FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Carrera 'Ice Blue' Calibre 7 Watch

The 36mm Carrera seems to be the chosen range for TAG Heuer to experiment with bright colours and finishes and while this kinda makes sense given it appeals to women and also men with smaller wrists I can't help feeling that us men with larger wrists are being somewhat left out in the cold.

Sure, we've had the pale blue / lilac / call it what you will Aquaracer chronograph... a model with a life slightly longer than a butterfly it seems, but aside from that there's not much in the way of unusual colours floating around in the larger sizes.

This despite our Swedish friend Jim Dollares constantly moaning about the situation on the THF Forum. Indeed, so fed up is he waiting around for a man-sized pink Carrera that he's actually on the verge of biting the bullet and ponying up for the 36mm.

So now we have another lovely looking 36mm Carrera to add to the list of 'can we have this in a bigger size please'... simply called the 'Ice Blue' (not to be confused with the 'Polar Blue' / pale green Solargraph that came out earlier in the year). Now granted renders are one thing, photos are another and seeing a watch in person can be quite yet another. But on the face of it, you'd have to say this looks pretty damned sweet.

This Calibre 7 powered Carrera comes in at £2850 and from what I've heard on the grapevine could be an outside bet for WOTY. Perhaps not for the outright win, but I could see this garnering a place on the podium. As I'm writing this we're just four months away from the big reveal and by the time you read this it will be even less... so where would your vote go?

8/10: "I have a soft spot for blue watches (almost in an erotic way)... this gets an 8/10 from me. Would have been higher if it had been a few mm bigger."

7/10: "But will need to see in person though."

7/10: "This might be my wife’s next watch,"

7/10: "Cool colour, when you just need a watch that's a little bit different."

6.5/10: "The beautiful colour of the dial lifts this one out of the ordinary."

6/10: "The watch itself is nothing exciting, it's lovely but it's a simple 3 hander. The brushed dial though is quite lovely. and that sea green blue is stunning."

6/10: "This shade of blue doesn't grab me as much as some other colours. Still, not a bad looking watch."

5/10: "Pretty, not bad."

8/10: "All these latest 36mm Carreras are nice watches (IMHO). On top of it, prices out there are well <3k CHF / EUR for these, which seems fair."

7/10: "Tiffani enthusiasts will love it."

5/10: "I’ve been seeing a lot of smaller watches on guys lately. I have tiny wrists, so 36 is perfect for me! I’m not so sure about the dial colour. I try to stay away from certain shades. This reminds me of when certain shades of light blue/green and purple were huge in the 90s but looked extremely dated until recently… apparently."

7.5/10: "Wish is was a little bluer, like baby blue. But WOTY so far in my opinion."

7/10: "Classic watch with nice colour dial. Being mainly for ladies (36mm), I appreciate the absence of diamonds and MOP.

9/10: "Lovely! A strong 9 from me. Only thing holding it back is the lazy date disc, should be colour matched at this price point. Hashtag LVMH cutting cost."

8/10: "Really like this one, just like the pink one before it…except the 36mm size. TAG Heuer still in the past with their colour scheme / gender views unfortunately. Still giving them an 8/10, but would have been higher in a proper size."