FEATURE: The Best of the Best of the Last Four Years...

 

2020 - 2023*

As the summer slowly starts to turn to autumn and we start sporadically thinking about the big end of year vote, I thought it might be interesting to cast our eyes over the last four years of results and remind ourselves of the best of the best of the main four TAG Heuer product lines. 

For these purposes I am using the compiled list of final scores which can be found HERE and for the purposes of splitting ties on points I will use the WOTY votes themselves. I did briefly consider using the WOTY votes as the main indicator but quickly came to realise that this would not give a very accurate result overall, especially in years where one watch crushes the competition (plus there's only been two Formula 1s that have received a vote, so that won't work).

So we begin with the Carrera, and two of these three are winners of the coveted 'C.O.C.O. Watch of the Year' trophy. The 'Silver 160th Anniversary L/E' took the inaugral prize in 2020, while last year the '60th Anniversary Panda' took the honours. These two were split by just 0.1/10, and it must be said the Panda scored 10 votes to the Silver 160's 7 (so owners of those two can argue about that on their own time!).

The 'Jack Heuer 88' Limited Edition lost out to the aforementioned '160th Anniversary' model in 2020, but still managed to score an outstanding 8.2/10 and may well have been crowned had it been released in a different year. 

The other two WOTY winners (the 'Watches of Switzerland 42mm Panda L/E' and the 'Hodinkee Dato L/E') actually came in 5th and 6th place, with a slightly surprising 4th overall for the '160th Anniversary Montreal L/E'. 

A clear win here for the Monaco Titan, with its nearest competitors trailing by a whopping 0.7 points. Back in 2021 the Titan was the highest scoring watch overall, but lost out 6 - 4 to the 'Hodinkee Dato' in the title deciding vote. I must admit I'm quite surprised to see the 'Only Watch Carbon Monaco' and the standard black dial CBL2113 Heuer 02 sharing second place, especially when you think how many exciting looking limited edition Monacos we've seen over the last few years. But still, the scores don't lie (both those watches also managed one WOTY vote apiece so they really can't be separated). 

Again a clear win for the final WAY series Aquaracer, courtesy of George Bamford... and another points tie for second place between the 'Night Diver' and the 'Tribute to 844 L/E'. I can't help thinking though that if we were to revote the 'Night Diver' would beat out the '844' quite convincingly, as while the 'Night Diver' is often mentioned on the THF Forum it feels like the '844' is somewhat forgotten. Indeed the only person that I know who actually bought one no longer has it.... that said the '844' took 3 WOTY votes to the 'Night Diver's 1, thus it takes second place here.

So finally we come to the Formula 1 and it's no great surprise to see the Heuer 02 powered 'Fragment' limited edition right up there. After all, upon release many positively bristled at the idea that this was a 'Formula 1' given the case is basically an old Autavia design. But whatever, TAG Heuer called it a Formula 1 so that's that. 

Sharing the honours is the totally magnificent orange dial WAZ101A, and again both of these watches claimed one WOTY vote so I have no alternative but to declare this one a draw (but come on, only one of these is really a Formula 1 - right!). Third falls to a not particularly memorable Calibre 16 Senna edition, albeit it did manage a creditable 6.9/10 back in 2020.

Okay, but just in case you were wondering what would happen if I had used the WOTY votes alone...

CARRERA

Well the positions would switch, with the 60th Anniversary Panda taking the top spot and the Silver 160th relegated to second place. Meanwhile the JH88 Carrera would drop off the podium and up into third would come the Hodinkee Dato Limited Edition.

MONACO

The WOTY winning 'Titan' would retain its crown, but the other two drop off the podium, replaced by the current 'Gulf' S/E and the super cool 'Dark Lord Tribute' S/E, both of which scored 7.3/10 and two WOTY votes apiece. 

AQUARACER

A bit of a surprise here as the 'Tribute to 844' retains second while the 'Bamford' falls to third and bumps the 'Night Diver' off the podium. Taking the top spot from out of nowhere is the orange dial Calibre 5; I certainly didn't see that one coming!

FORMULA 1

Not much changes here, other than the podium is reduced to two places, since only two Formula 1's have ever received a WOTY vote and both scored the same points (as we saw earlier).

So there we have it, I hoped you enjoyed this little look back over the last four years and it will be interesting to see if this year's releases can muscle their way onto the podiums? I have my doubts, honestly, but you never know... all will be revealed on the 27th of December as usual.