In a recent episode of the excellent Watches of Switzerland podcast Calibre, the editor, author and watch authority Bill Prince discussed the current revival in bi-metal watches. That’s to say, AAA Canada replica watches that combine two case metals, most commonly steel and gold, to create a high-low contrast. Prince’s point was that, like most trends, this was generational, and the bi-metal craze had its origins in the 1980s, when the deregulation of the banks meant swathes of young men found themselves with extra money to spend on luxuries like high quality fake watches, yet stopped short of going full gold.
Gold 1:1 cheap replica watches still held connotations as being retirement gifts, Prince reasoned. The object that tradition suggested dedicated company men were awarded after X decades service before shuffling off through their corporation’s revolving door one final time. And the last thing any newly flush young man in the 1980s wanted to look like was a fuddy-duddy who was on his way out of the door. Hence the trend for bi-metal. That way you could dress down a gold watch or dress up a steel one, depending on how you looked at it, and still telegraph your good fortune and taste.
What didn’t come up in the podcast was that there was at least one job that came with a company gift of a gold watch which could never be accused of being dull. The job of a Ferrari Formula 1 Racing Team driver in the 1970s.
That was the decade that the top copy watches brand Heuer – in the days before its Tag affix – ruled motor racing, its boss Jack Heuer being both a shrewd businessman and a whizz at marketing.
Jack realised that branding motorsport with his Swiss made replica watches was an effective (and then cheap) means of mass product placement. He signed a multi-year partnership with team Ferrari in 1971, and their cars and drivers sported the Heuer logo on their helmets and bodywork accordingly. As did the pit lanes, timing devices, barriers, and so on.
The watch boss even sweetened the deal by presenting winning drivers with their own personalised 18kt gold best fake TAG Heuer Carrera chronograph watches, reference number 1158CHN, engraved on the back by Jack himself.
Niki Lauda, Mario Andetti, Jacky Ickx, Ronnie Peterson and many more members of the iconic Ferrari F1 team – some of the greatest drivers from the greatest ever era of motorsport – all wore their gold Carreras and continued to do so long after retiring from the track.
Jack was asked many times to name his favourite perfect TAG Heuer replica watches and often cited the 1158CHN – the weighty 18k gold model that also offered an automatic in-house chronograph movement for the first time.
Today, these 2022 super clone watches fetch a pretty penny on the secondary market – Bonham’s shifted one a few years ago for £44,000, while Ronnie ‘SuperSwede’ Peterson’s own Carrera 1158 is in the Tag Heuer museum in Switzerland.
Now, in a year-ending announcement worthy of one of Steve Jobs’ “One more thing…” Tag Heuer is reissuing the replica watches shop site that has long been a collector’s grail.
The 2022 version of the Carrera 1158 flips the original colour scheme to produce a never-before-seen dial design – black with gold sub-dials.
The revamped two-tone look recalls the famous John Player Special livery which became iconic to a generation of boys who grew up watching F1 on the BBC on rainy afternoons in the 1970s and 1980s – usually accompanied by the famously overexcited commentator Murray Walker calling out the action.
The new high quality fake Tag Heuer Carrera Chronograph watches comes in a 42mm 18k yellow gold case with a black sunray dial. The dial features hours, minutes, seconds, date and chronograph function, while the three counters feature additional gold-plated hands and counters.
As Murray Walker used to say, “Unless I’m very much mistaken…” this is as close as it gets to the launch of a guaranteed smash hit – gold replica watches for sale that men in 2022, of all generations, will have few second thoughts about shouting about.