NEW RELEASES: TAG Heuer Aquaracer LE, Carrera Extreme and the New Balance Collaboration

 

There's been a flurry of new releases of late, some of which the Council of Considered Opinion are currently mulling over... however there are also some which aren't really 'C.O.C.O.' worthy, but which are still worth bringing to your attention... and so I hit on the idea of combining them into a 'New Releases' post.

So the first thing I want to talk about today is the collaboration with New Balance that launched a few days ago. These are pretty cool looking trainers, but my personal experience of ordering New Balance online was that they were way smaller and way narrower than expected, which was a shame because I did find some really cool designs but unfortunately I was a bit late to the party and they didn't have them in bigger sizes for me to reorder. 

ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 200 Professional 'Solid Gold' Calibre TH31-00 Watch

 

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TAG Heuer Boutique / Sheffield, November 2023

One of the least reported surprises of last year in TAG Heuer land must surely have been the introduction of not one but two solid gold cased Aquaracers. This is the first time TAG Heuer have ever produced a full gold Aquaracer, with the material recently only used for special pieces in the Carrera range (there have been various solid gold pieces in the past including Monacos, Monzas, 6000 Series and 2000 Series).  

Why has there never been a solid gold Aquaracer before? It's a good question isn't it... with no satisfactory answer. Perhaps because most people would balk at paying £16,000 for a solid gold TAG Heuer that isn't a Carrera or Monaco... and yet here we are, finally, with an almost solid gold 40mm Aquaracer. I say 'almost' because clearly that black coated crown isn't solid gold and that's my first and actually main issue with this watch. I just don't get it. Clearly a solid gold watch should have a matching solid gold crown, it's a no brainer - so why on Earth did TAG Heuer decide to give these solid gold pieces black crowns?

Okay it's not so bad on the black dial version (which comes on a black rubber strap of course), but here it looks silly, mismatched and dare I say cheap. If they didn't want to use gold for the crown for some reason, then why not a blue coating or ceramic? At least then it would match...

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Carrera 'Year of the Dragon' Heuer 02 Chronographs

 

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At the tail end of 2019 TAG Heuer surprised us all with their 'Year of the Rat' bronze cased Autavia. Surprised us because a) it was the first 'Year of the ...' the company had ever produced (as far as I'm aware) and b) because the backplate had a rather amusing rat-racing driver motif on it! Now I'm not sure if there ever was a 'Year of the Ox' piece planned for 2021, I always assumed the Ox was a hard sell (being neither cute, cool, comic or particularly endearing), and with China in lockdown for a lot of that year I guess if there was an Ox-watch then presumably TAG Heuer took the decision to abandon it.

We then got the 'Year of the Tiger' Carrera for 2022 (well the Calibre 5 version, the chronograph turned up half way through 2023 for some reason) and the 'Year of the Rabbit' H02 Carrera for 2023 (complete with peculiar fur-flecked dial), so now it's the turn of the mighty dragon. Now to me the dragon should be a no-brainer, it's what us Westeners think of when we think of Asia, so you'd kind of imagine there would be some kind of dragon on the dial of these new 42mm Carreras.

ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Carrera Heuer 02 'Porsche Gold' Limited Edition Chronograph

 
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TAG Heuer Boutique, Sheffield, 12th November 2022

It's always a pleasure to visit Meadowhall's splendid TAG Heuer boutique, but in all honesty I wasn't really expecting to find much in the way of 'new stock' to look at. After all, it's not that long since I visited the Milton Keynes boutique and tried on the new F1s; but I was (perhaps naively) hopeful of finding a Solargraph in store (which turned out to be a non starter without a deposit). 

However it transpired that not one but two unexpected watches were lurking in the cabinets - well I say lurking; as usual one of them was right at the front of the store and I had walked straight past it on my way in! 

The first was the 'Year of the Rabbit' Carrera which I posted about a few days ago and the second was the red/gold limited edition 'Porsche Carrera', something I didn't honestly think I would ever see, and certainly not north of the Oxford Street boutique!

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Carrera Heuer 02 Gold Chronograph

 

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A slightly perturbing release this one, and as you will read in the C.O.C.O. comments below there is some considerable confusion about whether this is intended to be a JH90 (to celebrate Jack Heuer's 90th birthday) or not. Unlike the JH88 released in 2020, this has no reference to Jack, no engraving on the back or signature on the back of the strap, indeed this isn't even a limited edition! And while TAG Heuer have issued photos of Jack wearing the watch, and declared the piece 'crafted to celebrate our honorary chairman', truth be told he doesn't look overly enthusiastic about it...