caught on the hop backing the wrong horse at the wrong time and probably frantically deleting the '10 Reasons Why TAG Heuer Sucks' videos they made three years ago in case anyone accidentally finds them in 2024 (I've actually recently tried to find some videos I remember from the past slagging TAG Heuer and in particular the current Aquaracers, but they seem to have been removed - funny that). 

Of course not all YouTubers are such vacuous wastes of carbon; a few days ago I came across a video by Shah Lusso, who occasionally posts about TAG Heuer watches (you may well have watched his latest video here on my blog yesterday). This video caught my eye because he was lauding one of the least recognized of the current Carreras, the CBN201C... in fact he called it the 'perfect' Carrera.

I don't know if I'd go quite that far, but I agreed with an awful lot of what he had to say - at 42mm the (formerly 'Elegant') Carrera is a great size that wears more like a 41mm and manages to walk the line between 'classic' and 'modern' without falling into either camp or alienating fans of either group - a very clever trick if you can pull it off. Now maybe the CBN201C specifically isn't the perfect Carrera for you, but there are a lot of other great watches in that range already and I'd certainly consider one at some point. In fact I would specifically consider a CBN201C - Watchfinder currently have a CBN201D for under £4000, but I definitely prefer the black dial over the blue one.

But it does make you wonder, if all these influencers love TAG Heuer now, why haven't any of them picked up on this great range of watches, it's not like it's particularly recent, they've been out at least 3 years already... but no, far easier to jump on the Glassbox bandwagon. Like I've said before, don't buy the hype. If you like the Glassbox Carreras great, I'm happy for you - but buy them because you like it, not because some self-promoting clown told you it was cool now. 

Because sure as the sun rises and sets, if the collective opinion changes once again those people that are falling over themselves to tell you how great TAG Heuer are now will flip faster than a Rolex at retail. Meanwhile, here at the TAG Heuer Enthusiast blogspot, we love TAG Heuer, we have always loved TAG Heuer and we most likely will continue to love TAG Heuer... until we die or we're completely priced out of the market, whichever comes first. 😟