I've always rather liked black mother of pearl dials, indeed I recall seeing a Calibre 16 Carrera with a black MOP dial at Bicester Village many years ago and being rather taken with it. But it always struck me as a dial for someone with a decent sized watch collection, because I don't think I'd want one if I only had a few watches. But each to their own of course, if you only have one watch and it's got a black MOP dial and you love it then more power to you! I do remember not that long ago a lovely black MOP dial Carrera appearing on the Watchfinder website, I must admit I was rather tempted but at the time I was saving for my Carrera 160 and I think the Carrera was 39mm not 41mm too, so I let it go.
For some reason TAG Heuer only seem to use black MOP dials (in men's watch sizes) for Japanese / Pacific Region releases, usually limited editions, which is a shame... but presumably they don't think they will sell here in Europe. And so once again we have these two new Japanese 'cherry blossom' inspired models, released in a limited run of 150 in the 39mm date only configuration and 200 for the 41mm day/date.
I'm honestly not a fan of the new three hand Carreras, in fact I've barely given them a second's thought since they were released, but these look quite nice. I get the idea with the pink second hand but from photos I'm betting it looks a bit plasticky (same can be said about the red hands on my Formula 1 honestly) so I would prefer a polished second hand personally... and while 39mm is a bit small for me, I do think the date only model looks the nicer of these two.
The 41mm day date is powered by the TH31-02 movement while the 39mm appears to have the older Calibre 7 movement inside - which is to be expected as TH hasn't yet updated the 39mm Carrera. Both watches are individually numbered on the outer rim of the display caseback and both watches also feature the text 'Japan Limited Edition'.
Okay, now these are out of the way we can focus on the watches TAG Heuer released at Watches & Wonders and the new pastel coloured F1 Solargraphs that are supposedly released at the Miami GP (but somehow already on the website). 🤣
For now it's over to the Council of Considered Opinion...
41MM 7/10, 39MM 6/10: 41MM "This actually looks quite nice. I'm not getting 'cherry blossom' vibes but definitely cherry! I like the negative day date and the pink second hand is the right shade of pink for the dial." 39MM "It's still a nice looking watch but just not as appealing as its bigger brother."
41MM 7/10, 39MM 6/10: "Weird that the dials look completely different colours in these pics and yet they're both black MOP?!"
41MM 8/10, 39MM 7.5/10: "I was hesitating to buy the watches limited to Japan this time because they had a special feeling after a long time, but I decided not to buy them."
41MM 3.5/10, 39MM 4/10: "I don’t like MOP on watches… so it’s 3.5/10 and 4/10 for me."
41MM 6/10, 39MM 5/10: "Better black MOP than the normal..."
41MM 8/10, 39MM 7/10: "I prefer the dial and chapter ring overall on the 41mm, but what’s with the hash mark under “automatic”? That just looks like a leftover artifact that was never meant to make it onto production dials."
41MM 7/10, 39MM 7/10: "7/10 for both, I like the elegance and restraint."
41MM 3/10, 39MM 5/10: "Not really a fan of mother of pearl, but this one is sufficiently different to be worthwhile. Would like to see real life pictures really, but based on these, I'd go 3/10 (41mm) and 5/10 (36mm)."
41MM 8/10, 39MM 8/10: "Black mother-of-pearl makes a nice dial, although those renders don't show much colour."
41MM 6.5/10, 39MM 6.5/10: "I'm a fan of Sakura and I quite like MOP dials too,these have a much darker dial finish than I might have expected though. I would have thought a pinker tone to match the blossom? Maybe I'm missing something! They look quite nice though and probably better in the metal than the renders. Nothing earth shattering but nice enough."
41MM 5/10, 39MM 5/10: "TAG churns out a MOP for Japan so often it's become boring." 🥱
41MM 6/10, 39MM 6/10: "Ok, classic Carrera 3 hander."
41MM 4/10, 39MM 4.5/10: "I prefer the real blossom." 🌸
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