more interesting to me is the.... Posted By: jhb Date: 11/3/04 00:16 GMT

the stated claims of this one being a ripoff of the speedmaster?? to me the only real connection to the speedmaster is the tachy bezel.

Omega has a slew of Valjoux 7750 based Speedmasters, both past and present, that sport a similar appearance. The lugs of the new Carrera:

(yeah, that's the one) at first glance bear a certain resemblence to the Speedmaster pre-moonwatch case, but in an interesting combination of a "Pre-Moon" Sans-crown/pusher guard case with plain lugs,

but on closer inspection the lugs are more in line with the classic Carrera 12.

The bracelet is clearly emulative of the current moonwatch bracelet style too.

and the TAG-Heuer Valjoux 7750-Based Carrera again...

plus the speedmaster has so many variations now, hard for any chrono to not be compared to it in looks, lol.:) i can't believe that omega has the claim to the tachy bezel, do they??

No, they don't have exclusivisity on the Tachy Bezel, on the other hand lets try to list the number of Vintage Heuer's with External non-rotatable Tachy Bezel's... All of the Autavia's have rotatable bezels, A quick look at the Guide to Chronographs reveals only the Jackie Ickx Easy Rider models. So this bezel is a departure for Heuer.

i once had my zodiac 7734 blasted as being a speedmaster ripoff on another forum, because it had a similar tachy bezel, but nothing else was even close, imo.

Personally, I would find it flattering if another brand came out with a simlarly styled watch. I can post other (than Omega and Heuer) brand watches that bear a certain resemblence to Speedmaster models past and present...

JH, you're not getting off that easy... Post a picture of your Zodiac 7734 so that we can pass judgement on it for looking a certain way! Show us!

on topic, i don't care much for adds myself. for example i despise omegas use of personalities to try to sell watches...that's just me though. this one doesn't offend me per say, but certainly wouldn't be the reason i would or wouldn't buy it.

I think the difference between this ad and previous ad's is that picturing Steve McQueen with a new Monaco "Classic" model is ok... McQueen made the original famous. Fangio had nothing at all to do with this Carrera, it's marketing BS and disuades me from buying an example rather than compel me to buy one.

I think there are better names and endorsement "faces" for this model as I said earlier...

i'm liking the watch. i'm not sure of the size but if it's 38mm or even up to 40mm, and it's priced reasonably....i'd consider it. Chuck summed up the name thing pretty well, so no need for me to go into that topic.

Secondly, this is obviously a good sized watch... Why? Take a gander at the gap between the date window and the outer ring of the dial... Here is my (non-)Pasadena 7750:

Here's the new TAG-Heuer Carrera automatic (yet again):

There is a lot more space between the edge of the dial and the date window. I'm thinking this new Carrera is at least a 40mm watch and it could easily be in the 42mm range and even possibly bigger.

I hope that TAG changes the color scheme of the date wheel to be white on black as I think that would really look much cooler.

-- Chuck