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- A Blinged Out TAG Heuer Might Be Their Most Interesting Watch, Certina Almost Makes A Really Great Watch and Hermès Sneaks In The H08 In Rose Gold
A Blinged Out TAG Heuer Might Be Their Most Interesting Watch, Certina Almost Makes A Really Great Watch and Hermès Sneaks In The H08 In Rose Gold
We're done with Watches and Wonders and working on something new and big
Vuk Radic
April 03, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 14 minutes
Hey friends, the craziness of Watches and Wonders is behind us, so welcome to the regular edition of It’s About Time. We have some big news - we will be concluding our Tissot PRX giveaway this week, so make sure to invite your friends. Also, we have something big lined up for next week, so make sure to stick around.
In this issue:
A truly interesting TAG
Certina almost makes a great watch
A pink gold everyday watch
A crazy double dialed, double tourbilloned watch
And… invite your friends to win a Tiffany PRX
Today’s reading time: 5 minutes and 52 seconds
We’re starting off with a bang! We’re giving away TWO of this year’s hottest watches, The Tiffany Tissot PRX Powermatic 80
All you have to do is click the button below and have five of your friends subscribe. Both you and one of your friends will be eligible to win one of the watches
👂What’s new
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TAG is struggling with it’s identity. They want to be classy and they want to be sporty. They want to bank on their heritage and push watchmaking forward. They want to be conservative and they want to be avant-garde. These are all fine traits to have, and many brands can juggle them within distinct model lines. With TAG, they just try to stuff all of this into every watch they make, ending up with a hot mess. Just look at the Carrera Plasma Diamant d’Avant-Garde Chronograph Tourbillon 44mm I mentioned in this article - Hublot saw this and couldn’t stop laughing how ridiculous it is.
Then TAG goes and unveils the new TAG Heuer Carrera Plasma Diamant d’Avant-Garde 36mm. And it’s a complete banger. One that manages to integrate everything they want their watches to be into one watch successfully.
The watch is based on the newly introduced 36mm Carrera Date series, so it’s classy and full of heritage, but then it’s cased in 18K white gold and showered in diamonds, successfuly marrying the classy vibe with high end jewellery watchmaking. Unlike the 44 Chrono, this one does not have any diamonds set into the case, but what it does have is an eye popping 1.3 carat lab-grown pink diamond winding crown that is signed with the TAG Heuer logo.
The dial could be considered the same as on any normal Carrera Date 36mm with baton-shaped markers, a double marker at 12 o’clock, and a date window at the 6 o’clock location. If it weren’t absolutely drowned in diamonds. There’s 2.9 carats of white diamonds, also lab-grown all over the dial, with 12 baguette-cut white diamonds that serve as the hour markers. Right below the 12 o’clock marker is a large pink diamond in the shape of the TAG Heuer shield logo.
Inside is the boring Caliber 7 automatic movement. Largely based upon the core design of the tried-and-true ETA 2892 or Sellita SW300 with a power reserve of approximately 56 hours.
This watch is completely insane, yes. But it’s what TAG needs. They are showing what they can still make great watches and are experimenting with lab-grown diamonds, a high-end process that is often looked down by purists, but allows for the creation of some very interesting things - like the pink diamond crown. This is just a prototype, but TAG claims they will be making a limited number of them, without specifying how many, so you are highly unlikely to see it live. Nor will you know how much it would cost you, as TAG has not released a price, but it’s likely to be in the six figures.
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For years Certina watches have been a bit of a punchline to a joke in the watch world. They made some inoffensive, uninspired fashion watches sold at malls alongside Nautica and Calvin Klein watches. Which is a shame. Certina is dripping with fantastic heritage in diving and mountaineering.
In the past couple of years, they are reaching far into this rich history and pulling out some stunning vintage-inspired sports watches that are only a few details away from being the go-to affordable alternative to Seiko, especially since Seiko has massively upped some of their prices. The new Certina DS-2 Chronograph Automatic in a green and gold colour scheme is closest to taking this position.
The DS-2 is Certina’s model from the 70s and have seen some very cool accomplishments. The DS-2 Chronolympic which summited and raced down Mt Everest in 1970, featuring in the Academy Award winning documentary The Man Who Skied Down Everest. The original watches were quite varied and came in both two and three register configurations, however this modern reissue seems to be closely based on the reference 8601 800 which was made between 1970-74.
It’s a large watch at 43.3mm x 40.5mm, but then it should be since the stainless case is coated with a bright yellow gold PVD. It has a bicompax chronograph layout and a date display at 6 o’clock. Even the movement of the watch is a throwback, as the old Certina’s used Valjoux movements. So does this one - a Valjoux/ETA A05.23 with a 4Hz beat rate and a 68-hour power reserve.
The new Certina DS-2 Chronograph Automatic in green and gold will be made available from April 2023 at all authorised Certina retailers. Price: CHF1,995. It’s almost perfect. Two things should happen - chill with those prices, just a bit. And do something about that logo on the face of the watch. That’s just too big.
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I wrote about the Hermès H08 going very sporty in a new lightweight composite case coupled with a grainy textured grey dial with colourful accents and matching rubber straps. But at the same time, the introduction of the H08 in rose gold kinda went under the radar.
This almost looks like a completely different watch, even though it’s essentially the same. It’s the same 39mm cushion case with the Hermes manufacture Caliber H1837 and same Arabic numerals specifically designed for the watch. But the rose gold of the case, black ceramic bezel and crown and black DLC-treated titanium caseback give it a more serious and dressy look compared to the sporty model.
Pricing is expected to be EUR 16,000 when the watch is released in June.
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Just on Friday I wrote how Arnold & Son is introducing it’s very classy and understated Ultrathin Tourbillon in a red gold case with a silver-toned opaline dial. Then they go and show a new version of the the crazy Double Tourbillon model offering two separate dials to display two different time zones powered by two independent tourbillon regulators. What’s new - a stunning green malachite stone dial and a sparkling blue aventurine glass dial.
Look at the Arnold & Son Double Tourbillon long enough and you’ll realize it’s two perfectly symmetrical watches stuffed into one. So it’s a watch with a GMT complication that solves the complication by adding an entirely seperate mechanism and tourbillon for the second time zone. It’s brilliantly funny.
What’s less funny is the price - CHF 226,200. However, considering the fact that you are getting two watches for the price of one and they are unique pieces, it’s actually not a bad deal.
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Very few people have seen a HYT watch and said “that’s a handsome watch". They might have called them interesting, funky, innovative, weird or alien. But not good looking. And people tend to not buy a lot of things they don’t like the looks of. So it’s not much of a surprise that HYT went bankrupt in 2021. What is a surprise is that it was revived a year later and they now have a new watch. But it’s the same as the old watches, only more interesting, funkier, more innovative, weirder and more alien. Let’s see how this one works out…
The HYT Conical Tourbillon is ridiculous. There’s a tourbillon that stick out of the watch face, there are glass orbs, time is shown by a green liquid moving through a tube… It’s a lot. Also, it’s 48mm wide, 52.3mm lug to lug and a svelte 25.15mm thick. It has to be the same thickness as a G Class 4×4 because of the domed crystal that accommodates their Conical tourbillon.
HYT believes they can sell 8 of these. At least that’s what they limited production to. Get yours for CHF335,000.
🫳On hand
Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon
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⚙️Watch Worthy
A look at an off beat, less known watch you might actually like
“BA111OD have only been around since 2019, but there seems to be no limit to their ambition. If you’re in the market for a luxury Swiss watch with an in-house movement of unique complexity, then chances are you’re looking at spending at least five figures. The BA111OD believe that their CHPTR_Δ provides all of that and more, but for the same price as a mid-tier Longines”
⏲️Wait a minute
A bunch of links that might or might not have something to do with watches. One thing’s for sure - they’re interesting
I did two things over the weekend. I went down an end-of-the-world spiral, looking at all the ways we could be wiped off the planet. A meteor is one way. Wired has a great write up on what would happen and how to - maybe - survive it.
And if we do make it to the apocalypse, maybe we should be prepping. However, some people take prepping way to far. And then this happens.
I also went down a rabbit hole of true crime, trying to find a great resource to keep up with true crime news (let me know if you follow anything interesting) and ended up going through a list of not-so-intelligent killers. This one is my favorite: a woman who tried hiring a killer from rentahitman.com. It didn’t go as she expected.
👀Watch this
One video you have to watch today
Patagonia makes much more than fantastic jackets. They make fantastic short documentaries. Their latest is a moving look at the women who were forced to flee the Taliban in Afghanistan and found a home in the climbing community.
💵Pre-loved precision
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