FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Carrera 'Senna' Calibre TH20-09 Tourbillon Chronograph Limited Edition

 

Many many months ago, way back at the start of the year, Wei Koh (Revolution Watches) posted a video interview with (then) TAG Heuer CEO Julien Tornare. In this interview Wei touched on many things, but one of the key moments that left a lasting impression was when he asked about the 'Senna' watch. I haven't rewatched the interview, but for some reason the way I (and others, it must be said) perceived the response from Julien suggested something 'extra-special' was brewing.

This led to quite some debate amongst watch enthusiasts on the THF Forum because what could this 'something special' possibly be? The obvious answer was a 're-edition' of the classic 'Senna' S/EL, but a two tone ana-digi quartz watch on a brown leather strap, using a case that's been out of production for about a quarter of a century seemed like a long shot... at best.

You may remember I even wrote a POST about it...

But then the whole Kith thing happened and suddenly resurrecting an icon from the past didn't seem like such a stretch of credibility after all. Realistically though, I don't think anyone REALLY thought TAG Heuer were going to remake the watch we all associate with Ayrton, perhaps a more realistic thought was a reboot of the ailing Link model range with a new Senna watch to lead the way.

But would that really be something 'extra-special'? 

Probably not, but maybe if it was a 'homage to' the S/EL (the watch that was the direct predecessor of the Link of course) rather than just a new model with a Senna 'S' on the dial and a Senna themed backplate.

So we waited... and waited... and waited. Julien moved on to a new job, but still no Senna watch came along. Maybe it wasn't going to happen after all. Maybe resurrecting the S/EL was a harder job than they first thought, or maybe they couldn't find any ana-digi modules to put in it. I jest of course... but it must be said that the 'Senna' watch is a major headache for TAG Heuer, because the industry has moved on. 

For a start, luxury means 'automatic', no way are TAG Heuer going to release a quartz chronograph as a 'halo-model', but how else could you hope to duplicate the unique look of Ayrton's watch? And then there's the design itself... if it wasn't for the Senna connection I'm sure TAG Heuer would love to forget about the S/EL. As successful as it was for them in the 90s, it's a watch that's very much of its time and does not generally sit well with modern tastes.

And even if they did actually go full on with it, how much would it cost? It would have to be at least £5000 and probably a lot more... how could they possibly sell that to a market obsessed with mechanical movements? Unless they made it super-expensive, but super-limited? 

The problem with that of course is that you can buy good originals for £1000-1500.

And so we come to this newly released 44mm Carrera Sports Extreme Tourbillon. Whether you consider it 'extra-special' or not is, I suppose, a matter of opinion and I'm sure there are those out there who will, but I'm sorry to say that I am not one of them.

Firstly, and most obviously... why on Earth is it predominantly blue? Is it because they already had a blue Extreme Sports Carrera and they wanted to re-use the rubber strap? Surely not... but whatever the reason, blue is simply not a colour one automatically associates with Ayrton Senna. Not in any positive sense anyway.

Generally speaking, a Senna watch is usually either black or grey with yellow or yellow and green highlights, or black or grey with red highlights*. There was one blue dial Link with Senna branding, and one of the nicest ones at that, but the fact remains that blue is easily the fourth most likely colour to come up when talking about the great Brazilian, so again I can't help but wonder why this watch is blue.

Surely a yellow and green Carrera (with blue highlights perhaps) was the obvious way to make this one stand out from the rest of the range, no?

*Ayrton's helmet is predominantly yellow, with a green stripe and a very small amount of very dark blue. As for the red, well Ayrton raced in red overalls for most of his F1 career when he partnered Alain Prost at McLaren. so that also kind of makes sense.

And then there's the price. Given the standard titanium Extreme Sports Tourbillon costs an impressive £22,800 you'd rightly imagine this Senna-branded, carbon bezeled model (which also has some chequered flag detailing on the dial if you look closely) would cost a good chunk more. And you'd be right. 

But £10,250 more? Remember there's no difference in the internals, this is the exact same movement as you find in the CBU5080 (the in house Calibre TH20-09). And this got me thinking.... how much more fun could I have on the TAG Heuer website with £33,050*?

I'd take a titanium Solargraph (£2800), a GMT Aquaracer (£3650), maybe a Carrera Extreme Sports Chronograph (£7150), a 'Sparks' Monaco (£9850)... and a gorgeous CBN2A12 Carrera Sports with a 128-stone diamond bezel (actually this one still isn't on the UK website, but it costs AUD$18,000 which is £9261, let's be generous and assume it will cost £9600 even though it will probably cost £12,000... if it ever arrives here 🤣). 

Total cost £33050! Which would you prefer?

*Apologies to our Japanese friends here, you only get £28,700 (5676000 Yen) to play with for some reason. 

But okay, look... as I've said before I'm just a poor boy from a poor family, so once again I feel the need to invoke the wise words of A Blog to Watch's 'Ariel Adams' and say 'If the price of a watch doesn't make sense to you then it's probably not aimed at you.'. I admit there's a lot of truth in that statement, because over a certain price point the price of a watch is less of an issue (nobody is really arguing over a grand or two on a thirty grand watch) but honestly on this particular occasion I struggle to see how the price of this watch makes sense to anyone. 

After all, this isn't some haute horlogerie piece which is completely set apart from the run of mill products on offer to us mere mortals, nor is it made of a precious metal, no this is literally a 50% branding tax and I for one don't get it. In fact the price would make more sense to me if TAG Heuer had actually recreated the original Senna watch, used solid gold for the end-links and bezel and limited it to say.... '30' pieces. 

But, what do I know? I'm sure no one who can actually afford to buy a watch like this reads my blog and if they did they probably wouldn't care what I thought. They'd probably say I just don't 'get it' and on that point I must agree. Because I don't.

You know what, I really don't have anything more to say about this watch (in fact I've completely rewritten this post three times because I felt I was being excessively harsh). It's getting a very generous 3 from me and I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up scoring sub 5/10 in the final reckoning. 

So, esteemed members of the Council, it's over to you... and oh boy, even if you don't usually read the comments it's definitely worth reading the first one!

3/10: "I completely agree in terms of what people think is uncomfortable about the price. At the time of the order reception this year, the price of this watch was announced as 3.5 million yen, but the list price was suddenly changed to over 5 million yen. This price hike was also the case for the watches commemorating Pan Americana, so all 10 orders from Japan at the order reception were cancelled because of the price. I also don't think this watch without precious metals is worth the price. In the first place, the 02T was developed as a tourbillon with high cost performance, so the unit price of the movement should be low. The watch is cool, but it comes with only one strap. This watch should come with a yellow and green strap and I want the strap to be interchangeable. I give this watch a score of 3 points considering the price."

6/10: "I wonder who might be the 'target audience' for such a watch? Somehow I feel it is not right to put a tourbillon into a dedicated sportswatch.... the colours are beautiful though."

1/10: "It just feels like they’re trying to cash in on Senna’s name at this point, but who is a big enough Senna fan to spend £33k on a watch that has no relation to anything worn by the great man."

6/10: "There are some cool details to this watch but I feel the colours could have been used in a different way to more emphasize the yellow in his helmet, maybe swapping the blue and yellow elements."

 

1/10: "Not only do I not get the ‘love fest’ TAG Heuer have with Senna, but this is such a tenuous link & cash cow. Just awful."

2/10: "Not for me,1. Not a Senna fan, 2. Too many colours, cluttered face, 3. Price, at 33k it needs to be a hunk of precious metal."

3.5/10: "I'm sorry to say, but this feels like a poser's watch. Who in their right mind would pay such a huge premium over the Ti or Gold Carrera Extreme Tourbillons just for Senna branding and colours? A poser, that's who. For most Senna fans, his yellow helmet is synonymous with the racing icon. Thus, the blue strap doesn't evoke Senna to me, it should've been yellow. Unless I'm thinking about Rothmans Williams, but then that just makes me sad. Similar to the Porsche Panamericana watch, the outrageous price negates the positives of this Senna edition. Two points deducted for the price and wrong coloured strap."

7/10: "IF I have a McLaren Senna, then this should be the watch to have 😉 (a big IF). Gone are the days where simple Senna fans can still buy a TAG Heuer Senna commemorative watch 😢."

5/10: "I get why they're using all the colours of the Brazilian flag but I think the way they executed it is a mess."

5/10: "Like it, nice colours. But usual issues for me with this model. Don't like the metal bit between the strap end links. Size. And price. Plus there are too many Senna watches now."

3/10: "No, too much ‘Playmobil’ for me."

5/10: "In Bixby Snyder’s words…”I’d buy that for a Dollar…”, but I wouldn’t for 37,900 of them! Not knocking the Carrera Extreme range and certainly not knocking Senna, but I can’t unsee the dollar sign on the subdial and definitely cannot overlook the cut out in the chapter ring, as that always looks terrible. Other than that, this is far from the worst model this year, Whilst we expect a premium on the Senna models, for obvious reasons, the excessive premium on this one means it loses more points than needed."

4/10: "Looks like a Swatch."

3/10: "It's a nice design and I like the new Extreme Carreras but I just can’t score it any higher due to the ridiculous price."

3/10: "Where to begin? The dial is way too busy and I don't like the blue 'integrated' strap and the price is just ridiculous. £10,000 for a skeleton Monaco is bad enough, this is an absolute joke."

4/10: "I really want to like this watch, the way they've used the Senna colour scheme and the case back is a nice touch. However, the Senna logo on the sub dial was pointed out to me that it looks like a dollar sign and once seen can't be unseen. But the big factor though is the ridiculous price! Why!? I'm sorry but it can't be justified."

5.5/10: "IMHO one of the weaker releases in this collection (but I’m no Senna-Fanboy)…"

3/10: "I appreciate the attention to detail, but there’s just too much going on with the dial... I’d say 3/10 for me. And how much?!?!?!"

9/10: "As a Senna fan, I like this LE more than the standard black dial Tourbillon from this Extreme Sport range, that for me is a 8.5/10… so this one is a 9/10 (and not more points because of the price 🤦🏻‍♂️). I also love the caseback… and it’s a properly numbered LE! 🥳It would be great if it had an additional yellow rubber strap (and even a green rubber strap), because at this price, they could include two or three rubber straps 🙄…  yellow is much more present in Senna’s helmet than blue or green. Dial would match any of the three rubber straps."

4/10: "A bit overblown, very overpriced, rubber straps just seem cheap, and does not remind me of Senna."

2.5/10: "I like the yellow, blue and green accents for Senna (they make sense), but still not a fan of these Carrera Extremes with tourbillon complication. The hands of the subdials are not great, and they make the Senna logo look like a dollar sign. Price is absurd (I say that a lot with TAG Heuer the last couple of years)."

7/10: "The intricate finishing on the skeleton was okay. but they will also charge crazy amount for that."

5/10: "Senna editions have never done it for me. I suspect the 500 pieces will sell primarily in Brazil, despite the high asking price."