My Review of the TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre 36 Flyback

Jeff Stein
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I hope that you guys will enjoy my review of the new TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre 36 Flyback chronograph --

http://www.onthedash.com/thoughts/carrera-calibre-36-flyback-full-review/

A legitimate descendant of the Zenith El Primeros!!

Thanks to everyone on this forum who helped with information about the El Primero, inspiration, ideas, etc.!!

Jeff

CarCal36FBDialCaseBack.jpg
 
dsio
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Just got around to seeing this, probably my favourite out of the current Carrera range, the Seiko based movement doesn't really draw me in I'm afraid but the Calibre 36 is sweet.
 
Privateday7
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dsio dsio
Just got around to seeing this, probably my favourite out of the current Carrera range, the Seiko based movement doesn't really draw me in I'm afraid but the Calibre 36 is sweet.

Do you imply that some Tag Carrera has Seiko based movement?:eek:
 
Stewart H
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Privateday7 Privateday7
::facepalm1::........... well I can understand Seiko is one of the best movement maker outside Swiss. That's no question. With Swatch monopoly who else you can turn into?

I can't understand why they don't use Zenith movements exclusively. After all, they are both LVMH companies and why on earth would you want to pay your competition for parts when you own another company who make a similar product?
 
dsio
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Stewart H Stewart H
I can't understand why they don't use Zenith movements exclusively. After all, they are both LVMH companies and why on earth would you want to pay your competition for parts when you own another company who make a similar product?

Amen to that, I'd imagine the only reason is to prevent TAG from eating into Zenith's market share.
 
Jeff Stein
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Licensing the Seiko technology for the Calibre 1887 allowed TAG Heuer to introduce its new line of Carreras (back in 2010) a couple of years earlier, and for a couple of thousand dollars less, than if TAG Heuer had built the movement from the ground up. These Seiko movements were top quality; TAG Heuer further enhanced them. Thrilled to have bought my Carrera Cal 1887 for $3,000 in 2010, rather than paying $5,000 for in-house movement in 2012. Bravo to TAG Heuer for taking this approach!! The world is flat, right . . . and applause for overcoming the watch guys' bias against Japanese watches.

El Primero (TAG Heuer Calibre 36) will always sell at a much higher price point than the Calibre 1887.

Excellent discussion, guys!!
 
dsio
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Jeff Stein Jeff Stein
Licensing the Seiko technology for the Calibre 1887 allowed TAG Heuer to introduce its new line of Carreras (back in 2010) a couple of years earlier, and for a couple of thousand dollars less, than if TAG Heuer had built the movement from the ground up. These Seiko movements were top quality; TAG Heuer further enhanced them. Thrilled to have bought my Carrera Cal 1887 for $3,000 in 2010, rather than paying $5,000 for in-house movement in 2012. Bravo to TAG Heuer for taking this approach!! The world is flat, right . . . and applause for overcoming the watch guys' bias against Japanese watches.

El Primero (TAG Heuer Calibre 36) will always sell at a much higher price point than the Calibre 1887.

Excellent discussion, guys!!

What's the Cal 1887 like in terms of thickness compared to the 7750? The biggest thing that turned me off the old Carrera automatics was that for a driver's chronograph you typically think of a slimmer case like the Valjoux 72s of older Heuers or Lemania manual winds of the Speedmasters and others. I ended up going with the Omega Seamaster Pro Chrono Diver over the TAG Carrera back in '07 as my first good bought watch mainly because the diver justified the thickness more than a driver's watch did in my mind.
 
Privateday7
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Seiko build few movement that on par with ETA in term of quality IIRC. The Grand Seiko movement definitely surpass them.
 
U
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TAG was busted by watch forum members trying to claim the Seiko movement as their own in-house caliber. Pretty embarrassing if you ask me. I would have had no problem if they said from the get go that it was a Seiko based movement, but the Swiss are whacked when it comes to that kind of stuff.

So what's up with TAG's in-house projects? Are they still vaporware?
 
Jeff Stein
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So what's up with TAG's in-house projects? Are they still vaporware?

With all due respect, this is complete ignorance. I visited the TAG Heuer factory a few months ago, and saw production of the Calibre 1887 movements and Carreras (where they are producing over 1,000 watches per week), as well as the Haute Horlogere department (where they produce a few dozen watches per year). Perhaps you would stand there and tell the workers that they are involved in "vaporware" . . . that's not what I saw.
 
U
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Why does everyone think prefacing an insult with "with all due respect" makes it acceptable? :p It was a simple and direct question. I've owned a few Heuers over the years (pre- and post-TAG) and have no issue with the brand. How about an update on which of the concepts (like the belt drive Monaco) are currently in production and available to the public?
 
Jeff Stein
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Are you interested in "in-house" haute horlogere projects (V4, Mikrograph, Mikrotimer, etc.) or "in-house" movements (Cal 1887, Cal 1888, etc.)? And do we count the Calibre 36 as an "in house" movement, even though it comes from corporate affiliate, Zenith?

There are lots of great articles on all these topics; if you can tell me which you are interested in, I can provide some links.
 
dsio
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I'd count the Calibre 36 as in-house or better than in-house, doesn't get much better than that in the auto chronograph stakes.
 
LouS
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El Primero and the Carrera is a marriage that needed to happen. What strikes me though, is that neither the TAGHeuer nor the Zenith incarnations of Primero are totally comfortable designs. The case is too large for the movement. Zenith deals with it with some dysfunctional dial overlap, and TAGHeuer with the bicolor design and the huge seconds track which mitigate the 'cross-eyed' appearance of the subdials too close to one another for this size dial.

If the companies are going to continue to offer 42-43mm watches, I'd say we're gonna need a bigger Primero.
 
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