DUEL: TAG Heuer Carrera Heuer 01 Skeleton Chronograph v Carrera Calibre 16 Titanium Chronograph

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Hello readers, hard to believe I know for one so soft of skin and lithe of body🤣, but today is in fact my 55th birthday! Yay. Cake!!! And so I thought perhaps I would take a break from all these incessant new release posts and instead do what I really like doing. So today I will be writing about two of my most luxurious watches; my original 2016 Heuer 01 Skeleton and the titanium cased Calibre 16 day date Carrera I got from the Bicester Village outlet for my 50th birthday.

Now this post has in fact been in the works since late 2021, I even had some text written and pictures taken... but as three years have passed (!) I decided it would be much better to just start from scratch. I even briefly pondered the idea of switching out the Calibre 16 Carrera for my recently purchased Grand Carrera Calibre 36 for a true 'Clash of the Titans' post... but on reflection I decided that perhaps comparing my long time 'favourite' watch with the watch I am currently 'infatuated' with was a bit unfair. I mean maybe in time the GC Caliper will emerge as my 'favourite' watch, but it's far too soon to be throwing claims like that around.

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Carrera Heuer 01 - 6 Year Review by Time & Crown

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre Heuer 02T 'Shanghai' Limited Edition Chronograph

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Tourbillons seem to be ten-a-penny in TAG Heuer world these days, maybe one day I should do a post about all the tourbillons that have come out since JCB introduced them about seven years ago? At first glance this one doesn't look particularly different or even particularly exciting, but here there's more than first meets the eye, and I'm not just talking about the pink and blue highlights on the hands and tourbillon.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre Heuer 02T 'Australian' Limited Edition Tourbillon Chronograph

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According to the TAG Heuer website the CAR5A8AK 'incorporates design elements that encapsulate the essence of Australia'. What they might be beyond the colour blue I'm not entirely sure, but it's slightly odd that this watch looks almost exactly like the CAR5A98.FC6471 'Nordic Edition' (save for the DLC coating) released a few years ago. I mean, I'm no expert on Sweden or Australia but they don't immediately strike me as obvious bedfellows. 

Leaving that slightly contentious claim aside, this (like the Nordic edition, oddly enough) is quite a nice looking Carrera, and reminds me slightly of the old Red Bull Heuer 01 Special Edition that I've considered on numerous occasions. The CAR5A8AK though is limited to just ten pieces, so a truly 'limited' Limited Edition (unlike the Nordic edition incidentally, which ran to a massive twenty pieces!). 🤣

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Carrera Heuer 02T 'Ginza Boutique' Limited Edition Chronograph by WatchBox Reviews

 

Wow. Cool watch, but I thought Tim would have realised that there were no end links and you shouldn't be able to see the ends of the strap like that... but apparently not!

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Carrera Tourbillon Watches by Swiss Watch Expo

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Carrera 'Dubai Skyline' Heuer 02T Limited Edition

 

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Last year's Dubai Boutique edition Carrera tourbillon was not a particular hit with the Council of Considered Opinion, scoring a rather lowly 4.9/10 in the end of year polling. This was most likely at least in part due to the slightly garish red a green colour scheme. This year however, TAG Heuer have toned it down a little (no really, go check out last year's HERE) and produced this limited edition of just twelve pieces.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Carrera Heuer 02T 'Chinese' Limited Edition Tourbillon

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A bit late to the party on this one, as this apparently came out back in April... but I only stumbled across it the other day while looking for pictures of another very limited Chinese edition (not yet written about but which also came out at the same time). These 45mm tourbillons are very Marmite it seems and since they've stayed pretty much the same since their release several years ago all we seem to get are various gaudy decorations in small quantities made to appeal to the Eastern markets. 

FEATURE: Why My 'Favourite' Watch Isn't My 'Best' Watch

 

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Allow me to draw a distinction between two of my watches; one of which I would consider my 'favourite' and one my 'best' watch. My favourite watch is, and probably always will be, my CAR2A1Z Carrera Heuer 01 Skeleton. This was the watch that really kicked off my watch collecting journey, not to mention this blog. I already owned two TAG Heuer watches before that, but it was not a hobby or a collection. The Heuer 01 changed that; as soon as I saw a photograph I wanted it - even though I didn't have a clue how much it was going to cost. After that it was all downhill as far as the bank balance was concerned, but on the upside think of all the joy my new found hobby brought me!

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Formula 1 'Mario Kart' Heuer 02T Limited Edition Chronograph by Thaipoopiest

 

ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Carrera Heuer 02T Chronograph

 

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TAG Heuer Boutique / Meadowhall, Sheffield 28th January 2023

It's not everyday one runs into a Heuer 02 Tourbillon Carrera and it's even less common to run into one with solid rose gold lugs that cost a staggering £1000 each! Indeed I was very lucky to see this one at all as this particular watch wasn't on 'general display' but was residing in the safe and awaiting collection by its lucky new owner. Needless to say I was extra, extra, extra careful handling it, especially as it wasn't wrapped in plastic (not that I am ever anything less than extremely careful when trying on watches you understand, wrapped or not)!

 

I always liked the old Heuer 01 with gold lugs, but at £7000 odd it was always a bit out of my price range, especially since I already had the original Heuer 01 skeleton. But still every so often I would come across one and lust after it for a while until the memory faded. I must admit I've never really felt the same about the Heuer 02 skeleton as I do about the Heuer 01, which is mainly due to the dial layout. I know a lot of people value symmetry, but to me the H02 layout always left a lot of awkward, empty space at the top of the dial and as you can see this CAR5A5U is no exception.

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 'Superdiver' 1000M Calibre TH30-00 Watch by Click Spring Reviews

 

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 'Superdiver' 1000M Watch by Doug FNJ

 

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 'Superdiver' 1000M by Black Tag Watches

 

ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 'Superdiver' 1000M Automatic Watch

 

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Steffans, Northampton, 25th October 2022

One of the most enduring pieces from the 1980s Heuer/TAG Heuer line-up is the 1000M Super Professional, with good pieces still fetching prices well in excess of £1000. The Super Professional eventually left the range around the turn of the century and was briefly replaced by the 500M Aquagraph and subsequently by all manner of 500M Aquaracers, but for the last twenty years if you had your heart set on a 1000M hardcore dive watch you'd have to look for a pre-owned Super Pro or look elsewhere - perish the thought!

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Carrera Heuer 01 'Aston Martin' Special Edition Chronograph by The Watch Village

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Carrera 'Polychrome' Dial Heuer 02T Limited Edition Chronograph

 

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Well if there's one thing that's certain, it's that TAG Heuer's releases are never 'boring'; you might not like them all, but there's no way anyone could predict everything they come out with and to be honest this was one of the things that first interested me about the company and one of the things that has kept me interested so long. I could never write a blog like this about Rolex, pretending to be excited about a 1mm change in case diameter and slightly thicker lugs.

And so now, at the tail end of 2022 we come to this rather surprising release, which is... yet another tourbillon! They seem to be spitting them out left right and centre nowadays, which surprises me somewhat given the £19,500 price tag, but I guess there's still a lot of wealthy people out there with plenty of cash for these sorts of watches. And in actual fact this particular piece is limited to 'just' 150pcs...

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Carrera 'Omotesando Boutique' Heuer 02 T Limited Edition

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To celebrate the re-opening of the Omotesando boutique in Japan, TAG Heuer have produced this limited edition Heuer 02 tourbillon with a coated titanium case and forged carbon lugs and bezel. It's somewhat reminiscent of the 'Mexico' model launched last year (one of which was personalized and presented to Red Bull Formula 1 driver Sergio Perez) but this time highlighted with red on the tourbillon and rear crystal.

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 1000M 'Superdiver' by Monochrome Watches

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Carrera Heuer 02 'Twin Time' Chronograph by The Watch Village