why oh why couldnt they have re-issued the Rindt in such a true to original form!!!????!?!!

https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/i...-limited-edition-carrera-skipper-for-hodinkee

 

I think the Autavia's a much closer re-issue to the original than this one - this one's way more of a remix of two watches, the 7754 "Skipperrera" and the 3147 Dato 45.

 

And my my money says look for a Carrera Dato next............................

 

fair enough but the proportions of this one are so so much better that the 2446 re-issue.

 

Once again Hodinkee did a fabulous job.

Exactly, because this was an "inspired' piece and as documented not a re-issue.

 

Well they both grew by the same 3mm diameter, but yeah I guess ending up at 39mm is better than 42mm, 9 times out of 10.

If you've never tried on the Calibre 18 Telemeter though, it's a tad bit tall. Not as bad as most TAGs these days, but still sits a bit high for its 39mm diameter.

IMO, Hodinkee has finally done a fabulous job - others were just nice dials in nice cases, this one's something completely different

 

I thought the VC was fantastic, the Nomos very good but I'd prefer a smaller diameter, the Ressence the best Ressence I've ever seen and the Zenith the best Zenith I've ever seen. For me what they are doing is essentially making some of the best watches that the brands release. Take the Heuer for instance. Best current Heuer out there. Maybe 2-3 other pieces that Heuer make are worth considering and that's it.

 

You have a point, but from my perspective:

The VC was $45,000 and I am not in the top .01%, the Nomos was just a remix of dial / case, the Ressence isn't my cup of tea (though yes, funky if you like / can afford that kind of action and so I will concede this one to you fully), and the Zenith was also just a dial/case remix. Zenith also went on to produce more variations on the Hodinkee 2-register / 39mm piece - which TAG cannot do as these cases are no longer in production

Agree that it's probably the best current TAG Heuer, disagree that there are 2-3 other pieces. The Autavia is worth looking into (haven't seen one in person yet but will definitely be looking for one next time I have some time to kill in the vicinity of a major retailer) but that's about it. The Carrera Calibre 18 Telemeter is out of production and so the current Carrera lineup is comprised of 43mm+ Heuer-01 monstrosities and I lost interest in the Monaco about 3 months into owning one (a modern one) years ago

 

Well I'm not in the .01% either, but it's still a great looking watch and from the relatively little I've seen of VC (I don't know the brand so well) it's probably the best I've ever seen. The Nomos may have been a remix of the dial, but there wasn't a significant change aesthetically so not much to say, but at least the design was still good. I would have much preferred that in 35mm. Any Ressence isn't my cup of tea either, but as I said I think it's the best looking Ressence I've ever seen. The Zenith may have only been a dial/case remix, I'm not sure about the dial as I've not seen one like it but I don't follow Zenith. Either way it looks good for a Zenith and better than the two variants Zenith produced after the fact.

Are you sure about Tag Heuer no longer making those cases? The case looks exactly like that of the Carrera 221a. Unless they've stopped producing that model?

Well it's a matter of opinion and I'm not looking at getting a Heuer, but the Caliber 11 Monaco, Carrera 221a and that heritage Monza are three nice looking watches. New Autavia isn't that bad either, but I think they could have done better. Anyway, there's your 3-4 if you ask me. Rest of them are you said monstrosities.

 

I cant say it is a beauty, looks like it is made for kids.
Personally this is much more good looking watch than this skipper;

 

The CAR221A is the Calibre 18 Telemeter referenced before, it uses the same case. It was said that TAG used the last 125 cases from that stock for this limited edition

 

Oh, didn't know they used the last of the cases for this one. Good to know.

Also, didn't see your earlier comments as you were quoting someone else. Anyway, it is a bit tall, but not bad at all. I have a FOIS and the Skipper isn't as tall. What makes up for it too is that it most definitely doesn't wear 39mm. It wears smaller which I love.

 

I have to say I'm not at all impressed really; it's a nice enough watch, but the main 'USP' of the Skipper was the reggata timer - necessarily a count down chrono divided into 5 minute zones, as all the Heuer Skipper models were.
I understand it's not a direct copy, but it's a regular 30 min scaled count up chrono which is divided into 10 minute intervals without even the courtesy of full hatch marks. This means the 3 zones have no purpose except aesthetic.

It makes no sense as a reggata and so makes no sense to have 'Skipper' on the dial; it's just a normal re-arranged chrono with some paint on the subdial. I think it's quite lazy as it wouldn't have taken much to do it justice, or, failing that, paint it differently and call it a Dato 45 re-issue with more credence.

It's nice, but it misses the whole point of the original. By a mile.

 

This might bother me if I raced sailboats.

 

It's like a Submariner 5513 re-issue that isn't waterproof. You don't have to dive necessarily to see it misses the main point of what the watch was.

 

I value waterproofing as a more valuable function than accurate yacht timing

 

I agree that it would have been nice to have the sub register like the original and thus be like other regatta timers. I also think it would have been as simply as putting on an appropriate sub register dial with the usual markers. Still as I understand it this Skipper could still serve the same purpose as there are markers every 2.5 minutes. That's not to say it's as nice, but I would think it would technically work. That said to say that thus it makes no sense to call it "Skipper" isn't correct. The fact that it looks as much like the Skipper it's modeled after is enough to call it "Skipper". What's more, as you said, it isn't a direct copy and so the 5513 analogy isn't apt as it's not a re-issue.

 

In reality any chronograph could technically be used to to serve the same purpose; the main differentiator between a normal chronograph and a 'reggata' watch specifically though is that the scale is (usually) 15 minutes divided into easy to read 5 minute sectors on a count down scale, it's what makes them what they are. Have a look at all the Heuer Skipper watches and any regatta watch and you'll see what I mean.
To achieve this they just needed to print a count down scale and change the gear. All they did was to paint it the same way, but this is pure aesthetic rather than any functionality.

Hodinkee are themselves incorrect in that they say ""10 minute countdowns are a common feature of many modern regattas"; '10 minute' isn't at all true; 'countdowns' is true, but the watch doesn't have one. They themselves imply that the watch is true to its functionality, not me, but it isn't.

If just using the same colours on a subdial classes it as a Skipper then fine - it's not a bad looking watch etc, but to mess up a simple thing like the main reason they called it Skipper in the first place is an error that would have a Chinese style riff derided out of hand on the fora.

The analogy is fine; my point was that a semi-recreation (but using the actual name) should at least be true to why that watch was special in the first place, like a Submariner is a dive watch so waterproof. Another analogy might be calling something the 'Universal moonphase' where the moonphase part cycles every day rather than every lunar month. Looks the same, but isn't.

Whether anyone is happy with that or not is up to them, but for me it's a lazy flaw in an otherwise nice watch. A non-regatta regatta.

 

Think of it as a Submariner without a turning bezel...

 

So it's like the Black Bay 36...(the exclusion of the bezel bothered me to no end when this first came out)