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.

VIDEO: TAG Heuer 1500 Series by Joseph Cooper Watch Repair

FEATURE: Finally the Orange Dial Formula 1 Becomes the Watch I Always Knew It Could Have Been

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As a rule I'm not one for messing about with watch straps. I know a lot of people derive a great deal of pleasure from switching them out and spending lots of money on the finest Italian products, but to me it's almost impossible to bring to mind any watch that looks better on anything other than its original strap. So when I bought my orange dial Formula 1 a couple of years ago it was a source of great irritation that the very cool 'looking' nylon strap was not only massively uncomfortable but also handicapped by two huge, shiny and very sharp strap retainers!

I tried, I really did. But the nylon strap really irritated my wrist and I needed an alternative; so I did what any sensible person would do, I looked at which other straps were available for the 43mm Formula 1 range. I believe I asked at the time if the BA0842 bracelet would fit and no one could tell me for sure, so instead I plumped for the perforated rubber strap found on several current and recent quartz and automatic Formula 1s and which I had tried previously on the black PVD Calibre 5 Formula 1.

VIDEO: TAG Heuer 1000 Series - 34 Year Review by House & Car Hacks

 

ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre 7 Watch

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TAG Heuer Boutique / Oxford Street, London, 28th October 2023

One subject that is guaranteed to get watch enthusiasts talking / arguing / nodding their heads sagely is watch diameters... you can barely a visit a watch forum without someone saying 'this is too big' or 'this is too small'. Actually it's usually the former, but with the release of the supposedly 'unisex' 36mm Carreras we're heard a little more of the latter, because honestly a pink 36mm Carrera looks kinda ridiculous on most men of any size.

And of course, watch sizes are not an end in and of themselves, there's a lot more to it than that. Case thickness also plays a huge part, as does design. For example, I thought this watch would look colossal on my wife's wrist; the biggest watch in her collection is a 32mm Aquaracer and when she tried on one of my 35mm plastic F1s she said that was too big too. So I was expecting her to like it, but to dismiss it on the grounds of it looking too big. Especially as she doesn't seem to like the 'oversize' look that some ladies go for. 

VIDEO: You're Wrong About TAG Heuer, TAG Heuer is Great by This Watch, That Watch

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 'Blue Dial' Quartz Chronograph

 

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When TAG Heuer released their 40mm quartz chronograph Aquaracers at the start of this year they made the curious decision to release it in black, silver... and a slightly effeminate metallic pale blue. I'm not quite sure why they did that, but it was a no brainer that eventually they would release it in a darker blue and sure enough here it is (as usual, sneaking onto the website without a word). 

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 'Solargraph' Solar Quartz Watch by Brent Miller Time

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 'Watches of Switzerland' Calibre 9 Limited Edition Watches

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Earlier in the year TAG Heuer & Watches of Switzerland released what is almost certainly the coolest Aquaracer of 2023, the titanium Calibre 5 WBP208D.BF0631. But not content with just one exclusive model this year, they've only gone and done it again... with not one but two new ladies automatics!

Now, let's not get too excited, after all these are basically the same old 30mm Aquaracers with different dials; but still it's nice to see the ladies getting a limited edition for a change. However, it seems that (as usual) the renders promise one thing but the reality is quite different...

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Carrera 'Solid Gold' Glassbox Calibre TH20-00 Chronograph

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Heuer Monaco 'SKP/China' Calibre 11 Limited Edition

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If you're thinking this Monaco looks kinda familiar, then you're not wrong. Back around 2016-2018 when I was a (very) regular visitor to the TAG Heuer outlets at Bicester Village and Cheshire Oaks you could barely escape without seeing a Monaco CAW211C; but of course they've long since gone and so it was rather a surprise to see these pop up again with a slightly different part number and as a limited edition of 23 for the Chinese market (and only available from three 'SKP' stores).

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 'Solargraph' by Chisolm Hunter

 

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. 

VIDEO: Heuer 501.213 Stopwatch by Birth Year Watches

 

FEATURE: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 'Green Dial' Calibre 5, Six Months Down the Line

 

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After three solid years of frantic watch collecting, it's still something of a shock to me that in 2023 I have only bought but one solitary watch. One. Uno. Unbelievable! For a moment I thought I'd bought two, but it turns out that I bought my SLR Calibre S Laptimer in November 2022... so no, it's just one. At the same time, my collection has halved to 'just' 31 pieces, which I know is still a stupidly large number, and yet it looks kinda small compared to what it was. Which it is... 

As I've said several times on the blog this year, things started to change last year when I picked up my utterly gorgeous Grand Carreras, the Japanese limited edition blue dial Calibre 6 and the black dial Calibre 17 chronograph. These watches showed me the difference between good watches and great watches, and in the process turned me right off collecting plastic quartz watches from the 80s. Which was a shame as at the time I already had 16 of them. Oh yes.

VIDEO: TAG Heuer 2000 Series Automatic Chronograph by Kirby Young

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Carrera 'Peach' and 'Hammered Silver Dial' Automatic Watches

 

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Are we still going to pretend these 36mm Carreras are unisex? We are? Okay then...

Many years ago my wife and I were lucky enough to see an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak in Selfridges that had a hammered finish. It looked nothing short of spectacular and my wife loved it. Unfortunately it cost about four times her yearly salary and as such was completely out of the question. But now, finally, TAG Heuer have (partially) embraced the look with this new 36mm hammered dial Carrera. And while I haven't seen one (yet) I have seen a photo and it looks pretty damn cool!

VIDEO: TAG Heur Aquaracer Two Years on the Wrist by One Man Reviews

 

ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Carrera Porsche 'Chronosprint' Calibre TH20-08 Chronograph

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TAG Heuer Boutique / London, 28th October 2023

You know, I may not have mentioned it before, but I really don't like the 39mm glassbox Carreras. But the 42mm ones aren't so bad and this one in particular is actually not bad at all. I've definitely said before that you will never really know if you like a watch until you get it on your wrist, and in this case that is 100% true. I really wasn't expecting to enjoy the gimmicky/clever (delete as applicable) chronograph on this one being that I am a miserable old man with no soul, but damn me if it wasn't rather entertaining. Kind of... 

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Aquaracer Quartz Watch by Birth Year Watches

 

ON THE WRIST: Victorinox INOX Carbon Mechanical Watch

 
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Victorinox Boutique / London, 28th October 2023

As I dedicated TAG Heuer collector and blogger, it's quite rare for me to talk about other brands. It does happen from time to time of course and I have written about watches I've tried on from brands such as Tudor, Rolex, Breitling, Maurice Lacroix, Bell & Ross, Chopard and even Roger Dubuis (their £168,000 twin tourbillon Exoskeleton is still the most expensive watch I've ever tried on, and probably always will be!) but over the course of seven years it's not much.

But I've been intrigued by the I.N.O.X. range from Victorinox ever since I saw the video where they drove over it in a tank, and while the bezel styling is 'interesting' shall we say, it's so refreshing to see a watch that doesn't look like something else. For that alone I would have to say well done Victorinox, thank you for looking forward in an industry that is OBSESSED with repeating the past. 

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Carrera 'Porsche 2.7' Heuer 02 Limited Edition Chronograph by Swiss Watch Expo

 

OWNED: TAG Heuer 3000 Series Quartz Chronograph

 
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Yet again I am writing an 'Owned' post as a formerly cherished watch heads out the door to its new keeper, and yet again I am surprisingly unmoved by the latest defection from my collection. Which surprises me in a way because I was so excited when this one arrived two and a half years ago from the USA. But over the last year or so my attitude to collecting watches has changed considerably and right now I'm sitting at 31 pieces, which means I've almost (but not quite) halved the number of watches I own with still probably more to face the door.

In my naivety I thought I could just keep collecting forever, amassing more and more pieces until either the money ran out or the wife left me... but then one day I realised that these things break, especially the older ones I was collecting - and when they break they cost money. Sometimes more than they are worth. Now that wouldn't be a problem if I had one or two cheaper watches that I really, really loved but when you have sixteen plastic F1s that are 30 years old you start to wonder if it wouldn't just be better to sell up. 

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Monaco 'Dark Lord Tribute' Heuer 02 Chronograph by WatchBox Reviews

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Carrera 'Gold' Glassbox TH20-00 Chronograph

 

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Back in May I visited London to meet up with my good friend Jim Dollares and together we spent a pleasant hour in the TAG Heuer boutique trying on lots of watches. One of the watches we tried on was last year's 42mm solid gold reverse Panda - the one we all thought was going to be for Jack Heuer's 90th birthday but ended up just being a regular gold R.P. Jim and I really liked that watch and my Swedish buddy suggested I should start saving for it for my 60th birthday (thankfully not until 2029 I hasten to add - but I'd still need to put away over £3000 a year!).

VIDEO: TAG Heuer 6000 Series Quartz Chronograph by Birth Year Watches

 

CORRECTION: A Correction and a Small Bit of News

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Some of you might have been a little surprised to see that the recently released Monaco 'Night Driver' (as pictured above) achieved an oddly low C.O.C.O. score of 5.8/10 in my recent 'First Impressions' post. But luckily, one of the aforementioned C.O.C.O. members brought this to my attention and on re-checking the scoring I found that it should have read 6.8 and not 5.8. I don't know how I managed to mess this up, I added up the scores correctly but an error crept in when it came to dividing the total by the number of scores. I have checked the other recent scores and they are all bang on, I will correct my original post as soon as possible.

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Carrera WV211A Automatic Watch by WatchBox Studios

 

ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 'Watches of Switzerland' Calibre 5 Limited Edition

 

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WATCHES OF SWITZERLAND / Regent Street, London, 5th September 2023

With just over ten weeks remaining of 2023, it seems timely to remind ourselves that last year a 'Watches of Switzerland' limited edition Carrera 'Panda' (CBN2018) managed to snag the much coveted 'C.O.C.O. Watch of the Year' for 2022 - joining previous winners the CBK221B Silver 160th Carrera and the CBK221D Dato 45 at the top of the C.O.C.O. tree. 

Now, obviously I'm not for a moment suggesting that this 'Watches of Switzerland' limited edition Aquaracer is about to repeat that feat, because frankly we all know there's only one watch in the running this year... the CBK221H 39mm Glassbox Panda. The watch that not only heralded the start of TAG Heuer's 60th Anniversary celebrations for the Carrera of course, but also the one most likely to blame for the six-eight months it took W.O.S. to sell a measly 250 pieces of what was and remains a very nice watch!

Honestly I still think TAG Heuer well and truly stitched W.O.S. up there, releasing a 42mm Panda when they knew there was a more desirable 39mm one coming (and let's not pretend we didn't know about it too). But hey, it's water under the bridge now... and as far as I know the W.O.S. Panda is now sold out - so all's well that ends well.

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Autavia Calibre 5 Watch by WatchBox Reviews

SPOTLIGHT ON: TAG Heuer x Bamford Carrera x Rowing Blazers 'Yacht Timer' Limited Edition Heuer 02 Chrono

 

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I'll admit my knowledge of the 'Rowing Blazers' brand is pretty limited but even a cursory glance at their website tells you pretty much everything you need to know. £50 for a baseball cap, £135 for nylon shorts, £310 for a jumper.. and £9250 for a TAG Heuer x Bamford x Rowing Blazers Carrera. Wait, what? Oh yes, you think watch enthusiasts are easy to extract money from? Well that's nothing compared to fashion junkies...

VIDEO: What Has Happened with TAG Heuer by Teddy Baldessarre

In this video (at 0:41) I notice Teddy has used my photo of the TAG Heuer factory, you can clearly see my wife standing under the tree on the left.... :)

SPOTLIGHT ON: TAG Heuer Carrera 'Las Vegas' Limited Edition Heuer 02 Chronograph

 

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Every now and then TAG Heuer release something which makes you stop and stare, and the CBN2A1J 'Las Vegas' limited edition 44mm Carrera Sport is truly one such watch. Now obviously it's not for everyone, but when you consider the environment in which it was being sold it kinda makes sense. What better way to remember the night you went to the Casino and came away with a few thousand dollars tucked into your money belt, eh? But in the cold light of day, maybe it's a harder sell... and perhaps that's why it's currently for sale on the Watchfinder website for just £2550. 

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Link Quartz Watch by Birth Year Watches

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Heuer Monaco Calibre 11 'Monaco Boutique' Limited Edition

 

Can you think of a better place to buy your Monaco from than the TAG Heuer boutique in Monaco? Well if you happened to have been there recently then you might just have seen one of these, a grade 5 titanium 'SMQ' with gold subdials, hands and indices. The watch is limited to just 50 individually numbered pieces and comes with 2 straps in a special box... and I should hope so given the asking price is an eye-watering €11,000!

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre TH20-00 Chronograph by WatchBox Studios

 

ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 'Tiffany Blue' Calibre 5 Watch

 

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TAG Heuer Boutique / Meadowhall, Sheffield 22nd April 2023

Admittedly, it's been rather a long time since my wife and I took a look at this one, but it's Thursday morning already and I need a post for Friday - that's how it seems to be at the moment, and so I took a look in my 'draft' folder and came up with this one. It was either this or my Top 5 Blue Dial TAG Heuers, and I really don't have time to sift through all the possible options right now!

It may have been a while ago, but I can say without fear of contradiction that my wife absolutely loved this one. A pity then that at 36mm it looked ridiculous on her tiny wrist - she doesn't own anything bigger than her 32mm WBD Aquaracers and even they look quite chunky on her. In fact she loved it so much that I think had it been smaller she might even have overcome her reluctance to buy another automatic. 

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 'Green Dial' Calibre 5 Watch by Brent Miller Time

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer/Bamford Carrera 'Team Ikuzawa' Calibre Heuer 02 Limited Edition

 

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You may remember me talking about the Wes Lang Bamford Carrera a while back and last year the RUF Carrera; when I spoke about them I explained that they did not constitute official 'TAG Heuer' releases as they did not have their own unique part number - rather they carried the part number of the base or donor watches delivered to Bamford to be modified. When I first saw this I assumed this would fall into the same category, but for whatever reason the TAG Heuer/Bamford/Team Ikuzawa Carrera does carry it's own original part number and indeed was sold on the Japanese TAG Heuer website. As such it is eligible for the C.O.C.O. Watch of the Year competition, though I don't think it's going to trouble the glassbox Panda somehow....

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre TH20-09 Tourbillon Chronograph by WatchBox Reviews