ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Carrera 'Gold Skipper' Calibre TH20-00 Chronograph

 

TAG Heuer Boutique / 28th September 2024, Meadowhall, Sheffield

While I've never been particularly enamoured of all those fusty old 'Heuer' watches that vintage enthusiasts get super excited about, even I have to admit that 2023's Carrera Skipper was an eye-catching release and easily the best of the modern 39mm 'Glassbox' range. So I was interested to see the watch housed in an 18k rose gold case - especially since on paper the gold should work wonderfully with the strong blue dial. Would it look super classy though? Or douchebaggy? After all, blue and gold is nice combination, but a tricky one to get just right, especially when there are other colours on the dial to consider.

Now honestly when I tried this on it was amongst a bunch of other watches that I was more interested in getting on my wrist, but even so I couldn't help but be disappointed. First of all, you probably had to look at the picture above twice to even realise that I was in fact wearing the gold Skipper and not the regular steel one, and even when you do notice the parts of the watch which actually catch the light just right so that they actually look gold... it really doesn't add anything. In fact, in my opinion it subtracts way more than it adds. 

I think the reason the dial on the Skipper works so well in the first place is that it really pops against the standard steel case and lugs, but here the gold acts as a distraction and makes the orange look misplaced. And then once I start looking at it with a critical eye of course all the things I didn't like about the latest glassbox Carreras start pushing themselves at me all over again.

It's quite surprising how much I am willing to overlook for a nice dial, but this gold version somehow manages to mess up the delicate balance and suddenly I'm hating it. I think I probably gave the Skipper a 6 last year and I think this one I'd struggle to give more than a '3'. It just looks wrong, and it's three times the price. It just makes no sense to me why anyone would buy this over the steel one.