Watches have always been used to celebrate success – either as gifts to champions for impressive achievements or as gifts to oneself to mark that “you’ve made it”. TAG Heuer’s latest, most luxurious timepiece, however, might be the ultimate winner’s spoils.
There are few watchmakers more intimately connected to motorsports than TAG Heuer. Indeed, their most famous watch – the Carrera, a chronograph explicitly designed for the racetrack – is named after a famous road race, the Carrera Panamericana rally.
1970 saw the arrival of the first yellow gold automatic Carrera, the Heuer ref. 1158 CHN, which were then-CEO Jack Heuer’s personal favourite. Jack, a bit of a maverick and a canny salesman, was very fond of gifting these luxe Carreras to winning drivers, marking them out as must-have signals of success – a brilliant marketing strategy.
Those early gold Carreras are highly sought after and are a real grail for collectors. Thankfully, in 2022, TAG has brought back the gold Carrera, debuting a stylish new dial design and implementing a variety of quality-of-life updates, making these new gold Carreras more precious than ever.
As you might have guessed, the new TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph (ref. CBN2044.FC8113) boasts an 18ct yellow gold case, hardware and a black alligator strap with a gold pin buckle. So far, so bougie.
It’s the new dial design that’s particularly interesting: black with gold sundials. It’s actually the inverse of the 70s ref. 1158 CHN – but motorsports fans will immediately recognise it as the same colours of the famous John Player Special livery, which graced cars throughout multiple motorsports, from Formula 1 to V8 Supercars. Subtle, sumptuous and full of history, it’s a great design.
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Under the hood beats the Calibre Heuer 02, TAG’s capable in-house chronograph movement. With an 80-hour power reserve and 100m of water resistance (not that you’re likely to go diving with such a watch), it’s just as capable as a race-winning car, too.
TAG Heuer has already had a pretty amazing year of releases: the insane Carrera Plasma, the tasty purple Monaco, Ryan Gosling rocking a Carrera ‘3 Hands’ in The Gray Man… But they’re just going from strength to strength with this gold Carrera.
It’s a uniquely luxurious and classy piece that pays homage to the glory days of motorsport – big egos, fast and dangerous cars, the glamour of the jet set – while also not being overly ostentatious. Find out more about it here.
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