TAG Carrera best price?

[HarryW]

Carreras use the Calibre 16 which I believe is a bought in movement.

[HarryW]

gone with DominicH order placed special delivery tomorrow , I'm now cash poor

[HarryW]

received as described before 12, top job Dominic and yes no one bettered you on price. I just need to convince the misses I need a Aquatimer on her tab next

[cyberface]

sneijder said:

This is a good article summing up the new TAG Heuer 1887 Calibre / alleged Seiko clone storm that's been brewing this week.

http://www.calibre11.com/1887-calibre/

This is the original WUS thread :

http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?p=2454...

'J.C. Babin CEO of TAG Heuer' supposedly wades in on page two. I was having a perv at a Carrera today (I work in an airport, and walk past lots of watches all day) they are nice.

Good on M. Babin! Has proper cojones to wade into the internet (where 99.9% of *everything* is bullst) and admit something that the less-well-informed are immediately considering as a negative aspect to the movement.

Note that Babin does state that the Seiko movement involved is a well respected, fully in-house movement... Seiko are a true manufacture in their own right.

And being a little bit naughty for a second, I'd put Seiko above TAG Heuer in the watch hierarchy purely because of this... *everything* Seiko do is in-house, they even develop their own lubricants.

So basing your new movement on a well-respected Seiko movement? Bloody smart idea IMO - the base Seiko will be innovative and good quality to begin with, at a bargain price compared to dealing with the few remaining Swiss manufactures who are willing to sell IP. And then they can add the 'Swiss touch' to the mechanical excellence of the Seiko...

I've not seen this allegedly 100% in-house TAG movement close up or in comparison to the Seiko. But remember that Seiko's best movements (IMO, the Spring Drives and some of the hand-made Credor / Grand Seiko specials) are focused on engineering *perfection* and thus hand-finishing is not a priority. Exquisitely fine tolerances and perfect machining are, in my experience of looking at Seiko top-end movements.

So taking one of the mechanically *excellent* Seikos and adding some Swiss tradition - some hand-finishing, some anglage (forget anglage in top Seiko movements - the tolerances are pin-sharp and there's no hand-blurred softening of lines), maybe get some German influence and bung some of those cool wheel-polishing techniques that Dornblüth, Glashütte Original and Lange get up to. Add some guff about 'superior Swiss specification components' such as the balance hairspring and the mainspring (I call BS - Seiko develop their own and for their top-end movements will have top-end materials technology, I can't see TAG Heuer surpassing Grand Seiko at the same price points, and some of the top Seikos are bloody expensive) - and there's your 'added value'.

At least they're being honest about it, unlike Claro-Semag. And they're also choosing a respected manufacture (Seiko) in the first place, unlike Claro-Semag.

Nothing wrong with TAG Heuer in this, IMO. A storm in a teacup, and a good way for the uninformed to make fools of themselves by denigrating Seiko... the 6S39 is a bloody good column-wheel chrono. Seiko don't get the important stuff wrong. Personally I think that taking a well-respected Seiko base ébauche and tarting it up a bit is a brilliant move by TAG Heuer - saves them a fortune in R&D, the movement will be of high quality, build it in Switzerland and it's immediately 'Swiss Made' due to the labour cost, and anyone who knows anything about watches knows that Seiko's mechanical movements are as good as TAG's anyway

TAG Heuer merely made a gaffe that the movement was '100% designed and built in-house' - claiming it was a TAG Heuer manufacture movement - when it clearly isn't. They shouldn't have claimed the 'designed' bit that I italicised. But Babin did the right thing.

Let's hope that the likely market for TAG's 'in-house' movement pieces appreciates where Seiko *really* stand, and TAG profit from the good karma attained by coming clean quickly about the true origin of the ébauche. It'd be a shame for the ill-informed boo-boys to frighten other Swiss marques from taking advantage of reverse technology transfer - Seiko have designs for sale, and sale to credible Swiss marques will allow Seiko to continue making ever-more impressive mechanical masterpieces.

And one day, I'll have a Spring Drive chrono, and wear it proudly...

Ooops sorry chaps, gone off-topic for a second there...

[sneijder]

Will there be a huge price difference between watches from both manufacturers with the 'same' movement though ? It'll all depend on the premium folk are willing to pay for the TAG name and slightly superior (I would assume) materials.

I wonder how many TAG customers read too much into all this though, not many I'd have thought.

Whilst we're on a total thread Hijack, what's the deal with ETA now ? Rather than stop point blank supplying outside of the Swatch group, I believe they'll phase it out over quite a few years ? Does anyone know the truth.

I bet Seiko are looking with interest, and yes, a spring drive would be on Mondays shopping list come a lottery win.