Spotlight: TAG Heuer Carrera – a brief history and review of the new sport chronographs

For this instalment of Spotlight, we are going to focus on the iconic TAG Heuer Carrera. This year is the 160^th Anniversary of TAG Heuer, and so far in 2020 we have seen two new releases of Carrera inspired from its history, which were accompanied last week by four new contemporary pieces. In this article, we will explore a potted history of the Carrera before taking a look at some of the new TAG Heuer Carrera Sport chronographs, released last week.

This article comes with a big thankyou to @fedorology and @thewatchesofwilson for allowing us to use their great shots of their Carreras

The Carrera Journey

The Carrera will always hold a special significance to me personally as it was my first foray into the world of luxury watches. A few months before moving back to the UK from Sydney, I wanted to mark my time there with a special purchase, and I immediately fell in love with the Carrera. Five years on, it is still probably the watch in my collection which I wear the most, for me it is most definitely a keeper and one I will treasure forever.

However, I must confess that at the time when I bought it, I had no real knowledge of the historical significance of the Carrera collection and what it represented. When I started learning more about it, I began to look at the watch in a different light, appreciating it more not just for what it is, but the story behind it. In fact, it was this learning process which in part led to the creation of Watch Affinity.

So, what was it about the Carrera that I learned that made me feel like this?

The first Carrera timepieces appeared in 1963, the brainchild of then-Chairman Jack Heuer and one of the first lines of watches that he designed. The name is taken from a Mexican road race from the 1950s, the Carrera Panamerica, which was itself short-lived only running between 1950 and 1954, before being cancelled in 1955 following a string of race-related fatalities.

The design of the watch is deep-rooted in motor-racing, with the Carrera taking inspiration from the dials within the racing cars themselves. Set within a 36mm case (with distinctive lugs which have remained intrinsic to the Carrera’s life even up until today), the chronograph dials were designed to be clearer than other chronographs of the era in order to enhance their legibility, and owing to its motor-racing roots it of course incorporated a tachymetre scale around the edge, which allowed the operator of the chronograph to calculate the average speed over a known distance. The extra space afforded by the clearer dials meant that the Carrera was far easier to read than other chronographs at the time.

All things told, it grew into an immediate success, and Heuer went about creating different variations of the Carrera with varying complications such as the date. The Carrera soon grew physically, too, with the introduction of a 39mm case, offset by slightly shorter lugs, with the second generation in 1969. The movement inside was Heuer’s famed calibre 11, the world’s first automatic chronograph (although depending on who you speak with, this assertion could cast a fierce debate around Zenith’s El Primero movement!)

During the 1970s, Heuer affirmed theirs and the Carrera’s relationships with motor-racing by creating relationships within Formula 1 racing – as a part of their relationship with the legendary Ferrari team, Heuer gifted a solid gold Carrera to each Ferrari driver, with their names engraved on the caseback. There are of course other famous Heuer watches with a similar affinity to motor-racing, too, in the Monza, Camaro and of course the legendary Heuer Monaco, made famous by Steve McQueen.

Following the start of the quartz crisis at the end of the 1970s, Jack Heuer was forced to sell his shares in the business in 1982, and the brand Heuer in 1985 ultimately found its way to being acquired by TAG (Techniques d’Avant Garde) and the brand name became TAG Heuer as we know it today. Unfortunately, this takeover resulted in a hiatus for the Carrera, with a business move to focus on more accessible pieces such as the Formula 1 range.

During the 1990s, trends started to veer back towards vintage. At this point, TAG Heuer decided to relaunch the Carrera in 1996 as a special edition and champion its heritage, the launch event was even attended by Jack Heuer himself – a true mark of the man to step in an help a brand he once owned relaunch a watch he had himself designed just over three decades earlier. These re-editions were faithful to the original Carreras and were even released with the Heuer logo as opposed to TAG Heuer – the first timepieces under the TAG Heuer name to do so.

The start of the new millennium also marked a new start for TAG Heuer when it was purchased by LVMH group. The new CEO, Jean-Christophe Babin, led the team which revitalised the brand’s offering to celebrate the history of Heuer, placing the Monaco alongside the Carrera as new stalwarts of the collection rather than limited pieces. In what I think was a wonderful gesture, he also installed Jack Heuer in the position of Honorary Chairman of TAG Heuer.

From this point onwards, the Carrera has grown to become the largest collection on offer within the TAG Heuer catalogue, with a huge range of vintage inspired pieces through to modern and even tourbillon timepieces, catering for both ladies and gentlemen.

The collection was grown and re-established with new pieces based on Lemania and latterly ETA movements. However, after around 2010 TAG Heuer started focusing on creating their own in-house movements. This started with the mass-produced calibre 1887, alongside a handful of low production high-horology calibres such as the famous Mikrograph. More recently this has seent he release of the Heuer 01 and Heuer 02 movements, with the Heuer 02 even available in a Heuer 02T tourbillon variant.

This overview does not begin to do the full history of the Carrera justice, but hopefully has helped convey some of the sentiment which gave a deeper appreciation for me in my own Carrera; I found the adventurous spirit of motor-racing and its connotations of living life on the edge can start to permeate from the watch once you learn of this history.

I always feel that the mark of a true icon is that you can identify it just by looking at it, and I think that this is true with the Carrera. The distinctive design first used in 1963 with its clear and legible dials, as well as the distinctive Carrera lugs, have been a constant throughout. If you were to place an original first-generation Carrera next to the most recent 44mm chronographs released last week, you would again see similarities are evident.

On that note, let us now take a look at the new additions to the collection, the 2020 TAG Heuer Carrera Sport Chronograph, featuring the in-house calibre Heuer 02 automatic…

The 2020 TAG Heuer Carrera Sports Chronograph

As we mentioned at the outset, this year is the 160^th Anniversary of TAG Heuer, and the two releases of Carrera so far in 2020 have been vintage inspired pieces. However, last week saw the introduction of four new additional models being added to the Carrera line-up, and we can expect more to come later in the year, too.

So, what of the four new additions? Well, there are three models in steel with a H-link metal bracelet (reaffirming the sporty vibe), and a fourth with a black leather strap, gold crown and chronograph pushers with further gold accents, making for a dressier look.

Each of the models is a 44mm case size, which I have to say I thought was going to be a bit over-sized on the wrist, even though I often wear my 43mm Carrera myself. However, these models do have a shorter lug which I think offsets the size difference and makes these surprisingly comfortable on the wrist. Of course, a 44mm watch is not for everyone, but if you’re partial to a slightly larger watch size these certainly don’t feel like they’re 44mm big. The design of the case too is a great mix of polished and brushed surfaces, accentuating the angles intrinsic in the design wonderfully well. In the picture below you can see how the two different models size up next to each other.

The three steel models which I tried each looked great – the blue and black dial colour were each paired with a matching ceramic bezel with tachymetre scale, whereas the green dial had a steel bezel – I think a wise choice as this seemed to somewhat subdue the appearance of the dial, at least to me, and give a more refined connotation than if it were accompanied by a green ceramic bezel as well. My only gripe with the dial would be the inclusion of “80 hours” at the bottom of the dial – personally, whilst it is obviously an impressive feature of the Heuer 02 calibre, I think this would have been better incorporated on the back of the case either within the movement or around the sapphire caseback.

The Heuer 02 is the latest in-house movement from TAG Heuer, an automatic chronograph calibre with date complication which offers an impressive 80 hours of power reserve (we have written a guide explaining the chronograph complication for further reading here). It is showcased through an exhibition caseback, with the chronograph column wheel visible at the 12 o’clock dial position. I really like the almost skeletal design of the rotor which allows you to see more of the movement behind it, and it is also incredibly responsive in terms of rotation. The chronograph pushers offer an extremely satisfying click when pressed, too.

These new models mark somewhat of a return to the traditional Carrera style that we might expect after the recent foray into skeletal designs seen with the Heuer 01 and Heuer 02 Carreras from the last few years (that being said, who knows – maybe we may some more of this with the releases later in the year). I really enjoyed getting hands on with these and studying their detail – whilst the 44mm case might be off-putting for some, I really would suggest going to try them for size before considering it a deal-breaker. In my opinion it doesn’t look, feel or wear as though it was that big at all, and is nowhere near as heavy on the wrist as you might think.

In Summary

My affinity with the Carrera started in earnest after I had already bought my first watch, however knowing what I know now I am very glad that it was my first purchase. I loved the watch itself, which is why I bought it, and learning about the history only served to reaffirm that for me. I find that having a greater awareness of this history also enables you to appreciate the onward journey as well, and so better understand how the new models have come to be.

To my mind, these new releases are welcome additions to the Carrera collection and fuse the traditions of Carrera well with today’s technological advancements in the Heuer 02 model. The blue, green and black dial models are priced £4695, with the model with gold crown and pushers priced £5395. Each are available now.

Finally, a huge thank you to @fedorology for the page header shot, and to both @fedorology and @thewatchesofwilson for the great shots of their Carrera pieces – be sure to follow these guys on Instagram for more awesome shots of their watch collections!

If you have any questions, or want to share your thoughts on the new TAG Heuer Carrera 44mm sport chronographs please get in touch via our Contact page, or via our Instagram.

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