Way back in 2021 our good friend Jim Dollares wrote a post for this blog celebrating five years of Red Bull and TAG Heuer's collaboration. I can't believe it's that long ago already... and of course in the meantime there's been several more watches, so maybe that post needs an update Jim?
Now, with Max Verstappen on the cusp of his fourth consecutive World Driver's Championship, it's time for the latest addition to this little collection (I wonder if anyone actually owns them all, that would be a cool set) and once again it's a 43mm Formula 1 quartz chronograph.
Now I'm not going to lie, I've always thought the TAG Heuer x Red Bull (as we now seem to be calling everything) watches peaked with the very first release. Sure the Heuer 01 skeleton on the blue strap was nice, but as far as an accessible, good looking, (and crucially) affordable offering goes you really couldn't beat the CAZ1018.
I mean yes, perhaps it was just a pre-designed blue and white watch that TAG Heuer slapped a Red Bull caseback on (I mean I can't explain how else they 'designed' that watch from looking at a Red Bull F1 car...) but in a way that worked in its favour. Because this was a great looking watch regardless of the 'Red Bull' connection, and if you weren't actually a Red Bull fanboi you could still wear it and almost no one would know. Kind of a weird way of looking at it maybe, but still...
CAZ1018 - The very first TAG Heuer x Red Bull timepiece
Its replacement, 2020's CAZ101AB* was by contrast a bit of a let down. While it definitely took more direct inspiration from the Red Bull Racing Team's colour scheme the overall effect was oddly underwhelming and only really served to emphasize the point that I really should have bought the CAZ1018 while it was still easily available.
2022's CAZ101AL was definitely an improvement in every area and debuted with the latest Formula 1 rubber strap (which I rather like), but while the dial was definitely more vibrant and exciting it was also crowded with unnecessary crap (grid slots at the bottom of the dial, I'm looking at you!) and generally felt a bit... haphazard.
*The CAZ101AB featured a Red Bull Aston Martin Racing backplate, which had to be changed when Lawrence Stroll started the Aston Martin team, hence the CAZ101AB became the CAZ101AK complete with a new Aston Martin free backplate.
CAZ101AL - The 2022 version of the TAG Heuer x Red Bull
So now it's 2024, and it's time for another TAG Heuer x Red Bull. This time limited to 3000 pieces, which could potentially indicate that time is running out for TAG Heuer's collaboration with the Red Bull team. As we know, LVMH are spending a small fortune to take over from Rolex as the headline sponsor of Formula 1, so does it really make sense to keep pumping millions into Red Bull as well when every circuit will have TAG Heuer banners everywhere?
Who knows. Maybe I'm adding 2 and 2 and getting 5, but it seems a bit OTT - unless of course LVMH are going to use F1 to promote brands like Zenith, Hublot and Bvlgari in which case maybe TAG Heuer do continue to work with Red Bull?
I guess we'll find out in due course, but for now what of this new quartz chronograph? Well, at first glance I thought it was quite cool, and I still think it's quite cool... but I'm confused as all heck because if there's one thing you can rely on when it comes to TAG Heuer it's that their renders are awful. How many renders have we seen that look dreadful and then you see the real thing at it looks a million times better? I mean have you seen the render for the original Solargraph? That is a truly baaad representation of a stunning watch!
But here, the render looks better than the photos I've seen. How can this be? This makes zero sense and if it proves to be the case then we are going to have to reserve judgement on everything until we've seen it in real life!
Regardless of that we can say the colours are the closest yet to accurately representing the Red Bull Racing Team's actual colour scheme. It's still not 'perfect', but it's a hell of a lot closer than any of the watches they've done so far, so that's positive. The decision to put the 'Red Bull' logo on the dial is fine, but the way they've done it... it's not great is it? It's bad enough having a 'stripe' down the dial that's interrupted by numerals and a subdial, but this is a bit of a mess.
I'm also somewhat put off by the hour markers, which look a bit cheap compared to the previous model and of course we still have those grid markers at the bottom of dial, which.... ugh. I just don't like. Same goes for 'SPEED' on the bezel, which is just lame. And while in theory I like the idea of the asphalt dial, those who have seen it in person say it just doesn't look as good as on previous watches.
But despite that, I'm still strangely enthused... and I really hope that when I do see it I feel like I want to buy one. Because I would like one Red Bull TAG Heuer in my collection, and while of course a pre-owned CAZ1018 is always an option, I would have to get it from Watchfinder or somewhere I trust because we know there are fakes out there.
With 3000 pieces available I don't really feel like this is going to be hard to come by, but there's also the slight hurdle of the price... at £2350 for a quartz chronograph this is really pushing the limits of what is acceptable. Sure it's DLC coated, but it's also on a rubber strap. I don't know, I feel like it should have been a touch closer to £2000, but at the end of the day there's a lot of Max Verstappen fans out there who will probably snap these up, especially in Holland, so it's probably priced accordingly.
Okay, let's turn this one over to the Council of Considered Opinion (some of whom definitely aren't Max Verstappen fans) and see what they have to say about it...
5/10: "I’m on the fence with this one. I love the F1 range, and I love a good quartz chrono, but I’m not a fan of the text on the dial. I’m also not a fan of PVD cases."
8.5/10: "Same score that I gave the Max/RB World Champions F1. If I had the chance to buy one or the other, I'd be hard pressed to choose. Regardless, I really like the look of this latest one, despite not being a huge fan of Max."
7/10: "Looks like fun."
5/10: "I like it much more than previous 2022 version (CAZ101AL), but still a very busy dial, a very high price for a quartz F1… and of course Red Bull is not my favourite team 😉, so it’s just a 5/10 for me (I gave 3/10 to the CAZ101AL on rubber strap, a clear improvement)."
8/10: "Looks pretty cool, this ties into the car and team well 👍🏼"
5/10: "Lose the Red Bull logo on the dial and then this would be a nice option."
3/10: "I saw this watch in person and the look of the dial was shiny and printed. I would have bought this watch if it had an image of asphalt like the limited edition of Indy. It's a very disappointing point. Even though the price of the watch is gradually increasing, the quality is decreasing, so I have to lower the rating of this watch."
7.5/10: "Pretty good, do the red figures on the left say anything?"
7/10: "This watch should match your favourite Red Bull Team Shirt 😉"
6/10: "I can't get behind these. Way too busy."
1/10: "Cluttered. Dizzying. Red Bull text hard to read. Speed on the bezel (again) is dumb. A generous score, too. Sorry guys."
6/10: "The dial is crowded, the 'Red Bull' stripe gets lost in the background and the hands blend in with the dial so they are hard to read."
8/10: "Seems Verstappen did a perfect race today in Sao Paulo to give this watch its glory."
3.5/10: "A big no-no from me 😕"
7/10: "One of the best RB editions to date."
6/10: "Don’t like SPEED on the bezel. Don’t like the grid lines, if that is what the are on the subdial at 6. Do like what they’ve tried to do with the Red Bull text, but it’s difficult to read if you’re not aware of what it says. Do like the PVD case and the blue rubber strap. Overall I do like the renders, although actual wrist shots appear to look worse strangely."
3/10: "With the red text: 3/10 Without the red text: 6/10."
6/10: "Not a fan of Red Bull but it's a decent watch."
7/10: "I like it but if your going to put Red Bull on the dial make it properly legible!!"
5.5/10: "I like the asphalt effect on the dial but overall it is too crowded (would be far better without the subdials in my opinion) with the result that the Red Bull logo can barely be seen."
7.5/10: " Wasn't too sure about this when I first saw it, mainly due the the red bull branding on the dial. However it's really grown on me. It really does speak red bull racing in a good way. The dial and bezel are a lovely shade of deep blue and the strap looks great too, not to mention the great lume hour markers.. I really do think this is the best one yet!"
FURTHER READING:
Five Years of TAG Heuer and Red Bull by Jim Dollares:
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