When I first saw this, posted on the Calibre 11 forum the other day... I was somewhat bemused that someone had posted what seemed to be an obvious 'fake' Carrera. But then reading the accompanying post it quickly became clear that my initial judgement was wrong and that this was actually a genuine TAG Heuer, and not only that but a 'piece unique'... (in perhaps more ways than one).
TAG Heuer make a
lot of limited editions, but they don't make many unique pieces, so the owner of this one must be a very special customer or friend of the brand, and possibly of Mr Biver too. Y'see, back in 2017 Mr Biver posted a couple of pics on his Instagram page where he was standing in front of a Heuer branded Porsche 911. This fuelled some speculation on the Calibre 11 forum that the car was in fact Mr Biver's, but it seems that isn't the case.
Another picture showed Mr Biver, the car and 'Mr Biver's friend Carro', which while
inconclusive, is perhaps convincing enough for us to fairly assume that 'Carro' is the owner of both the car and this watch... and presumably we can also assume that the Instagram page '
Porsche_Private_Collection' which features the aforementioned Porsche belongs to him.
The unusual thing about the Heuer branding on the Porsche in question is that the car has red detailing on one side and blue on the other, hence the stripes on the watch dial. It's probably not to everyone's taste, but I don't mind it... it actually reminds me somewhat of the bizarre but fun B.A.R. Formula 1 cars from the late 1990s, albeit rather more tastefully executed of course!
So then let us assume that Mr Biver had the watch made for his friend 'Carro'... what intrigues me somewhat is the use of the Heuer logo on the dial of what is clearly a 'TAG Heuer' watch. Yes I know that sounds rather hypocritical, after all... I'm always bleating about how there is no discernible difference between the two brands and that people who maintain there is are kidding themselves, but... this crosses a line hitherto uncrossed. Yes, we have TAG Heuer branded Monacos and there have been TAG Heuer branded Monzas, and yes the new Autavia has the TAG Heuer logo on it, but that design is a wholly 'twenty-first century' design and as such it absolutely should be labelled TAG Heuer, not Heuer. But here, for the one and only time I can think of, we have a
modern 'TAG Heuer' piece, branded with the 'Heuer' logo.
Does it matter? No, not really... but it does mean that this Carrera is even more unique than first thought, and, I must admit, it's grown on me over the last couple of days. At first sight, and thinking it was an obvious fake, I dismissed it out of hand, but now, looking at it objectively, I actually think it's okay. The logo looks all kind of wrong, but that aside it's quite a novelty... and it's kinda funny that even though it's been branded 'Heuer' on the dial it still has the TAG Heuer logo on the bezel (and the rotor).
At the end of the day, it's one watch for one guy and I'm sure it's made him very happy, so really it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks... but I can think of at least one person on the Calibre 11 forum who will be utterly appalled by the use of the classic Heuer logo on a 'mutant' Carrera...
