Tag Heuer Carrera Heuer 02 GMT Chronograph
Rugged rally heritage updated with avant-garde technology
We have two Mexicans to thank for Tag Heuer’s Carrera line. Ricardo and Pedro Rodriguez were racing drivers who introduced Jack Heuer, great grandson of the company’s founder, to La Carrera PanAmericana, an incredibly dangerous motor race across Mexico. Though the event was discontinued in 1955 (but revived 33 years later), Heuer made his first Carrera in 1963, and 55 years on, the collection is still one of Tag’s best-loved.
This year has seen new additions to the Carrera collection, including the “Tête de Vipère” chronograph (at £12,100 the most affordable tourbillon on the market), and the striking Chronograph GMT. Inside the 45mm case, there’s a new in-house movement visible through the skeletonised dial and it evokes the classic Carrera aesthetic, with the 3-6-9 positions of the sub dials. The GMT hand, sandwiched on its axle between the hour and minute hands, sweeps over them to indicate the second time zone via the two-tone ceramic bezel.
“The Tag Heuer Carrera line benefits most from all the innovation we bring: in-house movements, connected watches, full ceramic watches, skeletonised designs and more,” says CEO Jean-Claude Biver. “The Heuer 02 GMT has our latest movement and skeletonised look enhanced by a beautiful two-tone bezel. It allows the Tag Heuer Carrera to go back to its original bi or tri-compax layout.
“We realised frequent travellers need to be able to set the time easily when arriving on a specific location. We decided to enable the client to directly set the local time hour hand, without moving the 24-hour GMT hand.”
There’s a reliable heft to the new GMT, and because it’s Tag it can take the knocks. At its manufacture in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, the stress testing process is extensive. Pushers each receive 10,000 robot-administered pushes before a design is cleared for production, while bezels are rotated 5,000 times. One leather strap survived being repeatedly stretched in the lab for 14 years.
Yet, above all, and for all its ruggedness, the Carrera Heuer 02 is chiefly a sumptuous update of a Sixties’ classic that remains true to its predecessors. And it’s a fitting way to celebrate an icon’s 55th anniversary.