TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre 360 & Carrera Day-Date

In 2006 TAG Heuer released four limited edition Carrera 360 models- White Gold, Rose Gold, Stainless steel and black PVD. The watches marked a turning point for TAG in the development of its own in house movements. Although based on an ETA movement, TAG developed a complex chronograph module that achieves 360,000 vibrations per hour, 10 times of the El Primero movement and allowing timing to 1/100 of a second. So a real landmark watch, and at a real landmark price for TAG- between $12,000 and $25,000 depending on the model- serious cash for any watch and well above the price of most Tag’s.

Fast forward to late 2008 and TAG released a Day/ date Carrera that borrows heavily in style from the Calibre 360- same Arabic numerals, similar case style and similar crown.

This is by no means unusual and generally works well- the hardcore and wealthy enthusiast gets the first sight of new technology and the latest shape, while the rest of us wait a couple of years and then get a reasonably priced version of these halo watches. The benefit for TAG is also clear, as they are able to showcase their latest materials and technology while at the same time establishing the brand at higher price points, which seems to be the aim of every watch brand these days.

Where it can fall apart is when the original owner of the halo watch wants to sell their watch on the second-hand market. At the moment there is a beautiful Calibre 360 for sale on a well know watch sales forum- the owner is a very reliable member of the board and the watch is in as new condition with all boxes, papers etc. Asking price? About 2/3rds of the original RRP- or just over $10,000. Wow- that’s a lot for any TAG, let alone one that has now spawned a very reasonably priced clone for a fraction of the price. Most TAG/ Heuer enthusiasts will tel you that for that price you could get a Mint Monaco 1133B with box/ papers…or you could probably buy one of the new Limited Edition 40th anniversary Monaco’s…plus a Carrera day/ date. Still, I hope it does sell and am sure that whoever buys it will consider themselves lucky to have found one of these watches in NOS condition, but with a nice discount from new

This year we’ve seen all 4 versions of the Calibre 360 available on the secondary market, and
were slow to move. The question of the resale values of these Halo TAGs will become all the more important over the next few months, because as you may have heard, the Monaco V4 is finally coming to market. Looks like there will be a platinum version on sale in November in a Limited Edition of 150 (to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Heuer/ TAG Heuer). Price? About US$120,000.

I guess if you can afford to spend $120,000 on any watch, then resale is not such a big issue. For the rest of us, lets hope that we see a Monaco V4 priced at maybe double today’s Monaco price within a couple of years…trickle down economics at its best