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Watches and Wonders 2023: TAG Heuer Celebrates Carrera 

At Watches and Wonders 2023 TAG Heuer adds two new Carrera watches that feature a new domed ‘Glassbox’ crystal.

One of two new 39mm Carrera Chronographs fit with a vintage-inspired Glassbox crystal.

One debut, a 39mm Carrera Chronograph, will arrive in two dial options and with an updated movement. The second is a Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon, a sister watch to a collection of previously introduced extra sporty Carrera tourbillon watches.

The new 42mm TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon is set under a Glassbox crystal.

In addition to these debuts, TAG Heuer adds color to two existing 42mm steel Carrera Chronographs. With a black or a blue dial, these new chronographs inject vivid orange detailing meant to recall the look of classic race car speedometers.

TAG Heuer also expands its Aquaracer nautical watch collection with an all-gold Aquaracer Professional 200 sporting a new movement, manufacture Caliber TH31-00, which delivers an 80-hour power reserve.

A second new Aquaracer Professional 200 series adds bi-color gold and steel models to the collection, offering four models in two case sizes: two at 40mm and another pair at 30mm. We’ll have more about TAG Heuer’s new expansion of the Aquaracer collection in an upcoming post. 

Glassbox Carreras

TAG Heuer continues to celebrate Carrera’s sixtieth anniversary with all these debuts. 

The new Glassbox chronographs are inspired in part by the reference 3147 “Dato 12” , the first Carrera with chronograph and calendar functions, and the rare reference 2447 NS.

But TAG Heuer looked to the 1970s for the inspiration for the new domed crystals that top these debuts, remaking in sapphire the hesalite crystals found on Carrera watches from that era.

The new crystal features a curve that flows seamlessly over the tachymeter scale, which runs around the dial edge and into the case. TAG Heuer has also added curves to the flange and indexes. 

The additional curvature pleases the eye and also means the tachymeter can be read from a wider range of angles. The new steel-cased chronographs also sport new pushers.

To kick-off the new collection, TAG Heuer offers one new model with a familiar blue dial on a blue calfskin leather strap. The second model debuts with a sportier black and silver ‘reverse panda’ dial (above) and comes on a black perforated calfskin leather strap.

Both of the new TAG Heuer Carrera Glassbox Chronographs are powered by Caliber TH20-00, an updated version of the Heuer 02. Visible through the clear sapphire caseback, the new movement now features enhanced decoration and a bi-directional oscillating weight. Earlier versions only charged the movement’s mainspring when rotating in one direction. Both are priced at $6,450. 

According to TAG Heuer Movements Director Carole Forestier, this new rotor design is a more significant change than you might imagine. When rotating daily, the new rotor is said to deliver faster and more reliable winding to ensure that the watch is more precise and that it is running closer to its maximum 80-hour power reserve.

Also new is the date display position. The date is at 6 o’clock on the blue-dialed model and at 12 o’clock on the ‘reverse panda’ version. Both new positions are said to clarify the wearer’s reading of the chronograph.

Chronograph Tourbillon

With the new Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon (above, $21,000), the watchmaker adds a sister model to the existing Carrera tourbillon, but here the tourbillon is framed (for the first time) with a smaller case (42mm) and a glass box crystal.

Echoing the look of the new Glassbox chronographs, the new tourbillon model is powered by Caliber TH20-09, TAG Heuer’s in-house tourbillon movement. This is a chronometer-certified automatic caliber with a chronograph function and an impressive sixty-five-hour power reserve.

With the Glassbox crystal, TAG Heuer expands the ability of the viewer to view the tourbillon. On the dial, TAG Heuer has curved the flange and indexes to both mirror and complement the edge of the crystal. 

New silver rings make the chronograph sub-dials especially easy to see while the chronograph’s central seconds hand is triangular shaped much like hands seen on 1960s race car dashboard instruments.

 

New 42mm Carrera Chronographs

One of two new 42mm Carrera Chronographs, each with new colorful dial accents.

In addition to its Glassbox debuts, TAG Heuer also adds new color options to existing 42mm Carrera Chronographs.

With a black or a blue dial, these new chronographs offer orange details. Both are powered by TAG Heuer’s Heuer 02, an in-house automatic chronograph movement, and both arrive on high-end calfskin straps. Price: $5,550.

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The Watches

Watches and Wonders 2023: Oris Teams With Kermit  

Oris has teamed with Kermit the Frog to produce Kermit Day, a special edition of its ProPilot X Calibre 400.

The new Oris ProPilot X Kermit Day

As debuted during Watches and Wonders 2023, the new 39mm titanium watch sports a notably bright green dial that echoes the famed amphibian’s own hue. But for added fun Oris tacks on another function: On the first of every month, the date window at 6 o’clock is filled with a Kermit the Frog emoji.

Kermit Day is all about having some fun, according to Oris. “If an Oris watch can make someone’s day better, we’ve done our job,” Oris explains in its description of the watch.

The remainder of the watch retains the existing specifications of the ProPilot X Caliber 400. The watch is an aviation-inspired vehicle that nicely exhibits the Oris Caliber 400, an Oris-built movement with an impressive five-day power reserve and highly anti-magnetic construction.

Oris notes that the Caliber 400 is accurate to -3 to +5 seconds a day (within chronometer certification standards). Its anti-magnetism stems from more than thirty non-ferrous and anti-magnetic parts (including a silicon escape wheel and a silicon anchor).

Oris underscores all its Caliber 400 Series watches with ten-year warranties and ten-year recommended service intervals.

Price: $4,600.

Also New in 2023

Oris enhances the performance of its groundbreaking automatic mechanical altimeter and places it into a new carbon-fiber composite case.

The new Oris ProPilot Altimeter

The new Oris Pro Pilot Altimeter is now thinner and more lightweight than it was in 2014. We’ll have details in a separate post next week.

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The Watches

Gerald Charles Chronograph Now in Titanium 

Gerald Charles adds a titanium-cased Maestro Chronograph to its collection of elegant curved-case watches. With the new watch, the independent watchmaker (founded in 2000 by famed watch designer Gerald Charles Genta) creates the first titanium case within its characteristic Maestro Chronograph line, echoing the earlier production of a titanium case within the Gerald Charles GC Sport collection.

The new Gerald Charles Maestro GC3.0-TN Chronograph is a titanium-cased addition to the collection.

The new chronograph’s Sunburst royal blue dial, seen earlier on a gold Maestro Chronograph model, beautifully reflects ambient light and quite effectively complements the polished titanium frame. 

As with the case on the GC Sport model, the titanium case for the chronograph required extensive development, according to Gerald Charles.

The watch’s unusual curved shape is a challenge to the case maker as Grade 5 titanium is much harder than stainless steel or even gold to manipulate into curved forms.

Another challenge arises when attempting to set and polish the Maestro’s pushers, which are set directly at two curves adjacent to the crown.

Gerald Charles notes that the new titanium Maestro GC3.0-TN Chronograph weighs less than half its sister model in stainless steel. 

Inside the watch Gerald Charles fits the GCA3022/12 Manufacture automatic chronograph caliber developed in partnership between Gerald Charles and Swiss movement specialists Vaucher Fleurier Manufacture. (See below for detailed specifications.)

The chronometer-standard caliber is beautifully hand finished and visible through a sapphire crystal case back. On the dial, Gerald Charles applies and polishes counters at 3, 6 and 9, to display the running seconds, chronograph hours and chronograph minutes.

Price: $25,400.

Specifications: Gerald Charles Maestro GC3.0-TN Chronograph

(Reference GC3.0-TN-01)
Movement: Automatic GCA3022/12 manufacture chronograph caliber, with counters at 3, 6 and 9, 50-hour power reserve, 28,800 vph, stop-second system, 351 components, 46 rubies, 6.07mm thickness

Case: 39mm x 41.7mm by 11.5mm grade 5 titanium, polished with screw-down crown also in grade 5 titanium with Clous de Paris finish and embossed logo, sapphire crystal and back. Water resistance to 100 meters.

Dial: Sunburst royal blue, hands and applied indexes filled with SuperLumiNova.

Strap: Royal blue vulcanized rubber strap with titanium pin buckle.

Price: $25,400 

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Featured News

A Tribute to Watchmaker Louis Raby

 

By Laurent Martinez

The wonderful thing about the love of watches and horology is that you learn something new every day. You can learn about amazing companies, industry insiders, collectors, watchmakers and watches by reading books and articles, listening to podcasts, watching YouTube videos, and of course, talking with fellow enthusiasts. 

Oftentimes, you hear the same names—the famous watchmakers that have left a legacy behind or big brands that everyone wants.

However, sometimes you come across an unfamiliar name that’s worth learning about.

I was recently listening to John Reardon’s Collectability podcast, which focuses on Patek Philippe, while also reading George Daniels’ book about Abraham-Louis Breguet. As you likely already know, Breguet is recognized as one of the very best watchmakers of all time; he was also an excellent businessman who was ahead of his time.

In the book, Daniels explained that many collectors may be disappointed to learn that Breguet only built a few timepieces himself. He actually had a team of exceptional watchmakers to whom he gave a lot of freedom to develop and manufacture watches and clocks. Breguet would then inspect each piece to validate the work before sending them to clients.

A friend of mine, who is a watchmaker specializing in servicing grand complication pocket watches made by A. Lange & Söhne, Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin and other high horology brands, told me that he wanted to show me a watch signed “Louis Raby” and find out if I knew that name.

Who was Louis Raby?

The truth is, little is known in detail about watchmaker Louis Raby. I reached out to the archive of Napoleon III The Empereur in Compiegne, France, hoping to get some information. Unfortunately, they could not tell me anything.

His name appears in Dictionnaire des Horlogers Francais published by Tardy as “Raby – succeda a A. Benoit a Versailles.” In 1867, “il exposa une montre en aluminum” (he exhibited a watch in aluminum), which was an extremely rare and difficult metal to use and work with during the nineteen century.

Between the author G. H. Baillie (who wrote the book Watchmakers and Clockmakers Of the World), publisher Tardy, and one other spelling variation (Rabi), it can be pieced together that Louis Raby was the third or fourth generation of a watchmaking family working in Paris for approximately a century and a half.

In the book The Art of Breguet by George Daniels, he describes Louis Raby as being one of Breguet’s most talented pupils, surpassing even the Master in the execution of his own pendule sympathique. More details can be read in that book on pages 90 and 180.

A Breguet Pendule Sympathique from 1814.

Fine finishing

After doing this research, I sensed that Louis Raby had a lot of credentials and that his work would be spectacular. My intuition was correct; when I saw the Louis Raby pocket watch in person, it was magnificent. Even my friend Don Loke, who was the former head of the technical department at Breguet, was speechless upon seeing the quality of the watch. He said it was, “one of the finest finished watches from the 1800s that I have ever seen.”

The Louis Raby piece in question is a splendid quarter repeater pocket watch with an instantaneous jump calendar with day, date, month, and moon phase. It is also the first pocket watch Don saw with a gold train through the repeating mechanism.

The level of quality and work on this 300-plus-part timepiece is outstanding. Don details the hard fire enamel white dial, followed by the blue enamel moon phase disk. In this video, Don presents the watch in detail including all parts of the movement. It is a real journey of beauty.

What makes these timepieces so valuable is a compilation of many things, but mostly name (provenance), complication, dial, screws, and quality. This was probably a pocket watch commissioned by the Emperor since the quality of the work is so remarkable. Don shares how he services a watch and the process he follows. It is a work of art. In the video he shows us how to put back the dial and hands – and the meticulous work it takes to do it.

I invite you to watch the video to not only discover this astonishing piece but also find how a watchmaker services a timepiece by walking us through the complexity and precision of timepieces. The video ends with the presentation of his next project and introduces us to his watch collection called D Loke, which includes his double escapement patent.

 

Laurent Martinez is the proprietor of Laurent Fine Watches, Greenwich, Connecticut. Read more by him at blog.laurentfinewatches.com or visit his store’s site at www.laurentfinewatches.com

 

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Featured News

Wempe Launches Two Ship Chronometers 

Wempe teams with British ship designer Tim Heywood to launch two new marine chronometers for yachts: The Wempe Marine Chronometer Cube by Tim Heywood and the Marine Chronometer Coco de Mer by Tim Heywood,

Wempe has made such instruments for seagoing vessels since 1905, and the new series adds a modern twist to the so-called ‘unified chronometers.’

The Wempe Marine Chronometer by Tim Heywood.

Heywood has equipped the two new clocks with large blue dials and contemporary typography. But perhaps the most revealing addition to the series are two openings at 4 and 8 o’clock that allow the ship’s captain and visitors a view of the Wempe Type 07 mechanical movement through the dial.

The new Wempe Marine Chronometer Coco de mer by Tim Heywood.

In addition, both new clocks are topped with highly domed clear borosilicate glass crystal. Twelve meridian lines radiate from the center of the glass and continue onto the wide, curved glass back.

Wempe notes that while the clock is turned over to be manually wound by key, the gimbal of the gold-plated brass case takes center stage and looks much like an abstract sculpture.

The movement offers a maximum rate variation of only 0.3 seconds per day while maintaining fifty-six hours of power reserve.

You’ll see an elaborate chain-and-fusée assembly through the clear case of each clock that ensures that the energy the mainspring feeds to the gear train remains constant.

The dark brown case of the Marine Chronometer Cube can be ceremonially opened using its three folding doors. The case for this model includes a gold-plated time zone map in the lid plus sixteen coats of varnishing and hand polishing. Price: $57,460. 

Heywood chose the curvy, feminine three-part case of the Marine Chronometer Coco de Mer in part because of the fact that ships are the only objects referred to using feminine pronouns in the English language.

Wempe explains that the case is also modeled after a coconut, which “can traverse enormous distances at sea unscathed, making it a perfect symbol for marine chronometry.”

Wempe coats the top of this model’s lid with bronze while the inside boasts gold leaf. Like its partner clock, the case is coated with sixteen layers of varnish. This marine chronometer is limited to fifty numbered pieces. Price: $91,825. 

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