With the 60 years of Carrera firmly on my mind, I'm recalling the Carrera that never was, the CH80.

Announced at Baselworld in 2014, it became one of the casualties of the Biver era. What do you guys think of this watch? Anyone wish it went into full production?


https://www.fratellowatches.com/tag-heuer-carrera-ch80/
https://www.ablogtowatch.com/tag-heuer-carrera-ch-80-watch-2014-hands/2/

 

The panda attracts me more than the reverse. Very nice looking piece, especially on that strap.

 

I like them too. Being 41mm, it's the size @Hubert is hoping TAG will make again.

At the time I didn't give the CH80 that much thought, since we had the JH80 Carrera and all the follow on variants. But now looking back, I have a new appreciation for them.

 

The JH80 is very nice, so can understand that.

I have noticed that, whilst I do like the more classic colour schemes, I seem to be increasingly drawn to the more sporty colour schemes.

The more I look at that Panda above, the more I like it, which is daft really, as it doesn’t even exist!

 

A pair of pandas. Taking historical cues and incorporating them into a modern offering. As part of the standard TAG line-up. Could have brought some respect to the brand I think. But maybe at the cost of volume sales? Who knows. I think they're cool. Biver changed the direction of the company pretty much overnight. For the worse in my book. But maybe sales would disagree with me.

 

The CH80 is a very good looking watch, I don't know why it wasn't made.

For sure TAG flourished under JCB, he's a businessman and he gave people what he thought they wanted. How you view what he did very much depends on if you were one of those people or not. I was, a lot of people here weren't...

 

I can't remember whether any specs were published, but weren't these supposed to be a bit thinner than the previous generation of 41mm Carreras. They look fairly slim in the photos. That would have been very welcome indeed, given it was the slab sidedness of the JH80 that made me sell it..

 

The case doesn't look a million miles away from the Elegant Carrera...

 

An amazing watch-strap combo. The red strap liner and the red hand tips just work!!!

 

Glad I am not alone in thinking the strap itself looks great, tied into the red accents.

 

Definitely not alone. It's a great strap.

 

IIRC, the Cal 1887 Carreras were around 15mm thickness, the JH80 was too. Guessing that these might've been slightly slimmer like the Elegant at around 14.4mm. The CH80 movement evolved into the H02, so I doubt it could've been much slimmer than the Elegant.

I think I'd pick the Panda over the Reverse as well, and I'm normally a black dial kind of guy.

 

I really like the look of them (particularly all three subdials being the same size). I was not aware of these, so thank you @Mspeedster for this interesting thread.

 

It's just that I vaguely recall at the time it being talked about that one of the benefits of the new CH80 movement was that it was slimmer. So we all hoped the watches would be as well. But of course, TAG quite like to make them thick as ithey stand out more on the wrist.

 

You're welcome. FYI, this old article covers what happened to the CH80 and how it evolved into the H02. Although at the time of the article, I guess TAG was going to call it H03. https://monochrome-watches.com/in-depth-comeback-tag-heuer-ch80-named-heuer-03/

Ironic that it says one of the goals was to have a cheaper price, given how expensive TAGs have become in the past year or so. But I guess at the time of the heritage Autavia's launch, the price wasn't so bad.

 

So is this the new grail watch now that the Panda Glassbox is now a real thing. #modernpandamonium

 

Those are very nice.

 

You know, I think those prototypes that were shown at Baselworld might have found homes with certain collectors. A super rare grail watch indeed if ever one turns up for sale or at an auction.

 

The CH80 movement and also the Calibre 1969 were both predecessors of the Heuer 02. Articles from Hodinkee shown HERE and HERE

Great looking Pandas, and both easily attracts the eye The design cues very similar from the JH80 and JH81 Carreras but with a new in-house movement. I guess alot of technical refinements were made with the movement along the way and marketing strategists in TAG Heuer trying to make themselves busy, that’s why there were alot of name changes Notice that the date is on the 4:30 position instead of 6 (while on the Calibre 1969, date is integrated on 9)

 

Didn't they sell a few of them, before they withdrew them again? I'm sure David said that...