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Tag Heuer has announced a new edition of its Carrera Chronograph, the watch relaunched to great success in 2023 to honour its 60th anniversary.
Like last year’s Carreras, the new edition takes an admired 1960s model from the catalogue and gently modernises it, with a design that will please both hardcore Heuer-ologists and people who just like looking at nice watches.
The new model features a silvered dial with two black chronograph sub dials, the classic configuration known as a ‘panda’ dial.
It's based on Heuer model 7753 SN from the late 1960s – the ‘SN’ denoting ‘silver’ and ‘noir’, or silver and black, terminology that is a mix of English and French with origins no one can properly explain.
Like the 2023 editions, the latest model features the Carrera’s new ‘glassbox’ crystal, a vintage-inspired (but not a replica!) design reminiscent of highly domed acrylic watch crystals of yesteryear.
The 39mm steel case features a tachymeter scale that runs around the dial edge, curved rhodium-plated indexes and a rhodium-plated central hand with a red-lacquered tip, said to improve legibility.
Fans of watch-spotting-in-the-movies will recognise this as the same watch Matt Damon’s character Carroll Shelby wore in 2019’s Ford v Ferrari.
Fans of accuracy will also note that since that movie was set in 1966, Damon was wearing a watch that was at least three years away from being released.
Still, Tag Heuer remains in pole position as the motor sport watch brand, the one with the deepest historical ties, and the name that kits out man-of-the-moment Max Verstappen (he wears a DLC titanium Tag Heuer Monaco ‘Max Verstappen’ special edition).
There’s good money on the brand doubling-down on motorsport this year, at least if the Instagram of its heritage director Nicholas Biebuyck is anything to go by.
Other new releases today include new watches in the Monaco family.
Meanwhile, Esquire is not giving up its campaign to get the brand to relaunch its 1980s Formula 1 watch.
Inside the new Carrera Chronograph is the brand’s in-house chronograph movement with bi-directional winding, a new shield-shaped rotor and an 80-hour power reserve.
£6,100, tagheuer.com
