Top Gear Season 21 Wrist Watch - Richard Hammond's Tag Heuer Grand Carrera Chrono

We briefly touched on Richard Hammond's Grand Carrera back in 2009, but that was with a dodgy low-res screen cap and it was more of a point-and-identify exercise than an in-depth look at the watch. Whilst watching the latest episode we FINALLY get another close up of the watch during the 'news' segment of the show, and this inspired me to do a proper post on it.

So as we have identified, the watch on Hammond's wrist is the Tag Heuer Grand Carrera Chronograph, Calibre 17, an officially certified chronometer. This is one of my favourite Tag Heuers. No, really. I've loved it ever since it was launched back in 2007 and I do think it is one of the most successful Grand Carrera models they've done. So successful in fact that here we are in 2014, and it is still part of the range. The reason why it is so successful? The disc system (where rotating disc display the chronograph minutes and the running seconds) rather than the more conventional hand display, and the perfectly balanced and symmetrical dial. Trust me. Balance and symmetry in a watch does wonders.

It also helps that there are some very well thought out design features. The bezel is very thin, which makes the dial look bigger, which I like. The shape of the double sapphire crystal in the back case is a nod to the two window cut-outs on the dial revealing the rotating discs. The minute hand that reaches the minute tracks!! This is something lacking in Tag Heuer's latest masterpieces and I really wish they'd kept it up.

The Grand Carrera was actually a brand new range of watches for Tag Heuer, and this range was designed to raise the, err, luxuriousness of the brand and move them higher up in the price bracket. In some ways this was done quite successfully, but it did take sometime. Keep in mind that it is always much more difficult to move up a price point than down, especially since the range didn't have any in-house movements to 'justify' the price. The movement powering the Grand Carrera Chronograph is an ETA 2824-2, which is essentially a 2892 movement with a chrono movement on top of it. Nothing spesh, sure, but it works perfectly fine.

And yes, I love it so much that I did end up picking one up myself. On the leather strap. But I really should've bought one on bracelet, since they're so expensive to buy as a spare part...

Top Gear Wrist Watch Season 21 - James May's Vintage Memovox

It's been a while since an update was done on Top Gear wrist watching. And to be honest, it's not that I didn't want to, but the boys from Top Gear aren't helping either. They haven't worn anything they haven't worn before. And on the occasion that I catch something that I think I haven't seen before, it's too far away for me to be certain. There was this one vintage watch on one James May's wrist that was first seen last season but for the life of me I just couldn't pick it. Watches from the 60s all look alike! So like any sane people would do in this situation, I gave up and not give it another thought. Until this current season.

As James may showed off his multitasking skills at the risk to his own life (driving, narrating, looking at the camera and NOT at the road, performing some fancy card trick with a top hat and doves in tow) my attention went straight to his wrist. And yes. That round vintage watch with a silver/beige dial is back.

This time I had help.

@initiahjh, a fellow watch enthusiast and connoisseur whose knowledge in all things vintage *ahem* is second to none. Plus apparently he was searching for something just like what May was wearing so I completely trust his insight. There were tell tale signs on this watch, and as you can almost make out from the below and above screen grabs, courtesy again of @initialjh, these were enough to go on.

So what are these tell tale signs? 1. 2 crowns- one each at 2:00 and 4:00 positions. 2. Something that looks like a disc in the middle of the dial. 3. You can just make out the triangle on this inner disc. and 4. Date window. From these visual clues @initialjh came to the conclusion that the watch is most likely the Jaeger-LeCoultre Memovox Alarm watch, from the 60s.

I won't bore you with a history lesson, so feel free to skip the next paragraph. Otherwise, here's the abridged version:

Jaeger-LeCoultre first introduced the mechanical alarm watch, the very first Memovox (the voice of memory) in 1950, with the Calibre 489. This was then followed by the very first automatic winding bumper alarm movement in watchmaking history in 1956 with the Calibre 815. The one on James May's wrist is powered by the Calibre 825, which is essentially the 815 with a date. This first came about in 1959. In 1970, the Calibre 916 replaced the bumper winding system with a full winding rotor and the balance frequency was increased frm 21,600 vph to 28,800 vph. The current iteration Calibre 956 is a direct descendant of the Calibre 815.

On the left is the original manual wind Memovox from 1950. On the right is the Calibre 815, the first automatic winding alarm with a bumper movement (see the springs?) The Calibre 825 looks the same as the 815 but with an added date function on the dial side.

The vintage Memovox is getting quite difficult to come by, especially one in good condition and original dial and hands. Here is an excellent post about all the variations of the 60s Memovox.

However, if you're like me and wouldn't mind a modern day version (and pay roughly 2-3 times the price of the one from the 60s) these are a lot easier to find. The current Memovox is part of the Master range, and with it comes the JLC 1000 hour control test. The watch case proportion is very well balanced at 40mm in diametre and about 8.6mm in height. Rather than having a hammer hitting a post and giving a buzzing sound for the alarm, the hammer hits a gong, giving it a very crisp note, which actually sounds quite melodic. The volume and quality is amplified if you have the watch sitting on a wooden bedside table, for example, as the wood reverberates the ring and the further improves the acoustics. Another great thing about the Calibre 956 is that it incorporates all the latest bells and whistles, including ceramic bead winding system, variable inertia balance and quick date setting.

Great. I think I just talked myself into a Memovox. Sigh.

Nothing new to report on the other 2 hosts. Clarkson seem to have gone back to his trusty Omega Planet Ocean. The length of absence corresponds roughly to the time it would've taken for the watch to be completely refurbished at the factory in Switzerland. And Hammond hasn't been showing his wrist lately. Someone should write to the producers. And the tame racing driver? Some say that he is so fast that if you strap a watch to his wrist (if he had a wrist) it would go backwards. And he believes by fitting a tourbillon to the engine it would counter the gravity effect on the pistons and make the car go smoother and faster. all we know is... He's called the Stig!

Top Gear Season 19 Episode 1: Wrist Watch

The long awaited season 19 of Top Gear is finally back on TV and the question on everyone's lips is (well, my lips at least) - Is Jeremy Clarkson still wearing his Omega Planet Ocean? Well, I'm happy to report that Clarkson FINALLY got himself a new watch! It seems like he now prefers to wear one watch and completely wear it out (in all the possible usage of the term 'wear') then goes off and buys a new one to do the same to. At least I think that's what his plan is. If wearing the watch out IS the plan then he has chosen wisely. His new watch will not age much (provided he doesn't drop it or wack it against something hard) and all he needs to do is change the strap every so often.

So... what IS his new watch?

Looks like the IWC Top Gun chrono in ceramic case. The Top Gun was part of IWC's 2012 SIHH release (see our post here) and I cannot fault his choice at all. IWC was the pioneer in ceramic watches (see post here) and it is only fitting they continue to produce watches with ceramic cases. The good thing about it is that the ceramic case will always look new. It is highly scratch resistant and hypo-allergenic. It's also very suited to this type of watches as it gives is a very stealthy look. If you don't like shiny watches this is for you!

Now here is where it gets tricky.

There are two different versions of the ceramic chrono. The ref: IW3789, is powered by valjoux/ETA 7750 and the one that Clarkson has, I believe is ref 3880 which houses the IWC manufactured 89365 calibre, which is a flyback chrono with 68 hour power reserve. Easiest way to tell them apart is that the Valjoux 7750 version has the running seconds at 9:00 position, and has both day and date displays.

Now don't be fooled by how the watch wears on Clarkson's wrist. Keep in mind that he IS a big guy, so any big watch will look normal on him. The IWC he's wearing measures 46mm in diametre and 16mm high. This is a big watch. I'd love to see how the 60mm Panerai Egiziano wears on his wrist.

I'll just gloss over what Hammond and May are wearing. James May has on his Omega Dynamic from the 70s in the studio shots (we covered the watch here) and can't quite make out what Hammond was wearing in the studio, but in the story piece he had the Breitling Navitimer on (covered here)

The other watch of note is the gold Rolex on one of the 'Dragons' of Dragon's Den. Ahhh.. I remember we used to have this show. It got axed quick smart. Maybe the dragons weren't as likeable. Or maybe we were lacking decent entrepeneurs. Looks like it's worked for the UK audience. The guy that tried out Clarkson's small car had a solid gold Rolex Yachtmaster II on.

The beauty of the Yachtmaster is in the eye of its beholder. It's a very bling watch, perfect for a 'dragon'. Aha. ha. I wonder if he ever uses the yacht part of his watch? The Yachtmaster features a prgrammable regatta countdown with mechanical memory for those of you into yachting.

That's kinda it for episode one. Hopefully in future episodes we'll have clearer shots of their wrists!

Top Gear 50 Years of Bond Cars Wrist Watching

Top Gear.. well, Richard Hammond recently did a Bond car special to celebrate the 50 years anniversary of James Bond. This episode is absolutely compulsory viewing if you're the least bit of a Bond fan, or a car fan. Of course, as we all know very well that all 3 hosts of the program are also somewhat watch enthusiasts, as our previous posts have shown. And this time around, Richard did not let us down, wearing no less than 4 different watches during the course of this special episode.

2 of the watches we've seen him wear before so I won't go into details. They are the Rolex Sub and the Breitling. The third watch he wore during the interview with Daniel Craig, is a Tissot T-Touch of some sort. There aren't really any clear shots of the watch during the episode so I couldn't tell exactly which T-Touch it is...

However, what was most interesting to me, and I had to do a double take (well, in this case, pause, rewind, zoom) to make sure I wasn't mistaking what was on his wrist for most of the episode...

Aston Martin DB5 - the most famous Bond car of all...

As Richard is driving the DB5, I couldn't help notice what was on his wrist. It can't be....

But it looks like any other Speedy, you say. What's so special about this one?

Well, I'm going out on a limb here since I can only determine from the screen caps, but it's most likely a 105.012 or a 145.012. These 2 references were produced in the late 60s/early 70s and powered by the cal.321, which had the column wheel arrangement rather than the cam and lever that's found the cal.861 and subsequent Speedmasters.

But it is!!! Not just any ol' Omega Speedmaster...

The 105.012 is the first Speedmaster to have the text "Professional" added after omega discovered that its watches were sent to the moon on the wrists of the Apollo 11 astronauts and there are only very minute differences between the 105.012 and 145.012. And if you can tell the diff, you're even more of a watch nerd than you're letting on. I won't go into details here. There are plenty of info out there on the interwebs.

Of course, there are no hard and fast rules back in those days and exceptions do apply. Finding one these days that had everything correct and original is becoming increasingly difficult.

Plus the fact that the Speedy were pretty much unchanged over the past 50 plus years, and that it's been around for so long, there are always going to be franken-watches (put together using original parts, but may not be original to the actual watch) or watches that were serviced and had parts replaced with later original items... and a whole host of other reasons.

That's quite a long limb I've gone out on. Let's bring this back to the episode. In my opinion, I've never seen Hammond as one for vintage watches. James May we all know has quite a few vintage pieces and they do go... well with his style. But that's the thing about the Omega Speedmaster. It's such a classic and iconic piece of great design and engineering that something made in the 50s (the very first iteration of the Speedmaster) still looks modern today. Just like BOND! 50 years old and still as relevent today as he was 50 years ago (totally biased opinion here), and the Aston Martin DB5. Granted car tech has moved on since then, but the design is still as gorgeous today as it was 50 years ago.

Sorry... but the same can't be said for Roger Moore...

During Hammond's interview with Daniel Craig we see briefly what appears to be an Omega Aqua Terra.

You can't really see it but Daniel Craig is wearing an Omega Aqua Terra... as per contractual agreement...

More Bond car porn...

Classic Toyota 2000GT

Lotus Submarine!

The Breitling Hammond's worn before on Top Gear

Aston Martin Vanquish

A close up of the Omega Speedmaster

Aston Martin DBS

We also catch a glimpse of ex-Stig, Ben Collin's wrist, and he is sporting a TAG Heuer Carrera chronograph day-date, which is powered by the venerable Valjoux 7750. 

Ben Collins wearing a TAG Heuer Carrera chrono

Hammond and Tissot T-Touch of some description...

So it would seem that Hammond's taste in watches is almost as diverse as James May.

Now, can someone convince Clarkson to wear something else????

Top Gear Season 18 Finale

This was a great episode for watch brands to flaunt their wares. Really. Top Gear should really do more of these open top car stories, and have the in-car camera set up directly in front of the watch on the left wrist. The only thing that is perhaps lacking is the camera should be filming in full HD, so that we can see the watches more clearly.

But here's a quick recap:

Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean (Seriously if Jeremy is STILL wearing this watch next season I won't be giving that watch any blog time, as much as I like it)

Richard Hammond and his ever classic Breitling Navitimer

The Hamilton "something something" - this was the one watch I could pick from the first episode "Season trailer". I think that it's also partly because Hamiltons aren't really available here down under (there may possibly be one dealer), so it's not something I see everyday (and I don't flip through watch magazines/forums as much as I would like).

Yet another classic Jaeger dashboard instrument...

... which was fitted to one of these jet engined powered 'cars'...

Top Gear Season 18 Ep. 5 Breitling Love-in

As the title suggests, we begin the episode with a Breitling love fest. The branding took up about 70% screen time for the first segment. How convenient that it just happens to form part of the story? In fact, it's received more screen time than the main protagonist. In this case, the Skoda rally car. (I say main because it is a car-based show).

All good natured sarcasm/ ribbing aside, we did get to see quite clearly the Breitling watch on Yves' wrist. However, it looks as if it was put on the wrist for the "shot"... Have a close look and see if you can figure out what was wrong with the way the watch was worn...

Yves Rossy wearing the Breitling Chronospace

So dear Breitling... Hope you're reading this. This is a heck of a lot of brownie PR value eh?

Now… to the watch. We'll concentrate on the special guest's watch, since, well, there is nothing much to report from the regular hosts. Clarkson is still stubbornly unwavering in his choice of wristwear, and we've already talked about May's Rado and vintage Omega (both of which we caught glimpses of again this episode) and Hammond appears to be wearing his Rolex (as mentioned here)

Richard Hammond wearing his Rolex- the paragraph on the dial gave it away...

The watch is the Breitling Chonospace, a quartz analogue digital watch. You will notice that ALL Breitlings are subjected to the chronometre certification process COSC (as mentioned on the dial) and I know what you're thinking - Of COURSE a quartz watch is going to pass the chronometre spec right? Well.. there is a separate test for quartz watches, with different parametres and tolerances. Obviously the accuracy tolerance isa little stricter than -4 to +6 seconds a day. It's actually +/- 0.07 seconds a day. See below table for the differences in the COSC standards between mechanical and quartz

COSC Standards
Mechanical	Quartz
Average daily rate: -4/+6	Average daily rate at 23 °C: ± 0.07
Mean variation in rates: 2	Rate at 8 °C: ± 0.2
Greatest variation in rates: 5	Rate at 38 °C: ± 0.2
Difference between rates in H & V positions: -6/+8	Rate stability: 0.05
Largest variation in rates: 10	Dynamic rate: ± 0.05
Thermal variation: ± 0.6	Temporary effect of mechanical shocks: ± 0.05
Rate resumption: ± 5	Rate resumption: ± 0.05
n/a	Residual effect of mechanical shocks: ± 0.05; 200 shocks equivalent to 100 G (981 m/s², 3,217 ft/s²)

Although Breitling does put every single one of their watches through the certification process, at least they don't feel the need to write a paragraph on the dial about it. Unlike certain other brands we know.

Different people feel differently about the COSC process.

Some say it's a way for watch brands to jack up the prices, and that non-COSC watches are just as accurate. All we know is, it helps sell watches.


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Top Gear Wrist Watching Season 18 Ep.4

And… for episode four we continue our focus on James May's wrist. Well ... the other two need to step up their watch game if they want to be featured more prominantly in the Tarts blog.  It's actually a very special episode today, and for once we'll actually look at something that's NOT on the wrist, but more about that later.

James May's choice of watches seem to match his wardrobe...

May continues to impress with his wrist presence and it seems like he's a bit of a vintage buff as well, although he's never shown off his vintage collection till now (at least on Top Gear). I suppose they match his wardrobe…

So we all know that Jeremy's Seamaster never seems to leave his wrist these days, but he's not the only one out of the trio that sports a Seamaster. May also has a Seamaster. Just not as we know it. 

Really.

James May with the Omega Seamaster Chrono-Quartz

As I write this I find myself contemplating the average age of the Top Gear viewer. Given the merchandising efforts from them I've seen so far, it might appear that many of the target audience could in fact be quite young. In which case, a good many viewers of said program will have never ever seen anything like what May has on his wrist. Except … perhaps fromsome really dodgy recent efforts from Diesel and Police watches. No. I will not dignify them with an image. There's always THIS.

Now if you want a proper analogue/ digital watch with street cred, there are two ways to go about it. You either get a Casio G-Shock or you can go the vintage route. These were all the rage back in the '70s when the quartz crisis hit, and the Swiss watchmakers were trying to hold their ground against a Japanese onslaught. I think it was almost a case of "if you can't beat them, join them". So here we are - an Omega Seamaster Chrono-Quartz.

The Omega Seamaster Chrono-Quartz - image courtesy of Antiquorum. Amazing to see that "quartz" is actually a selling point back in those days- seeing how it's placed so prominently on the watch face... Even more prominently than the brand!

According to our good friends over at Hodinkee it's the 1st anadigi watch and they also talk at length about the identity crisis of the Seamaster name, but I think many brands, Swiss ones in particular, went through the same in that period. Some simply ceased to exist cuz they can't make up their mind about who they are… but that's another story for another time. I won't go into too much detail about the watch as you can read it all over at Hodinkee. But identity crisis or not, there are some gems to be had from this period and this is definitely one of them. This watch was actually designed for the Montreal olympic games in 1976.

It's a chunky watch with a chunky bracelet (in keeping with the sport styling of the day) and it has plenty of wrist presence. It's a well balanced watch and sits on the wrist nicely, due to its 'widescreen' design. It's also one of the very few quartz watches that commands quite a bit of a premium in the secondhand market.

There's nothing on Clarkson or Hammond this time round, but we did get a close look at the wrist of Brian Johnson, the lead singer of AC/DC ,who was a 'guest' of sorts on this week's episode. What we see is a fairly typical rock star/ celeb wrist wear - the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph of some description. There have been so many limited editions made of this watch that I think even AP's lost count…

Audemar Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Chrono on Brian Johnson's wrist

Now, for something quite different…

1928 Bentley

This, according to James May, is a 1928 Le Mans body Bentley something or other, and back in those days, Jaeger (of Jaeger-LeCoultre) makes the dashboard instruments for many car brands, including Bentley, MG and Bamford & Martin (the latter would later on become Aston Martin, with whom Jaeger-LeCoultre has a modern day partnership, producing watches inspired by Aston Martin styling in their AMVOX range, and car key - in the form of the AMVOX 2 Transponder).

Jaeger dashboard instruments - Modern day Bentleys had to make do with Breitling clocks and "Breitling for Bentley" watches

Car key you say? well.. not quite. it doesn't start the car … yet, but I reckon James Bond would be better off with one of these on his wrist than that other brand... He can 'find' where his Aston Martin is in a sea of 'similar looking' cars in the car park, and open the doors to jump in for a quick getaway all by pressing on the crystal (it works in a similar way to remote car keys).

The Jaeger-LeCoultre AMVOX 2 DB9 Transponder

Let's hope we'll be able to talk about Clarkson or Hammond's wrists next time, and don't forget that all our other Top Gear watch spotting posts can be found by selecting the 'Top Gear' tag below…


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Top Gear Wrist Watching Season 18 Ep.3

It's only the third episode of the season and already we've seen four different watches on May's wrist, as you can see from our previous two posts … I guess we can assume he changes watches more often than he changes his outfits (I'm not sure if you noticed, but I think that Freddy Kruger stripey jumper is one of his favourites…).

We see in the film clip (screenshot below) where he test drives a hot hatch, that he's wearing a Rado Ceramica Jubile. I won't delve into which model exactly, since well, it's a bit hard to tell, but contrary to popular internet opinion, Rado was using ceramic as a watch case/ bracelet material long before the J12 was conceived.

James May with Rado Ceramica Jubile

Not quite the model James May wore, but you get the drift... 
Didn't realise it was so hard trying to find a good picture of this Rado...

Rado, believe it or not, were almost neck and neck with IWC in being the first watch brands to use ceramic- see our post HERE. IWC was first, but Rado has consistently had ceramic watches on range since 1986. What May is wearing is perhaps one of the most iconic ceramic Rados made - all black and futuristic looking. Especially back in the mid to late 80s. If there was ever a watch to feature in the 'future' in Back To The Future, I reckon this would be it. It goes really well with the hovering DeLorean.

Another good thing about ceramic is that it doesn't scratch easily, and will always look black and shiny, so it'll always hold that blingy look - as long as you don't drop the watch. But then again you shouldn't drop watches. Unless it's a G-Shock. In which case, drop away!

We also get a clearer look at the Breitling Navitimer on Richard Hammond's wrist during the news segment. He has some of the best expressions…

Richard Hammond and a nice close up of the Breitling Navitimer

No prizes for guessing what Jeremy is STILL wearing…




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