I say 'integrated' because while these look the part, the centre piece between the 'air scoop' V is actually part of the strap and not part of the case. This unfortunately leads to my first head scratching moment, because why go to all the effort to create this well constructed illusion, if only half of the watches actually carry it though?
*These aren't really very skeletonized at all, you can barely see anything of the movement (especially the tourbillons which don't have a date wheel) but they certainly don't have what you would call a solid dial either. Perhaps 'sculpted' or 'architectural' dial would be a better description?
While we are on the subject of the strap I'm still not sure about that 'inspired by Porsche' air-scoop V shape, and even less now that it's been rolled out throughout these non-Porsche watches. Mind you I thought that was a lot of balony at the time to be honest, but what I really don't like about these straps is that they appear to be completely smooth and unbranded.
To me, that screams 'aftermarket' strap, and I really don't like that. They don't have to be festooned with TAG Heuer shields and text but being completely smooth just makes me curl my lip a tiny little bit.
Many have (and will) blow air through their teeth when they read that these watches are 44mm, but if you've tried on the regular 44mm Sport Carreras you will know that while undeniably chunky, they do not feel as large on the wrist as the measurement suggests; this is because the lugs on these are quite compact which keeps the lug to lug measurement reasonable.
That said, they are called 'Extreme' Carreras... so it would be a bit ridiculous if they were 39mm and easily hidden under a cuff. Frankly if you want a watch that looks like this (especially the red one) then I can't imagine why you'd want to hide it under a sleeve (unless you live in London of course).
For me I think the least successful of these is that red one, it's just screaming for a Manchester United badge on the dial isn't it? And that red strap looks all kind of cheap. The blue is better, much better, but still doesn't quite cut it for me.
I don't quite understand why they reversed the subdial rims on the CBU2050 as it makes the subdials look smaller - surely they can't be worrying about saving that tiny bit of gold? That said I do like the combination of gold and black, as the solid black is just a tiny bit dull. I could see it being a good base for future limited editions though, with the addition of small colour highlights to the hands etc.
The tourbillons then are my favourite of this range. And probably the gold over the titanium, though both have the black centre part on the strap which looks all kind of wrong (but then again, all kinds of right given that it kinda hides the weird scoopy bit!). I mean, okay, I guess the strap for the gold one would be expensive to replace, but again, why go to all the trouble to create this illusion and then bottle it? I don't get it.
As ever the renders for these appear to do them no favours whatsoever, my initial reaction was 'Hell NO!' which softened considerably when I saw real life photos. However, I'm still not 100% sold on these designs. Hopefully I will get a chance to try one or two on in the next few days and I'm open to upgrading my scores in December.
Gotta say, YG Rulz's post (above) is spot on, these really do feel like mini-Zeniths and the use of the 'Extreme' name isn't helping much either. And while I like the Zenith Defy, once again I'm conflicted because on the face of it these are exactly the kind of modernist designs I want from TAG Heuer, but somehow they just aren't hitting the spot, never mind making me want to spend over £7000 on them.
And one final thought, where is the green one? I mean we've had thirteen green watches this year already, surely there's room for at least one more? 🤣
Okay, let's find out what the Council of Considered Opinion has to say about these, if I'm honest I'm not expecting glowing platitudes, but we'll see...
AVG 8.0/10: "The video of these on TAG Heuer’s site is excellent. Sack the person doing the renders and get the video people to do those! Strong release in my opinion. The side profile uses the industrial design similar to that of the Porsche 963 model, which fits perfectly with the skeleton dial. Didn’t like the straps initially, but now see that they’re going for a sort of fixed spring bar look with the straps appearing to wrap around that. Rather taken with these tbh. I normally rank the Tourbillon’s lower as hugely expensive and don’t usually fit with the dial’s, but these actually work really well. Black n Gold are my favourites to look at, with the Gold bezel of the Tourbillon really finishing it off nicely."
AVG 4.2/10: "To much skeleton, to big and to extreme. IMHO. (Expensive as well 😩)"
AVG 6.4/10: "The red and full gold are my favourites. They have the right amount of contrast for my taste. The size and pricing are a bit too big for my tastes."
AVG 3.0/10: "More of the same dross."
AVG 6.3/10: "It’s great to see TH updating the skeleton, the black on black looks great, the others I’m less of a fan of, but maybe would look better on the wrist."
AVG 3.5/10: "In the hierarchy of what I would actually buy, these rate very poorly. Just not my style at all."
AVG 6.8/10: "I like the black ones. The gold ones are ok. The blue is so, so. The red is a miss..."
AVG 4.0/10: "I'm sticking with 4/10 for the line, they're just so unreadably messy. And it's a bit dismaying to see LVMH copy-and-pasting their Zenith plans to TAG, right down to the name."
AVG 5.2/10: "All 5/10 except an additional point for blue."
AVG 7.6/10: "I know we have been forbidden to talk about pricing but my lord, prices are insane for these. Hash tag bring back Biver. I guess this is what it feels like to be a car enthusiast. You own one or two and spend the rest of your time staring at fabulous cars you will never own or even drive..."
AVG 2.5/10: "I give these watches a low rating because the face is too flat and the visibility is poor."
AVG 3.3/10: "I prefer the look of the Carrera Sport models to the newly released Extreme models."
AVG 4.0/10: "The design of these watches seems very chaotic and arbitrary. I can just repeat myself and say it again, that this designs seems outdated, even if it's an 'overhaul' of the skeletons. The integration of the strap with the lugs and watch on these models doesn't appeal to me at all. In contrast the recent Porsche Carrera is less skeletonized and looks much more balanced."
AVG 2.7/10: "I don’t mind the darker colours. I've just never been a fan of skeleton dials…"
AVG 6.8/10: "I like this new generation of skeleton Carrera (excepting the red one 😏 and not loving the blue either), eventually being a totally new case/lugs/strap design vs previous watches. My favourite among them is still the Porsche 963 edition (9/10)."
AVG 3.0/10: "Not for me so 3/10 across the board."
AVG 4.0/10: "The red one has already been teased a long time ago, no? I feel like I remember the strap… Anyway - this is a design for which the French languages reserves the word “criard” (from crier / to yell)… and having seen the rest of the range I feel that my initial response was so well researched that I don’t need to change anything. The Biver-Skeleton-Era must die! 4/10 (because some colours are a bit less in-your-face than the red one)"
AVG 2.9/10: "I've never been a massive fan of Skeleton watches, and these just look like slightly rehashed Biver-style Carreras. I can't get on board with the size either. To put it simply, they're just not aimed at someone like me, who prefers something less ostentatious. I'm not keen on the way the strap goes around the end-links either I'm afraid. That said, the finishing does look good. The blue is the best of the bunch for me."
AVG 6.4/10: "I'm quite impressed with all of these. They are definitely giving off luxury sports watch vibes and are a nice evolution of the Carrera."
AVG 8.2/10: "Only think stopping me scoring 10/10 on the 2 golds is the price point…also on the 9/10 the strap let’s them down for me, just not keen on the smooth finish. Overall I like them."
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