Jack Heuer, great-grandson of company founder Edouard Heuer, made perhaps his greatest contribution to the family business with the Carrera chronograph. Introduced in 1963, this simple, hand-wound tool watch—named, much like Porsche’s famous engine, for the notoriously dangerous Carrera Panamericana race in Mexico—featured a 36 mm case, a smooth bezel, a rehaut featuring a 1/5th-second scale, luminous sword hands, a mechanical movement from Valjoux, and a triple-register or dual-register chronograph layout. Available in silver, black, and “panda" and “reverse panda" designs, it was quickly adopted by numerous Formula 1 and other drivers in the mid-20th century. In the late 1960s, Heuer began powering automatic versions with its automatic Calibre 11 movement and its derivatives.
Photo: Courtesy Analog/Shift
For some time after the acquisition of Heuer by Techniques Avant Garde, the Carrera took a back seat to quartz-powered divers, chronographs, and plastic Formula 1 watches. However, the launch of the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph “Glassbox" in 2023 introduced a fresh generation to this important timepiece by updating its size to 39 mm and retaining the thing that set it apart in the first place — namely, its legibility. Powered by an automatic, in-house movement, its “glassbox" crystal sits above a curved, flanged rehaut that features both a tachymeter scale and a 1/5th-seconds scale. Because of this curvature, both scales are visible without crowding the dial, which boasts a date wheel for modern convenience. Simple yet brilliant, this contemporary tweak to Jack Heuer’s old design ensures that the Carrera will remain relevant for many generations to come.
From the article by Allen Farmelo, Paige Reddinger, Victoria Gomelsky, Oren Hartov, Blake Buettner
