VIDEO: “Is your 20k tourbillon of lesser quality?” Felix asks TAG Heuer GM Guy Sémon several burning questions on the Heuer-02T

Felix Scholz

[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/183285693″]

One of the hottest topics at this year’s Baselworld fair was TAG Heuer’s ’20k tourbillon’. And that nickname is even more impressive when you translate it into US, which gets it much closer to 15k. It represents the brand’s comparatively accessible take on that most hallowed (and most expensive) of complications.  TAG Heuer’s aggressively priced Carrera Heuer-02T – which retails in Australia for $20,450 – stirred equal measures of surprise and scepticism. Patek Philippe’s Chairman Thierry Stern held nothing back when he said that such a low-priced tourbillon was “nearly a joke”, commenting: “If [TAG Heuer are] willing to try to kill the quality of the Swiss product, I think they’re on a very good track.”

So when we met up with TAG Heuer General Manager Guy Sémon out the front of their imposing booth we wanted to find out why their tourbillon costs so much less than the competition. Is it completely machine assembled? Is it of lesser quality? And why is TAG Heuer now the “most important manufacturer of tourbillons in Switzerland”? This four minutes is worth your time if any of these questions pique your interest.