We Don't Need Another Hero, We Just Need to Listen to Mr Biver (Again)

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Just re-reading A Blog to Watch's article on the launch of the Heuer 01 Carrera and this paragraph leapt out at me.

As the strategic head of the watch division of LVMH, Mr. Biver enjoyed a pretty interesting job having no official office or even title – which actually meant he still spent a lot of time doing Hublot things. Part of his mandate was to help TAG Heuer – which was originally purchased for its heritage and rapport with younger consumers. TAG Heuer, however, for a series of reasons, started to abandon its strong position as an entry-level Swiss luxury brand and kept creeping up in price. That turned out to be pretty bad for business in the long term, and it was decided that TAG Heuer needed to “return to its roots.”

Being that we've just seen TAG launch a £31,000 steel cased tourbillon, perhaps someone should remind themselves that this was less than ten years ago, And yet here we are again.
 
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I think those days are forever gone. If TAG Heuer will now be the main face of everything Formula 1, it would make most sense to double all prices across the catalogue in the next 2-4 years
 
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Could be the last TAG I ever purchase indeed, most releases are ridiculously overpriced now and not aimed at someone like me 👍🏻
 
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Well, I guess we just go back to buying ten year old watches for sensible money.
 
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Biver was also a strong proponent of heritage and Heuer branding. Most of my favorite releases come from his era at TAG, such as the original heritage glassbox Carrera, CAW211P Monaco McQueen, 40th Anniversary Monza and heritage Autavia.

LVMH seems to be repeating a few of its past questionable strategies with TAG, like when they decided the heritage models should be branded TAG Heuer rather than Heuer in the early-mid 2000s. In my view, that was a mistake. The TH logo didn't match the heritage inspired pieces and for me, it was a showstopper. If not for the wrong logo, I likely would've bought the 40th Anniversary Carrera and the first Siffert Autavia reissue.
 
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I'll add that it's not question of one logo being better than another. It's about pairing the right logo with the right watch. A Heuer logo on a tribute reissue of Senna's S/EL would not work for me either.
 
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A Heuer logo on a tribute reissue of Senna's S/EL would not work for me either.
That one should use the old TAG Heuer logo 👍🏼

 
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The rest of the article was pretty interesting actually... so now I see where the whole 'Heuer 01 Carrera was just a budget Hublot Big Bang' theory came from.

https://www.ablogtowatch.com/tag-heuer-carrera-calibre-heuer-01-watch-baselworld-2015/
I knew that since the H01 Skeleton Carrera's introduction. It's one of the things I didn't like from Biver's era at TAG. It was clearly a Hublot derived looking watch, that was such a departure from TAG's DNA.
 
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Ariel went on to say that the H01 had enough of the Carrera DNA to wear the name. He also says 'yes it doesn't look like a 60s Carrera, but it looks quite like recent Carreras' or words to that effect. Yes, I get that the 'concept' was Hublot inspired, skeleton dial, oversized case etc... but I never really thought it 'looked' like a Hublot... and to be honest if I was dating Margot Robbie I wouldn't be losing too much sleep over whether she looked like her parents or not. 😃



What attracted me to TAG Heuer in the first place was that they didn't just stick to what they knew, and the H01 came just as I was getting serious about watches. So I really didn't care if it looked like a Carrera or not. Everything TAG made in the 80s was 'new' and I'm sure there were lots of complaints about that.

The Grand Carrera also looks like nothing that came before, same with the Golf, same with the Microtimer. The real 'problem' with the H01 is that it was called a Carrera, and that trod on people's toes. If it would have a new name (which would have been fine by me) then it would just be a new 'Hublot inspired' direction, besides the H01 is just the scapegoat. Skeleton dials and oversized cases were going to come one way or another, and TAG already used rubber straps way before the H01.

Where do you draw the line? If you say to someone that the new Carrera Extreme Sports doesn't have TAG DNA then they will point to the H01. I mean they really should point to the Zenith Defy, but anyway...
 
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To me, this discussion is pointless because TAG Heuer decided a long time ago that a Carrera can be anything. There have been soooo many iterations deviating from the 70's Heuer Carrera that these days it is in fact well within TAG Heuer dna to put the Carrera name on anything.
 
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I mean, to my eyes this looks less like a Carrera than the H01. Looks more like an Omega.

*Though I appreciate this is the simplistic view of an idiot with no concept of watch case design in the 60s and 70s and this probably came out before the Speedmaster II.
Edited:
 
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I tell you what though, that dial looks like it might have inspired the Monaco 24!
 
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Ariel went on to say that the H01 had enough of the Carrera DNA to wear the name. He also says 'yes it doesn't look like a 60s Carrera, but it looks quite like recent Carreras' or words to that effect. Yes, I get that the 'concept' was Hublot inspired, skeleton dial, oversized case etc... but I never really thought it 'looked' like a Hublot... and to be honest if I was dating Margot Robbie I wouldn't be losing too much sleep over whether she looked like her parents or not. 😃



What attracted me to TAG Heuer in the first place was that they didn't just stick to what they knew, and the H01 came just as I was getting serious about watches. So I really didn't care if it looked like a Carrera or not. Everything TAG made in the 80s was 'new' and I'm sure there were lots of complaints about that.

The Grand Carrera also looks like nothing that came before, same with the Golf, same with the Microtimer. The real 'problem' with the H01 is that it was called a Carrera, and that trod on people's toes. If it would have a new name (which would have been fine by me) then it would just be a new 'Hublot inspired' direction, besides the H01 is just the scapegoat. Skeleton dials and oversized cases were going to come one way or another, and TAG already used rubber straps way before the H01.

Where do you draw the line? If you say to someone that the new Carrera Extreme Sports doesn't have TAG DNA then they will point to the H01. I mean they really should point to the Zenith Defy, but anyway...
You have a valid point. I just feel very different about the intro of the Skeleton design at TAG than you do. It has nothing to do with trying new things or what is or is not a Carrera. They could've called it the Biverton for all I care. 😂

My watch collecting journey started with TAG in 1987, so my comments are based on how I felt at each point in time, rather than looking backwards with hindsight.

My first 3 watches were the F1, 2000, and S/EL. They all had similar DNA design language to me. From there, each new release felt in keeping with past "TAG" DNA, until the first Heuer re-issues of the late '90s came along. Ironically at the time, those felt very jarring to me, nothing like the TAGs that I had become accustomed to. I had little interest in buying one back then, they seemed old fashioned. But as I was aware of Heuer from Ferrari, Lauda and Villeneuve, I thought it was cool that TAG had brought them back.

Fast forward to when Biver introduced the Skeleton into the line up (circa 2015), it felt just as jarring but in a different way. For me, it felt very forced and unnatural to the TAG Heuer brand. It didn't seem like they were trying something new. Rather, it felt like Biver reusing his Hublot playbook and I didn't like Hublot. (I suspect Biver also had a hand with the Skeleton's intro at Zenith too, which also felt out of place.)

Regardless, the Skeletons are here to stay so I've come to accept them as part of TAG's (& Zenith's) current DNA. But it still feels like a mutant strain to me, and I blame Biver for the infection. Mutants are superheroes in the Marvel Universe, so I guess it's not that bad. LOL.
 
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I am shocked that you didn't like the re-issues when they first came out, but I can understand why. They would seem old-fashioned if you were used to the S/EL, 2000 and F1. I can also understand your feelings about the H01 being not entirely an organic evolution of what had already come before. I think you're right about Mr Biver trying to recreate the success of the Big Bang at a cheaper price, but I still think it does look Carrera enough. And really the new part of TAG, the avant garde part, has to come from somewhere other than looking at what they've done before. Even if at first it grates on some. And yeah, I think a lot of this is very dependent on where you joined the party. A bit like they say people's favourite album by a band is usually the first one they heard - the one that got them into that band. And that colours how they say that bands earlier or later work, especially if the band changes a lot. That kind of 'I only like the early stuff'*. Makes a lot of sense. Though it does make me smile to think of you, back in 1987 loving the plastic F1 and curling your lip at Jack Heuer's creations.... not that you probably knew or cared at the time.

*Someone told me that they like ELO the other day and I was like 'Oh yeah, they are okay... Mr Blue Sky and all that'. But he was like. 'Pffft not that rubbish, the early stuff!'
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That kind of 'I only like the early stuff'*. Makes a lot of sense. Though it does make me smile to think of you, back in 1987 loving the plastic F1 and curling your lip at Jack Heuer's creations.... not that you probably knew or cared at the time.

*Someone told me that they like ELO the other day and I was like 'Oh yeah, they are okay... Mr Blue Sky and all that'. But he was like. 'Pffft not that rubbish, the early stuff!'
I know you're referring to bands & songs when you say, "the early stuff".

However, if you also think that I only like the early 'modern' TAGs, that's incorrect. I've bought modern styled TAGs in the '80s, '90s, '00s, '10s, & '20s. (Good lord, that's 5 decades!) But it took me until 2010 to actually buy my first heritage Heuer branded TAG.

I just haven't warmed up to the Skeletons or Connected yet, both born out of Biver's era. But I get your fondness for that era, as that's when you joined the party. 🥳