FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Carrera Astronomer Calibre 7 Limited Editions

Sure enough, and just as I predicted, the Carrera 'Astronomer' sent to the GPHG for appraisal wasn't a stand alone model and so now we have two more 'Astronomers' to add to the 2025 'Council of Considered Opinion: Watch of the Year' entry list. Unlike the initial piece though these two are limited editions (both made in runs of 500), but with one of them carrying quite a hefty price premium over the other... well, they don't call 'em precious metals for nothing you know!

First up we have the more affordable of the two, which is 'Inspired by TAG Heuer’s role in John Glenn’s historic Friendship 7 mission in 1962...' and which '...celebrates the brand’s pioneering spirit in space exploration'. This one most notably features Superluminova on the 'moons' and a grey leather strap. I must admit initially I wasn't too keen on this one but the more I've seen it (and the more real life photos I've come across) the more it's started to grow on me. 

The lumed moons may be gimmicky, I mean come on... but who doesn't love some crazy lume on their watch? Do you know how often I shine a torch on my carbon Solargraph? Honestly, it's embarrassing.... hahaha. Grey leather I'm not so sure about, in fact I can't help wishing they'd given this the full blackout treatment and then those moons would really shine. But okay, this is more of a stylish proposition I guess... and who knows, maybe they have that in mind for the future? 

Secondly we have this two tone version, which is quite nice, but again with the pricing.... it's just not viable is it, this tiny bit of gold with a £1700 premium? Okay it's not as obscene as the £3500 bracelet we saw on the Day/Date Carreras recently but it's still pretty hard to justify. A shame really as it looks quite nice, but at the same time it also looks like they 'forgot' to put the gold on the other two mid links and that really isn't a great look.

Actually the gold details on the dial look nice too, and they really seem to bring out the finer points and give the dial a bit more depth somehow, which is always good. I just can't help feeling that they should have either given it a gold crown and left the bracelet as plain steel, or bitten the bullet and done the three mid links and priced it at £8500. I mean there's only 500 to shift after all... 😂

Okay, well once again it's time to turn these over to the Council, lets find out if these are a hit or a miss with them...

Gold 5/10, Grey 7/10: "I find it unacceptable that only the centre of the two-tone bracelet is gold. I prefer the Grey one. Having seen the actual item, I thought this one was elegant and something I'd like to buy."

Gold 8/10, Grey 5.5/10: "I like the silver grey and green combination but the astronomer circle bit is too prominent and the cheap-looking strap brings it down to a 5.5. I much prefer the design on the silver / rose gold model and my score for that is 8."

Gold 3.5/10, Grey 5/10: "Lumed Astronomer; 5/10. The lume adds a nice aesthetic touch to this watch and makes a lot of sense. Two tone Astronomer; 3.5/10 It's ok but for the price difference it's just not worth it for the small amount of gold."

Gold 3/10, Grey 3/10: "TAG returns again to avant garde, innovative use of a cheap Sellita movement for twice the price of the many microbrands using the same thing. Seriously, just google SW288 and see."

Gold 6.5/10, Grey 6.5/10: "The Sellita comment made me regret my pre-order. So I switched and used the funds towards something else."

Gold 7.5/10, Grey 7.5/10: "Two tone doesn’t seem to do more for the watch to me, I do like the lume on the grey one."

Gold 5/10, Grey 3/10: "The two tone has something. Can think of nicer looking watches for the money though."

Gold 3/10, Grey 2/10: "That's generous for these shitters."

Gold 6/10, Grey 6/10: "They're both equally nice to me for different reasons. I'll give them all a 6/10, same score I gave the silver Astronomer. The Astronomer is a nice watch, but I prefer the clean & classic look of the standard Carrera. While the moon phase sub-dial might be a cool novelty, for me it just detracts and distracts from the overall look of the watch."

Gold 7/10, Grey 7/10: "The two-tone I like. Maybe better with a brown leather strap. The grey one looks interesting for me as well. Lume is cool! Need to see this in person."

Gold 7/10, Grey 9/10: "I’ve seen it in person and it’s gorgeous, it's just a disappointment that it's a limited edition. I'm not so keen on the gold version." 

Gold 7/10, Grey 7/10: "The colour variants are nice, but still have the same complaint about the crowded lunar subdial. Also a bit disappointed, but not surprised, that a such small amount of gold causes such a large increase in price."

Gold 5/10, Grey 7/10: "I gave 6.5/10 to the first one, so it’s a 7/10 for the grey (which is my favourite Astronomer version), and 5/10 for the two tone."

Gold 6/10, Grey 8/10: "The lume on the moons is nice. Two tone, mmmh..."

Gold 6/10, Grey 6.5/10: "Mmmm, 6/10 for the two tone and 6.5\10 for the white face due to maybe good lume for night use, not joining a queue to buy though. My desk diary tells the moon phase without spending that money."

Gold 6/10, Grey 8.5: "I’m not sure about that tone of rose gold, but I absolutely love the grey with that tone of green lume."

VIDEO: The Watch that Saved Heuer by Vintage Watch Service

ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Monaco Limited Edition, Carrera Extreme Sports Chronograph & Aquaracer 'Beaverbrooks Exclusive' Solargraph

 

Beaverbrooks / Meadowhall, Sheffield 6th September 2025

TAG Heuer Boutique / Meadowhall, Sheffield, 6th September 2025

Well my last 'On the Wrist' post was a bit negative wasn't it? So let's redress the balance slightly with this one, which also focuses on watches I tried out on the same day in Sheffield.

First of all, my wife and I visited Beaverbrooks where she was eager to see the new 'Beaverbrooks Exclusive' Aquaracer in... turquoise (or Tiffany blue, if you prefer) and since I've already made my reservations about the new 34mm Aquaracers clear (mainly the ugly-ass bezel!) I decided to keep my mouth well and truly shut and let her make up her own mind. 

Well she certainly liked the colour (although it wasn't quite as striking as she'd hoped), we know she likes diamond hour markers, the bezel didn't seem to be an issue for her and she loves the idea of a 15 year battery (and speaking as the person who ends up changing all her batteries for her, so do I!) but in the end she concluded that £2700 was a lot of money that could buy her something more exciting from Watchfinder. 

I have to say I agree. I couldn't bring myself to pay £2500 for the original carbon Solargraph either and I eventually picked it up (mint) for £1650 or something (current price, £3000!). There's no guarantee this one will ever reach WF of course, but if it does I imagine it won't be much over £2000. Besides, how many Aquaracers does a woman really need?

I realise that's a bit rich coming from me, but my wife isn't a brand whore like me so she has the whole world of Swiss watches to choose from... she already has Oris, Omega and Cartier in her collection and as much as pains me to admit it, all three of them are beautiful watches.

So ultimately it was a 'no' and I wandered off to the best TAG Heuer boutique in the UK, while she went and did whatever women do while men look at watches, hahaha.

I've already covered the F1 Solargraphs I looked at, but I also tried on a couple more pieces while I was there. First I noticed a couple of Carrera Extreme Sports models sitting in the cabinet that I'd never seen before (and indeed aren't on the TAG Heuer website, and which are proving very elusive to find anything out about!) and I tried one of those on.

Like so many watches this year, these aren't exactly 'new' models, but rather existing watches that have been put onto bracelets. So far I've only seen the red and the blue versions, but I heard through the grapevine that there is a limited edition Red/Blue dial model made for Shanghai (I'm trying to get a picture of that for you).

From a visual standpoint it completely changes the aesthetic of the watch, and I'm not sure if it's an improvement or not. On the one hand the red rubber strap really works with the red accents on the dial, but on the other hand, I like the idea that you could order the strap as an option and still have the bracelet in your watch box.... plus that red rubber strap is a helluva statement and maybe sometimes it would be nice to be able to tone it down a little bit.

The bracelet is made of titanium and while that's nothing new really, with these watches looking so chunky and hefty it's a real surprise when you pick them up and realise how light they actually are. If you've tried on the titanium Aquaracer Solargraph you've probably experienced something similar but the effect is definitely a lot more pronounced here.

Actually, I'm trying to think of where this bracelet has come from, but I can't so I'm assuming it's a brand new bracelet. Perhaps when the part number turns up all will become clear?

My final pick for this visit was the Monaco Calibre 11 'Heuer Stopwatch' Limited Edition released back at the Monaco GP. This was far and away the nicest thing I tried on this visit, despite me not really being a massive fan of the Calibre 11 movement, or more precisely the left hand crown...

This one though is certainly among the best of them, looking very stylish indeed and surely appealing to the Monaco purists with it's 'Heuer' branding and historical back story. I still think I would go for the Heuer 02 powered 'Dark Lord' over this one. but perhaps not by much. And I have to say my photograph doesn't really do it justice, it looks a lot better than that in real life.

Unfortunately there was no sign of the white Gulf Monaco released at the same time, apparently the Sheffield boutique had two of them but both sold very quickly, so I still haven't seen that one. Which is a shame as it's a contender for my WOTY vote, and I would like to see one before I make up my mind for sure.

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 300 by Random Rob

ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Carrera 'Senna' LE Tourbillon & F1 Solargraphs

 

6th September 2025 / TAG Heuer Boutique, Meadowhall, Sheffield

6th Septermber 2025 / Beaverbrooks, Meadowhall, Sheffield

Last November TAG Heuer released the long awaited 'special' Senna watch... the one that Julien Tornare spoke about in that interview with Wei Koh of Revolution Watches... the one that made us think that maybe TAG Heuer were actually about to do something crazy like a new S/EL. Oh how silly did we feel when that proved to be completely wide of the mark?

But our embarrassment turned to shock when we saw the price of this new (not limited) Senna tourbillon, priced as it was with a £12,000 premium over the rest of the range. Of course this was before 'The Great Tourbillon Repositioning' where TAG Heuer decided to increase the prices of all their tourbillon watches by about £10,000 overnight... (oh yes they did).

The logic seemingly being that they weren't selling at £20k so maybe they will sell at £30k. And that's not me being sarcastic, that's literally how the luxury industry operates - make a product more expensive and it appears more exclusive and thus more desirable. I know, crazy, right? But that's literally how it works sometimes... and anyway, any bragging rights TAG Heuer once enjoyed for selling the 'cheapest' Swiss made tourbillon have long since lost their impact, so why not?

Anyway, I must admit I was quite surprised to see the Senna Tourbillon in the Sheffield boutique today and I can't help but feel like I should have been more excited to see it. But honestly I was kinda like, oh look... there's the Senna Tourbillon.... have I seen that before? I can't really remember. 

So I tried it on and, honestly... it didn't do a lot for me. Admittedly I am not the target market as I am not the world's biggest Senna fan and also £33k is way out of my comfort zone. But I've tried on watches way more expensive than this before, so price alone is not a barrier to desire and I don't dislike Senna (I own a Senna Formula 1 quartz after all), so why was I so blasé about it?

When this one came out one of my key criticisms was the choice of blue as the main colour, after all Ayrton was famously Brazilian and while there was a stripe of (very dark) blue around the back of his racing helmet, primarily the colours you most associate him with are green and yellow. But fair enough, I imagine in the development stage TAG Heuer probably tried different colours and decided that blue was a safer bet - no point alienating customers with a garish colour scheme after all. But would it have killed them to include a green or yellow alternate strap?

To be fair, the green and yellow details stand out nicely against the blue base, and despite the 44mm case size the watch wears very well on the wrist. I just can't help feel I should have been way more excited to have it on my wrist, than I actually was.

While I was in the boutique I also spotted the new titanium bracelet shod Formula 1 chronographs, but for some reason I ended up trying on the 'Silverstone' F1 Solargraph, which only really confirmed my suspicion that the green on the bezel and the green on the dial are just miles apart shade-wise and not even the same tone of green. It seems pretty slapdash on a watch at this price point and I'm still not sold on the new cases or the dials, or the hands... or the bracelets.

Apparently they had a couple of the limited edition Monza F1 (the Chrsitmassy red and green one) out the back that were waiting for their new owners to come and fetch them, but I didn't ask to see them. I used to own the original red/green F1 and it was my least favourite of the lot, so I wasn't holding out much hope for the re-issue honestly.

Earlier in the day I did get to try on the newly released 'Monza' Formula 1 and I must admit that was much better. The dial problems remain, but the strap was really nice and the case looks better in red resin that it ever will in stainless steel, in fact it's probably my favourite of all the models they've released so far. 

I'm still pinning my hopes on the yellow/black model being the pick of the bunch, but I now have zero interest in adding any of them to my collection honestly. They just feel a bit 'wrong' to me, like a poorly executed homage, even if the quality is a vast improvement over the originals (as it should be for £1600!).

Hmmmmmm. Apologies to all those people snapping these up and posting them in the THF Forum, it's just my opinion after all... 

Okay, before I go I just wanted to let you know that I have started work on the History of the 1000 Series now. A few people have asked me when I was going to do it, so I've finally put the wheels in motion... and as I suspected delving back into the Heuer catalogues from the early 80s was a bit of a joke, with the 1984 catalogue in particular muddying the waters considerably, to the point where I have to make some executive decisions about what I want to include and what plainly isn't a 1000 Series as we know it.

I've found about seventy watches in all, so it will probably take a little while before it's finished... but at least I've started it now.

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Carbon Monaco and Carrera Tourbillon by Revolution Watches

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Carrera 'Astronomer' Calibre 7 Watch

 

I've often wondered when, or indeed 'if' TAG Heuer would ever get around to making a watch with a 'moonphase' complication... after all, moonphases tend to be reserved for the kind of watches that have blued hands, white guilloche dials and Roman numerals - which is clearly not TAG Heuer's bag. But with the release of the Seafarer last year we were told it was a variation on the moonphase complication, so you might have expected a new moonphase to come in the shape of a modified calibre TH20-00, but it seems that isn't what this is. According to the GPHG website the movement is a Calibre 7 (so Selitta) which seems a bit odd, to submit a watch to GPHG without an in-house movement (unless this is one of those 'designed with Selitta, but not actually in-house so no 5 year warranty watches, maybe?). 

As far as I know this watch doesn't actually come out for a few weeks yet and normally I wouldn't post about a watch before it's released, but this one has been submitted to GPHG for appraisal so effectively it's 'out there' and fair game. You might remember this happened last year too with the Carrera Skeleton Extreme, and like that one I have a feeling this might not be a single watch release so it will be interesting to see what comes along.

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Formula 1 Solargraph by Brent Miller Time