Μιας που το αγόρασα ας παραθέσω ενα αρθράκι που βρήκα στο net το οποίο συνοπτικά εξηγεί τους πιθανούς λόγους που απέτυχε σε πωλήσεις το re-edition autavia...και μέσα σε δυο χρόνια βγήκε απο τη γραμμή παραγωγής δίνοντας αξία σε όσα κομμάτια κυκλοφόρησαν...
Με λίγα λόγια, για όποιον βαριέται να διαβάσει το άρθρο, το μοντέλο εικαζεται οτι δεν είχε απήχηση διότι:
-σταθερό bezel vs rotating
-new style pushers
-tag heuer logo vs σκέτο heuer
Και το πλήρες άρθρο....
The TAG Heuer Autavia re-edition (ref. CY2111) was launched in 2003. To launch the watch, TAG also released a limited number of special collector sets that had both a dash timer as well as the watch- playing on the heritage of the Autavia as a timer, not just a Heuer wristwatch. Seventy sets of these were produced in Siffert Blue and seventy in Orange- cost was almost US$8000 for the set.
So lets look at the watch itself first- below are the three versions of the TAG Heuer Autavia and the Heuer Autavia models that these re-editions were based on:
The Design
As you can see from the photo above, TAG adopted a different strategy for the Autavia re-editions, making them more modern interpretations of the key Autavia design features, rather than just copying the old design. The watch had a fixed rather than rotating bezel and initially came in the two most popular colours of the old Autavia- White with blue accents and black with Orange accents. The Rose Gold model was added later as a limited edition of 150.
TAG spent a lot of time on the bracelet for the Autavia, giving it a similar look to the original G&F “Grains of Rice” bracelet, but in a much sturdier design. The pushers moved away from the cylindrical shape of the old Heuer models to the design used on the modern Monaco re-edition- a mistake that TAG continues to make today in my opinion.
TAG also decided that it was time to drop the “Heuer” branding that it had used in the past re-edition series and instead these watches wore the TAG Heuer branding.
The movement
The effort that TAG went to with the Autavia is evidenced in the effort taken to move the crown to the left hand-side of the watch (the first of the re-editions to have this feature) and to use the famous “calibre 11″ brand for the movement. Of course, it wasn’t really a true Calibre 11 movement, but rather an ETA 2892 movement with Dubois Depraz chronograph module piggy-backed on the movement. This is the same approach used by TAG Heuer with the recent 40th Anniversary Monaco- only the second modern TAG Heuer with the crown on the “right” side.
So nothing wrong with the movement, expect that it isn’t a true calibre 11 movement- and you have to admire the effort to engineer the movement to allow for the crown placement in a manner that only enthusiasts would care about.
Overall
So to get back to the original question, what went wrong? TAG Heuer go and produce a modern interpretation of one of its most famous watches and the model is off the shelves within two years.
While its hard to pin-point a single reason, I think that the problem was that the TAG Heuer Autavia fell between the cracks of the old and the new- maybe not enough of a faithful reproduction of the original watch but not distinctive enough to appeal to new buyers. Reading back through the forum posts at OTD, the criticisms of the watch appear to be summed up by “Yeah, its nice, but I’d rather just buy the original”. The Vintage guys were put off by the non-rotating bezel and of course the TAG Heuer logo.
Maybe the new buyers who didn’t care about- or maybe even know about- the Heuer Autavia ended up comparing the Autavia to the Monaco as a potential purchase- and then going with the Monaco as it is more distinctive and seen as the “signature” watch of Heuer/ TAG Heuer.
http://www.calibre11.com/tag-heuer-autavia-what-went-wrong/Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
