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TAG Heuer Launches Carrera Chronosprint with Porsche

TAG Heuer teams with Porsche to launch the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronosprint x Porsche, the latest Carrera model that merges design elements from both brands.

The seventh joint launch since TAG Heuer and Porsche officially partnered in 2021, the new 42mm watch is a vision in silver and red, with red details highlighting references to the 1970s Porsche 911 dashboard design.

The new TAG Heuer Carrera Chronosprint x Porsche. A rose-gold-cased version is also available.

Beyond the dial accents, TAG Heuer has also built into the new watch a special version of its new TH20 automatic movement, which debuted this past March during Watches and Wonders.

The new reference here, the TH20-08 movement, features a chronograph seconds hand meant to echo Porsche 911’s ability to reach the 100 km/h in just 9.1 seconds.

Here, the central hand accelerates faster than usual at the start of the chronograph activation thanks to a clever use of a two snail-shaped wheels, which also create a decelerating motion for the central hand after sixty seconds. TAG Heuer makes the wheels using the so-called LiGA lithographic etching process.

On the dial, TAG Heuer continues to reference the Porsche 911.

At 6 o’clock for example you’ll find a subdial that directly recalls the area around 50 km/h that was often highlighted to indicate the recommended speed in urban areas.

The red portion of the 9 o’clock subdial is meant to be a reminder of the ‘critical engine limit.’ TAG Heuer opts to place the red line at 6.8 hours, a nice reference to that 6,800 RPM limit. Red lines on the flange recall the Porsche 911’s ability to reach the 100 km/h in just 9.1 seconds, a clear reference to the very first Porsche 911.

Look for a steel and a gold version of the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronosprint x Porsche, each featuring the same retro-inspired double glassbox sapphire crystal seen on Carrera debuts earlier this year.

These domed and curved crystals echo similarly domed hesalite crystal designs from the 1970s, but here have been revamped to add a curve that flows over the tachymeter scale and blends into the case.

From the clear caseback TAG Heuer designs a rotor to replicate the famed Porsche three-spoke steering wheel.

TAG Heuer will launch the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronosprint x Porsche watches with a calfskin leather strap, in brown for the gold edition and in black for the steel edition, each with an embossed number “911” on the strap.

Prices: $9,200 (steel) and $23,550 (rose gold).

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The Watches

TAG Heuer Launches Racing Blue Monaco 

TAG Heuer re-affirms its close connection to motorsports with the new Monaco Chronograph Racing Blue Limited Edition, a new edition of the famed square racing chronograph boasting a dial accented in a particularly French shade of blue.

The new TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph Racing Blue Limited Edition.

The highlight color of the new Monaco chronograph model is meant to recall the early days of automotive racing when cars were distinguished by their national colors rather than the colors of a manufacturer or sponsor. TAG Heuer’s new Monaco Chronograph Racing Blue also references the hues of automotive brands like Talbot-Lago, Delage and Bugatti.

Thus, TAG Heuer designers colored the sub-dials and strap on the new watch with blue tones, twelve blue markers and rhodium-plated hour and minute hands with blue SuperLumiNova.

This color scheme nicely matches the silvered sunray brushed dial said to recall the engine-turned dashboards of sports cars in the 1920s and 1930s. A hard-to-miss yellow stripe announces the chronograph central hand and the faceted baton marker at 12 o’clock.

Inside the 39mm titanium case TAG Heuer fits its modernized automatic Calibre 11 chronograph movement, which is visible through the clear sapphire caseback.

The watchmaker decorates the back of the watch with a “One of 1000” engraving that details the number of watches available in this TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph Racing Blue Limited Edition series.

TAG Heuer supplies a perforated blue calfskin strap with the watch. It’s linked to the wrist with a titanium folding clasp decorated with an engraved Heuer logo.

Price: $9,200.

 

Specifications: TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph Racing Blue (CAW218C.FC6548, a limited edition of 1,000) 

 

Movement: TAG Heuer Calibre 11 Automatic (Sellita base) powering hours, minutes, seconds, date and chronograph.

Dial: Silver sunray brushed with 2 blue opalin counters, angled date, rhodium plated, polished applied indexes, rhodium-plated hour and minute hands with blue SuperLumiNova, lime yellow lacquered central hand, black HEUER printed logo.

Case: 39mm grade 2 titanium sandblasted, beveled, domed sapphire crystal, titanium crown, sapphire caseback, water resistance to 100 meters.

Bracelet: Blue perforated calfskin strap with grade 2 titanium folding clasp with double safety pushbuttons. 

Price: $9,200. 

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The Watches

TAG Heuer Revives the Carrera Skipper 

TAG Heuer revives its Carrera Skipper this week, four decades after the colorful regatta countdown timer disappeared from the watchmaker’s line-up.

The new TAG Heuer Carrera Skipper.

Returning as a 39mm steel watch, the new TAG Heuer Carrera Skipper retains its brightly colored dress, sporting a circular-brushed blue primary dial with sub-dials in contrasting teal, green and orange.

The new model also features the Carrera’s new bezel-free ‘glassbox’ design with a broader sapphire crystal and curved flange dial, a combination that extends the viewing angle for the dial.

The new Skipper also retains many of the design features that marked the original, including large triangle-shaped markers at five-minute intervals around the outer curved flange, a bright orange central seconds hand and the Skipper name emblazoned at the base of the 12-hour counter. The new model adds a date to the dial.

New Series

The launch is just the start of a maritime revival for the watchmaker. TAG Heuer says it plans to create a new series of nautical watches led by the revived Carrera Skipper. The series will “mark TAG Heuer’s return to the world of yachts and yachting,” according to the watchmaker.

The new TAG Heuer Carrera Skipper (right) with the original from 1968.

TAG Heuer’s involvement in yacht racing starts in the 1940s, but the Skipper’s history commenced after the 1967 America’s Cup. That’s when Jack Heuer provided with winning yacht, the Intrepid, with a set of hand-held yachting stop watches and equipped her crew with Aquastar wrist watches featuring a customized countdown timer made of a red and white disc that rotated behind a series of five holes.

To celebrate that win, Heuer created the Skipper chronograph in 1968 with a 30-minute subdial that was adapted to count-down the fifteen-minute regatta ‘pre-start’ in three, five-minute segments. Later versions of the Skipper used the Autavia case, according to TAG Heuer, though the very first examples were based on the Carrera chronograph.

TAG Heuer is powering the new Carrera Skipper with its TH20-06 movement that boasts bi-directional winding and an impressive 80-hour power reserve.

Price: $6,750.

 

Specifications: TAG Heuer Carrera Skipper 

(CBS2213.FN6002) 

Movement: Caliber TH20-06 automatic displaying hours, minutes, seconds, date, chronograph 

Dial: Blue circular brushed. Blue flange with 60 second / minute scale 3 counters: 

 – 3 o’clock: green, orange & teal color lacquered 15-minute count-down
indicator; rhodium plated polished hand
–  6 o’clock: blue permanent second indicator; rhodium plated polished hand
–  9 o’clock: teal color lacquered hour chronograph counter; SKIPPER printed;
rhodium plated polished hand.

Rhodium-plated facetted, polished applied indexes, rhodium-plated facetted, polished hour and minute hands with white SuperLumiNova and orange lacquered triangle-shaped tip. Orange lacquered central hand 6 o’clock angled date

Case: 39mm by 13.9mm fine brushed and polished steel, bezel free construction, ‘glassbox’ domed sapphire crystal with double anti-reflective treatment. Water resistance is 100 meters.

Bracelet: Blue fabric strap with polished steel folding clasp with double safety pushbuttons

Price: $6,750.

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The Watches

TAG Heuer Launches Skeleton-Dial Monaco Trio  

The new TAG Heuer Monaco Skeleton Chronograph extends TAG Heuer’s partnership with the Monaco Grand Prix while adding a contemporary titanium-cased model to its classic square chronograph series.

The Racing Red edition of the new TAG Heuer Monaco Skeleton Chronograph.
The TAG Heuer Monaco Skeleton Chronograph Turquoise edition with blackened dial and case.

The new models feature contemporary titanium cases, still sized classically at 39mm by 47.4mm, creating a lighter option to the Monaco’s traditionally steel case.

TAG Heuer accents the rotor of the Heuer 02 chronograph movement with an engraved oscillating mass, always visible through the sapphire case back.
The Blue version, echoing the colors of the original Monaco.

And within the new case TAG Heuer opens up the dial to expose the excellent in-house Heuer 02 chronograph, creating the first skeletonized dial for a serialized, unlimited Monaco model (not including the unusual Monaco V4).

TAG Heuer launches three versions of the new Monaco Skeleton Chronograph, each glowing with a different dial, rotor and column-wheel accent colors (blue, red and turquoise) chosen to draw historical connections to earlier Monaco watches.

The blue model, which TAG Heuer calls Original Blue, echoes the debut Heuer Monaco blue dial, with blue and red dial colors, a blue column wheel and rotor. These blue tints are pay homage to the original Heuer Monaco from 1969.

The red option, called Racing Red, references racing sparks, with black and silver accents on the dial and a red column wheel and oscillating mass.

The Turquoise piece is a nod to the coast of Monaco, mixing a red-accented dial with a turquoise subdials, column wheel and rotor. This model also differs from the other two with its black DLC-coated titanium case and a sandblasted black skeletonized dial.

To extend the contemporary feel of the new series, TAG Heuer adds a healthy amount of SuperLuminova on the dial’s carved indexes, hands and —in another Monaco debut — on the date window.

Similarly, modern bi-material straps, which meld rubber and leather and offered in blue or black, are attached to each TAG Heuer Monaco Skeleton Chronograph.

Prices:  $10,750 and $11,250 (Turquoise edition with blackened titanium case)

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Featured News

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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