TAG Heuer Mens Carrera - Collection Overview

In the 1920s, the TAG Heuer brand was the official watch supplier to three consecutive summer Olympics, while in the winter it homed in on skiing and bobsled. However, auto racing was where it really discovered its identity and forged a partnership, with Formula 1 in particular, which was to become an indelible part of the brand.

Among the great watches that have emerged from that almost symbiotic relationship is the TAG Heuer Carrera, named after the epic Carrera Panamericana race that drew the great stars of the sport to the unforgiving terrain of Latin America in the 1950s.

The Carrera Chronograph made its bow in 1963 and was not only Heuer’s first watch line, with its own distinctive name, but a stylishly innovative watch featuring chrono dials pushed to the edge of the watch-face for a less cluttered and more readable look than was common in chronographs of the time.

The Carrera was a staple of the TAG Heuer catalogue into the 1990s, but disappared for a few years before the enduring appeal of the name and its legend led to its resurrection, first as a classic re-edition and then as a stand-alone line.

Since then, it has become a staple of the TAG Heuer collection, combining the dedication to precision timekeeping that was always a Heuer trademark with the subdued elegance and design-forward styling that has been brand’s trademark since it linked up with TAG.

So, the Automatic Chronograph Tachymetre comes with dials in black, blue, silver or brown, but the dashboard-like simplicity of the three sub-dials and the remarkably spare look of the watch as a whole leaves no doubt that, while elegant enough for evening wear, this is also a serious instrument.

The Automatic Chronograph Day-date, with its arabic numbers marking off every five seconds and the day and date windows, is more cluttered but no less sober for that, a serious watch for a man in love with speed and eager to measure himself against the rest.

The same goes for the Calibre S Laptimer Chronograph, though this is a decisively more fashion-forward timepiece than its peers; its three sub-dials positioned at 4.30, 7.30, and 12 are partly concealed, like three-quarter moons and the case comes in sand-blasted titanium. This model comes with a perpetual ‘retrograde’ calendar, a flyback chronograph with 1/100th of a second accuracy and, of course, a laptimer function capable of measuring across 20 laps.