ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Carrera 36mm Two Tone Calibre 7 Watch

 

Until relatively recently TAG Heuer have never made a watch that looks like this in a size which could possibly be considered 'unisex' but this is 2024 and 'Men's' watches are undoubtedly shrinking while 'Women's' watches get bigger by the week (I still don't understand why it's desirable for women to wear watches which are oversized while for men it is the height of poor judgement - but that's fashion for you. Thankfully I care not much for fashion, so I will continue to wear my 45mm H01 thanks all the same).

So when the opportunity to try this on arose I thought 'why not'. Truth be told in the not so distant past anything that was even close to being wearable for a man would have come with a deployant bracelet insufficient to breach my enormous man-hands, and so it was tremendously surprising to find that the watch slipped over my hand with ease and fitted more than comfortably around my 7.1/2" wrist. So presumably we must conclude that this is indeed a 'Unisex' watch, because I don't know about you but I don't know many women with 8" wrists.

Sure, on the wrist it is a bit dainty... bit it doesn't look completely ridiculous, and let's not forget that my wrists are on the large side and I know there are plenty of men out there with sub 7" wrists who could get away with this. Perhaps. But even so, you can't help look at this and think it is designed for women - because historically this is what a woman's watch looks like.

And then there's the price. Oh boy, yes it's automatic, yes it's two-tone, yes it has a mother of pearl dial with a diamond inner bezel, but £6050? I don't know man, that sounds like a lot of coin. 

My wife was with me at the time and she briefly tried it on, wrinkled her nose at it and went back to looking at the new Aquaracers (a watch she couldn't possibly wear on her 3" wrists!). Quite a damning indictment from the female market perhaps... and think of how many gold links she would have bought and paid for only to sit in a drawer - perhaps they should offer a shorter bracelet for ladies at a reduced price? Just a thought...

Anyway, while some of the new 36mm Carreras make you wish that TAG Heuer would grow a pair and release them in 39 or 41mm (the 'Barbie' is the obvious contender, but also the brand new 'Ice Blue') I can't help feeling at 36mm this one is more than big enough.