ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Formula 1 'Red Bull' Limited Edition Quartz Chronograph

Berry's Jewellers / Nottingham, 12th November 2024

I recently spent a day in Nottingham and was very much looking forward to visiting the TAG Heuer boutique there. Last time I visited the town I had a nice chat with a guy called Brad and I got to try on a 160th Anniversary 'Montreal' Carrera that was still (rather unexpectedly) knocking about. I couldn't quite remember where the store was (Clumber Street it transpired) but when I eventually stumbled on its location it turned out that it had been closed down two months ago. 

I found this quite surprising at the time, but then again we know the watch market has softened considerably lately and so I guess when the lease comes up on these boutiques perhaps WOS/Goldsmiths have to think twice before recommitting to another long lease. I've always thought perhaps they got a bit carried away with all these single brand stores, was there really enough additional business to justify opening all these boutiques? 

Maybe a few here and there, but they seem to have been opening them willy-nilly over the last few years. I can see the logic of opening them in places like Meadowhall in Sheffield, a place with huge footfall, but I struggle to see the viability of opening one in Solihull (for example). I mean, yes there's probably lots of rich doctor types living nearby, but I'm sure they could have been served equally well by an AD.

Having already looked in the jewellers in the shopping centre and seen nothing exceptional to draw me in, I assumed that was the end of my chances of seeing the brand new 'Red Bull Formula 1'. But just a few steps further down the road I came to a jewellers called 'Berry's' which was clearly the place to be in Nottingham. Not only did they have a very decent quantity of TAG Heuer watches in the window, but they also stock Hublot, Patek Philippe and plenty more besides.

It was one of those jewellers, a bit like on Bond Street in London, where you're slightly hesitant to go in. But the gentleman who served me was very welcoming, if not completely au fait with the TAG Heuer range. It took him three goes to bring the right watch in out of the window, by which time I'd already gone outside to point it out. But never mind, we had a laugh about that.

Funnily enough, Berry's not only had the new 2024 RB in the window, but also the 2022 and 2020 versions! I wonder how long they've had the 2020 version? Maybe it's even one of the 'Aston Martin' backplate ones... I should have asked to check. 🤣 Regardless, it's gotta be a hard sell when they now have two newer versions sharing the same window. 

As for the new watch itself, well... I have mixed feelings about it. On the wrist it does look quite good, if slightly hard to read at a glance. But the thing that I found catching my eye the most was the aluminium bezel. I don't know whether it's the colour or what, but unfortunately it looks a bit 'off' and honestly in the modern 'ceramic bezel' era a bit out of place on a watch costing £2300. Which is a shame really because overall this isn't a bad effort: I gave it a 7 initially and I'll probably stick with that.  

I do like the red ring around the top pusher, that's a nice touch, but the Red Bull logo on the left hand side is just not a good bit of design; maybe a solid red stripe would have been a better choice? And while I can see that Red Bull fans probably want the green and red TAG Heuer logo as it is on Max and Checo's overalls, from a watch design point of view it might have been neater to go with a white outline logo instead.

I still think this is the second best 'Red Bull' Formula 1 we've seen though, and I believe that TAG Heuer are planning to continue their association with the team despite LVMH taking over as the main sponsor of the sport as a whole, so maybe this isn't the last model we'll see after all.