2024 LVMH Watch Week

[Jim Dollares]

Mspeedster

I didn't mean the comments from the youtubers and bloggers themselves, but rather the comments left by the general public under their reviews. These public comments seem to reflect quite positively on the new glassbox watches

Chicken or egg really, are watch "journalists" saying positive things because people like the watches or are people liking the watches because watch "journalists" praise the watches

 

[Gene242]

abrod520

Among my circle of watch friends, the new Glassboxes are the first to ever really be paid attention to (yeah, even the heritage glassboxes were ignored at the time, though are now being discovered as well). Generally positive sentiment, too

I am seeing a lot of interest from people who saw pictures but didn't realise it was so small...oddly enough the Skipper doesn't get that problem( they are just hard to come by)
but the chronosprint and tourbillon despite the price are doing extremly well , which in of itself is odd because even among folks who love the 39 glassbox, they think it is price to high but get an even higher price Tag.

 

[Anthony.]

Aquagraph

I have no idea how to do this mind you. And would anyone actually donate anything? I guess if every view generated 1p I could give up my job and do it full time - haha.

Oh, no wait, that's £120 a week... so no then, 5p for every view!

Maybe you should start an "Onlyfans" apparently people make a load of cash there

 

[Mspeedster]

Jim Dollares

Chicken or egg really, are watch "journalists" saying positive things because people like the watches or are people liking the watches because watch "journalists" praise the watches

That's a good question, which I've pondered myself. There's probably some of that happening.

OTOH, someone like @Jeff Stein is unlikely to be swayed by what others say. He genuinely seems to prefer the new glassbox over the old. Which is saying something, given his affinity for vintage Heuer. Perhaps the merit of the new glassbox is that TAG Heuer is doing its own thing, taking elements from their past, but making something new.

I personally think the watches look nice, but what holds me back is outer concave bezel, more so than the patchy inner convex slope. I just don't care for curved bezels, don't like the look on the Autavias, and putting them under glass doesn't help matters (for my taste).

 

[Ara]

The positive energy around the new Glassbox Carreras have obviously kept up the good momentum for TH going into 2024; here's what I think from a design and storytelling standpoint are parts of the story:

- For years, there's been clamoring for TH to embrace its heritage roots on a deeper level. The Monaco was always the closest to keeping a vintage mindset. The Carrera was all over the place since the CV211X series.

- The Telemeter in 2015 started a new wave of vintage-inspired Carreras. No one really knows about it outside of us.

- The 2017 Autavia Cup Challenge generated excitement as TH's latest attempt to bring more and more heritage into its regular collection.

- The actual 2017 Autavia production design ended up being a miss; I like to reference JCB's comment that TH at that time was not interested in recreating vintage, but rather creating something new and modern but still connected to the past. Design choices of the production model led to.......hype dying fast.

- Clearly, the first 10 first gen Glassbox pieces were not displayed in boutiques, no promotion in store, no billboards, no Ryan Gosling movies. Sometimes sold / split between boutiques and Hodinkee, Revolution...the best of which had small batches of 100-250 only. Some of these pieces were made with "vintage fans" in mind (2017 Skipper) and others for the hype machine of social media (2019 fragment). But the group as a whole was definitely NOT produced for the masses. However, 10 pieces in about 9 years is great.

- Early 2020's: Original Glassbox era likely (and finally) reached its full potential with design cues / heritage-inspired designs that many enthusiasts collectively loved via the Ice King and 160th Panda in particular.

- 2023 Glassbox reboot. It's like the 1960s, 1996 re-edition, the CV211X series, and the first gen Glassbox had their collective DNA intentionally mixed together in Photoshop / Illustrator to create a new 2023 version. (think "Serpentor" from 1980s G.I. Joe)

- 2023/4: The hype machine seems thrilled with TH's decision to officially bring back a new, heritage-inspired Carrera as part of the regular collection and not just a mysterious LE.

- The above is the key point in my opinion. The Carrera IS BACK FULL TIME and even better --> BIG TIME!! It's a full time member of the modern collection now. I see billboards in LA with Carreras on them now. And right out the gate we get black and blue dialed chronos, a new Skipper, a very cool Porsche design, a gold / black Jack Heuer inspired design, a green Dato, and a Ryan Gosling movie! Wow! Honestly, that's huge.

- Main point: The above is pretty damn strong push for TH and great content for social media creators to build upon. It's truly a lot of hype in just a 1 year cycle.

- It's a damn nice watch. (even though, similar to others, I am not a fan of the patchy dial)

- Do I personally wish TH kept more of the design cues / codes from the first generation Glassbox? Yes, absolutely, 100 times yes. I believe they had finally refined the first gen dial to the point that it was a work of art on the wrist. I think many of us here believe this and with a tweak to the original glassbox distortion ring and not much else that perhaps we'd have hit a sweet spot. But TH decided to tweak every design element after scoring a 10/10 in a heritage inspired design with the 160th Panda.

- This is just my assumption --> those who like the new design don't seem to mind the patchy dial and don't see it as a design negative as they mainly see the Carrera design package as a whole and like where TH is headed. Those who don't particularly like the new design point to the patchy dial as the main dealbreaker in my opinion. I think there are nitpicks here and there but you either *** see *** the patchy dial or you don't. It's like a Rorschach.

- But what's absolutely clear is how the positive coverage has been consistent and increasing since launch and that there's also been a major push from TH to introduce new additions to the new Carrera line that also draw inspiration from the past and have released them all thus far in a very short timeframe. Absolutely huge.

- So back to the hype machine -----> Universally, I think the consensus is that many in the blogosphere / social media / watch journalism circles are happy to see TH "finally" embracing its roots at such a high level. But above all, I think what is appreciated the most is that a heritage-inspired Carrera is *** after a long time *** officially *** part of the *** regular *** collection. And in a big way.

- Positive coverage over an extended period can help convince skeptics and also helps pull in new fans. Clearly, TH is doing a good job there.

---

Personal notes:
As a redo of 2017, I hope a 60s Autavia design comes back in a major way in the coming years.
But just please don't give it a curvy, patchy dial.

 

[bpsmith]

I don’t like the new glassbox, but it has nothing at all to do with a bit of patchiness, as there are bigger problems with it in my eyes.

No amount of continuous bandwagon jumping is going to convince me otherwise tbh.

 

[Ara]

bpsmith

I don’t like the new glassbox, but it has nothing at all to do with a bit of patchiness, as there are bigger problems with it in my eyes.

No amount of continuous bandwagon jumping is going to convince me otherwise tbh.

I know you said you lean modern vs. vintage but appreciate the first gen Glassbox -- and don't like second gen. Anything specific?

 

[Aquagraph]

I actually like the steel Chronosprint and the Skipper is okay, but the rest I don't like. I'm not sure why those two are okay in my eyes, but maybe it's not actually the curved bezel. The tourbillons are flat out ugly and the Dato is just odd. The reverse panda is so bad it hurts my eyes, especially with the pink lume and the blue looks like a microbrand watch.

All along people said the old glassboxes should have been regular production pieces and available in store, yet TAG always wanted to keep them as limited editions. I don't necessarily think you can say because the new glassboxes are successful (well, we see comments but are they actually selling???) that means the older ones would have been had they been in store. The 160th anniversary models took a long time to sell out don't forget and there was only 1860 of them. I saw the Montreal in store a few times...

 

[Mspeedster]

Ara

The positive energy around the new Glassbox Carreras have obviously kept up the good momentum for TH going into 2024; here's what I think from a design and storytelling standpoint are parts of the story:

- For years, there's been clamoring for TH to embrace its heritage roots on a deeper level. The Monaco was always the closest to keeping a vintage mindset. The Carrera was all over the place since the CV211X series.

- The Telemeter in 2015 started a new wave of vintage-inspired Carreras. No one really knows about it outside of us.

- The 2017 Autavia Cup Challenge generated excitement as TH's latest attempt to bring more and more heritage into its regular collection.

- The actual 2017 Autavia production design ended up being a miss; I like to reference JCB's comment that TH at that time was not interested in recreating vintage, but rather creating something new and modern but still connected to the past. Design choices of the production model led to.......hype dying fast.

- Clearly, the first 10 first gen Glassbox pieces were not displayed in boutiques, no promotion in store, no billboards, no Ryan Gosling movies. Sometimes sold / split between boutiques and Hodinkee, Revolution...the best of which had small batches of 100-250 only. Some of these pieces were made with "vintage fans" in mind (2017 Skipper) and others for the hype machine of social media (2019 fragment). But the group as a whole was definitely NOT produced for the masses. However, 10 pieces in about 9 years is great.

- Early 2020's: Original Glassbox era likely (and finally) reached its full potential with design cues / heritage-inspired designs that many enthusiasts collectively loved via the Ice King and 160th Panda in particular.

- 2023 Glassbox reboot. It's like the 1960s, 1996 re-edition, the CV211X series, and the first gen Glassbox had their collective DNA intentionally mixed together in Photoshop / Illustrator to create a new 2023 version. (think "Serpentor" from 1980s G.I. Joe)

- 2023/4: The hype machine seems thrilled with TH's decision to officially bring back a new, heritage-inspired Carrera as part of the regular collection and not just a mysterious LE.

- The above is the key point in my opinion. The Carrera IS BACK FULL TIME and even better --> BIG TIME!! It's a full time member of the modern collection now. I see billboards in LA with Carreras on them now. And right out the gate we get black and blue dialed chronos, a new Skipper, a very cool Porsche design, a gold / black Jack Heuer inspired design, a green Dato, and a Ryan Gosling movie! Wow! Honestly, that's huge.

- Main point: The above is pretty damn strong push for TH and great content for social media creators to build upon. It's truly a lot of hype in just a 1 year cycle.

- It's a damn nice watch. (even though, similar to others, I am not a fan of the patchy dial)

- Do I personally wish TH kept more of the design cues / codes from the first generation Glassbox? Yes, absolutely, 100 times yes. I believe they had finally refined the first gen dial to the point that it was a work of art on the wrist. I think many of us here believe this and with a tweak to the original glassbox distortion ring and not much else that perhaps we'd have hit a sweet spot. But TH decided to tweak every design element after scoring a 10/10 in a heritage inspired design with the 160th Panda.

- This is just my assumption --> those who like the new design don't seem to mind the patchy dial and don't see it as a design negative as they mainly see the Carrera design package as a whole and like where TH is headed. Those who don't particularly like the new design point to the patchy dial as the main dealbreaker in my opinion. I think there are nitpicks here and there but you either *** see *** the patchy dial or you don't. It's like a Rorschach.

- But what's absolutely clear is how the positive coverage has been consistent and increasing since launch and that there's also been a major push from TH to introduce new additions to the new Carrera line that also draw inspiration from the past and have released them all thus far in a very short timeframe. Absolutely huge.

- So back to the hype machine -----> Universally, I think the consensus is that many in the blogosphere / social media / watch journalism circles are happy to see TH "finally" embracing its roots at such a high level. But above all, I think what is appreciated the most is that a heritage-inspired Carrera is *** after a long time *** officially *** part of the *** regular *** collection. And in a big way.

- Positive coverage over an extended period can help convince skeptics and also helps pull in new fans. Clearly, TH is doing a good job there.

---

Personal notes:
As a redo of 2017, I hope a 60s Autavia design comes back in a major way in the coming years.
But just please don't give it a curvy, patchy dial.

I think your historical perspective and assessment is spot on!

What I recall from living through that era is really liking the JH80 series Carreras, which came before, and being very excited about the Telemeter. But after seeing it in person, the Telemeter just wasn't right for me. The inverted pie pan dial combined with the glassbox distortion made it feel smaller than a 39mm. With the heritage Autavia, it was the reverse, they were too bloated and sat very tall on my wrist.

The heritage Monza I liked, but it was also limited and short lived. However, the C11 Monaco McQueen's success is an indicator to me that a properly done heritage model can be a sales winner when part of the standard model line. Which is in part why I think many of youtubers will say, oh they've got the Monaco but not much else. Until now.

I would love to see a 1 to 1 copy of the '60s Autavia reissued. But considering all the positive coverage the glassbox is getting, I somehow doubt TAG will go that route. Instead, they'll likely try to re-imagine the Autavia again and hope that lightning strikes twice.

 

[bpsmith]

Ara

I know you said you lean modern vs. vintage but appreciate the first gen Glassbox -- and don't like second gen. Anything specific?

I think Rob has pretty much covered my reasoning on the individual designs tbh. I too like the Skipper the most, but I think that’s due to the colour scheme drawing the eye away from that weird double curve to the bezel. I just find the bezel under the glass to be just weird. Not as bad on original glassbox but this is just weird to my eye. I don’t like the join between the bezel element and the main dial, as it just looks like a bolt on. I also hate the size, as these look really small in real life.

To me, the Elegant version of the Carrera is far more exciting, with its simple clean cut design. Works equally well for classic colours or those more daring designs.

 

[Ara]

Mspeedster

I think your historical perspective and assessment is spot on!

What I recall from living through that era is really liking the JH80 series Carreras, which came before, and being very excited about the Telemeter. But after seeing it in person, the Telemeter just wasn't right for me. The inverted pie pan dial combined with the glassbox distortion made it feel smaller than a 39mm. With the heritage Autavia, it was the reverse, they were too bloated and sat very tall on my wrist.

The heritage Monza I liked, but it was also limited and short lived. However, the C11 Monaco McQueen's success is an indicator to me that a properly done heritage model can be a sales winner when part of the standard model line. Which is in part why I think many of youtubers will say, oh they've got the Monaco but not much else. Until now.

I would love to see a 1 to 1 copy of the '60s Autavia reissued. But considering all the positive coverage the glassbox is getting, I somehow doubt TAG will go that route. Instead, they'll likely try to re-imagine the Autavia again and hope that lightning strikes twice.

Oooo forgot about the JH80! Thanks for the reference. The pre-cursor to the Elegant.

 

[Jemagloh]

The JH80 is one of my favorites (as well as the variants), and always will be. Smashing piece, and this reminds me that it's due for some wrist time.

 

[Aquagraph]

There's never actually going to be a NEW watch again is there? They can't even use a colour without referencing history.

 

[paysdoufs]

Mspeedster

Revolution video with TAG's new CEO

Probably interesting, but I honestly cannot stand either one of them for more than one minute… So both combined = hard pass

Edited: Feb 13, 2024

 

[paysdoufs]

Aquagraph

It is kinda funny, because all along we've been told what TAG Heuer should be doing and yet they've completely ignored the message from the forum and somehow it's worked. And they've managed to unite all the different parts of the forum in hating the new watches - hahahahahahaha. It's a miracle.

We don’t know anything about that… Some random influencers hailing a new watch collection on YT is something completely different from that collection actually selling well.

 

[paysdoufs]

Aquagraph

How should I do this? Are TAG going to send me free watches? I don't think so. The only thing I can do is sell advertising space via Google Ads, but then I will get Longines ADs all over it and that will annoy me.

Maybe I should start a Patreon or something, just a voluntary thing for people who want to donate?

There’s a dude on the German Uhrforum, who has an IG and blog where he exclusively showed/spoke about his personal SG watches. Now he’s getting new SG watches to check out for free.

 

[Aquagraph]

paysdoufs

There’s a dude on the German Uhrforum, who has an IG and blog where he exclusively showed/spoke about his personal SG watches. Now he’s getting new SG watches to check out for free.

What is SG? Am I being thick?
Yeah, but see... if they give it you free, they gonna want a positive review.
Can you imagine TAG sending me an Aquaracer for nothing and letting me say whatever I want?
With my track record....?

 

[Aquagraph]

paysdoufs

Probably interesting, but I honestly cannot stand either one of them for more than one minute… So both combined = hard pass

I dunno. Julien seems quite alright, Wei is Wei. At least he's learned not to punctuate every sentence his guest says with 'YES'!

 

[paysdoufs]

Aquagraph

What is SG? Am I being thick?
Yeah, but see... if they give it you free, they gonna want a positive review.
Can you imagine TAG sending me an Aquaracer for nothing and letting me say whatever I want?
With my track record....?

SG = Swatch Group

In his case, the fact that he only collected SG watches was visibly enough to sway them
https://www.instagram.com/onlyswatchgroupwatches/

(I was wrong about the blog, btw. You just need to be on the ‘gram nowadays, Rob…)

Reminds me: I could create social media content called NoRichemontWatches

 

[Aquagraph]

paysdoufs

SG = Swatch Group

In his case, the fact that he only collected SG watches was visibly enough to sway them
https://www.instagram.com/onlyswatchgroupwatches/

(I was wrong about the blog, btw. You just need to be on the ‘gram nowadays, Rob…)

Reminds me: I could create social media content called NoRichemontWatches

I am on the Gram, but I hate it.

Well TAG are well aware of my blog so if they want to send me free watches I'm open to a conversation. As long as I don't have to give up my freedom to criticise.

So no then.