TAG Heuer Carrera

Carrera – The first chronograph

Today, the connection between luxury watches and race cars is closer than ever. However, the relationship between racing sports and time measurements that appeared to be so natural in the 60s was anything but reasonable. At the time, Jack Heuer named his new chronograph model series after the Carrera Panamericana: a dangerous and legendary race track located in Middle America. The Carrera quickly became the chronograph collection to own. It’s the first series that pays tribute to racing sports and is responsible for the determination of stop and interim time during motor competitions. Its special feature was its exceptional legibility combined with a high water and shock resistance.

Over time, the famous Calibre 11 and 12 have made way for the 5, 6, 8, and 1887. The Carrera program has also been expanded by elegant three hand watches without a chronograph function. It’s a name that is well-known and that’s thanks largely to Jack Heuer himself. Even when you didn’t spend your childhood sitting on the family room carpet glued to your Carrera race track in toy form, you know it’s all about racing sports. Everyone knows that.

Carrera broken down into numbers – Top 5 Facts

34: Thirty-four year break

The Carrera became famous after the Carrera Panamericana, which at the time, was one of the world’s most dangerous long-distance races. However, it was eventually shut down in 1954. A decade afterwards, the parents of a moderately famed Southern American race driver told Jack Heuer about the legendary race that is still very familiar to everyone on this side of the Atlantic. Jack Heuer became instantaneously captivated and named his newly designed and tough racing oriented chronograph series after the Panamericana. In 1988, thirty-four years after it had been shut down, the long distance race track was reopened.

0,0005: Five ten thousandths of a second

When a human blinks, it takes ten thousandths of a second. Hardly comprehensible that a mechanical watch musters up the necessary balance wheel frequency to even display a fraction of that. The Carrera Mikrogirder stops time to exactly two thousandths of a second and beat the benchmarks of the Carrera Mikrotimer (to one thousandth of a second) and the Carrera Mikrograph (to a hundredth of a second) in 2012.

39: Thirty nine millimetre case measurement

Similar to the Monaco collection, the Carrera program pays homage to the spirit of the past decade. Multiple heritage models ooze vintage watch charm and proudly bear the old Heuer logo. The Carrera Calibre 6 Heritage also follows the traditional case measurements of its role models from the 60s and 70s.

1887: The Calibre 1887

TAG Heuer launched the Calibre 1887 as a tribute to the company’s founder, Edouard Heuer, and his discovery of the oscillating pinion in the same year. It’s an in-house calibre with column wheel control, which is incorporated into multiple Carrera models in the most recent line-up of watches.

50: Fifty years after the introduction of the Carrera

The TAG Heuer Calibre 1887 Jack Heuer Edition was launched on the 50th anniversary of the Carrera. It was a tribute to the legendary Heuer President.

A Chronology of the Carrera

1882: Edouard Heuer presents the first Heuer chronograph and patents its mechanism. From this point forward, the chronograph is a pillar of all of this brands endeavors.

1887: Edouard Heuer patents his own invention of the oscillating pinion.

1963: The Carrera becomes a part of the Heuer collection.

1969: The Carrera is equipped with the famous Calibre 11 and its crown is positioned for a short time on the left side.

2013: The Carrera Calibre 1887 Jack Heuer Edition is launched and pays tribute to the inventor of the model line on Carrera’s 50th anniversary.