This year I've been fairly vocal about the fact that a lot of TAG Heuer's new releases are leaving me cold, but with the recent carbon Monaco and now this new ten piece limited edition for Shanghai I'd have to say things are looking up! Now, obviously both of these watches are out of my reach and it's also very unusual for me to find a tourbillon appealing, never mind an Extreme Sports Carrera... but it's nice to know that TAG Heuer can still excite me in unusual ways when they put their mind to it.
Now I get that this one is probably not going to be to everyone's taste, indeed when I was told that there was a new limited edition Extreme Sports Carrera that was red and blue (rather than red or blue) I imagined something fairly horrific. But that's because I (wrongly) assumed that the red and blue would be between the dial spokes like on the standard models. Thankfully the dial of this one has been kept black and grey and all the better for that, with the colours kept to a 'tasteful' band around the edge, the chrono second hand*, the crown and the tourbillon cage.
*I hope the second hand red matches the red around the dial otherwise it will be minus at least one point for me!
While the blue strap works wonderfully well with the blue/red chapter ring I assume one could also use the black/coated strap from the CBU2080.FT6272 to make this a bit less 'in your face' (should you wish to). Remember of course that the strap on these is not actually integrated (as it appears) and the parts between the strap ends that seem to be parts of the case are actually joined to the strap, so you would need a strap with coated ends to complete the look properly.
On the reverse we find a display case back decorated with the Shanghai skyline, much like we saw with the 'Dubai Skyline 'limited edition a couple of years ago, a nice touch. Apparently this came out way back in March and since there were only ten made I'd be surprised if there were any of these still available. But if you do find one expect to pay somewhere around the £32,000 mark. It's a lot, but it's sort of in line with all the TAG Heuer tourbillons now.
Okay let's see what the Council have to say about this one, I'm guessing the reviews might be a little mixed....
8/10: "I gotta tell ya... it feels a little like Roger Dubuis on a budget, which in this instance isn't necessarily a bad thing."
6/10: "Like the look of this, the metallicy blue is lovely with the red. Not sure it's a £31,000 watch though..."
6.5/10: "I prefer this to the new Twin Time one as the dial is much less 'busy'."
6/10: "I like the design but fed up of these crazy limited editions."
6.5/10: "Nice colouring."
4.5/10: "Nice colours but a 'complicated ' watch for me.."
5/10: "Slightly more legible than the other skeletons from TH but still just too much going on for me, and I like Breitling dials… so that’s saying a lot, lol. I’m going to rate this one at 5/10. Edit: it’s not even a skeleton dial. Yikes! What the hell is going on with this dial."
2/10: "Not for me, too busy and multiple colours distracting."
3/10: "The price is about the same as last year's Senna Carrera Extreme Tourbillon, which was too extreme for my taste and wallet. This one adds black DLC but it's not a Senna and I have no particular affinity for Shanghai. I rated the Senna a 3.5, I'll give this Shanghai a 3/10."
6/10: "Too rare, too big and too cheap with that rubber strap (again)."
8.5/10: "Was gonna be an 8, but gets a bonus 0.5 for being a “Shaghai” special edition."
8/10: "10 pcs? Quite rare."
5/10: "Nicer colour scheme than the green twin time, and a bit easier to read. I'm sure it's a lovely watch, but a bit too big and showy for me."
7/10: "One more point than to the green twin-time version: easier to read, and with the colours of my favourite football team… it is for me the 'Barça Limited Edition' 😉"
7/10: "A solid high end Carrera LE. Nice color combination, too."
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