The Carrera was one of Jack Heuer’s most important passion projects, the design ethos for which can be summed up in one word: legibility.

Jack wanted a watch that was stylish and functional — a watch that gives you everything you need, and nothing you don’t. The original ran from the 1960s to the 1980s, its look shifting slightly as trends changed, ultimately taking on the cushion case design and automatic movements of the late 1960s and 1970s. In the 1980s, after Heuer was bought by Techniques Avant Garde (TAG), the Carrera line was discontinued. However, in the mid-1990s TAG Heuer realized that its classic designs still held value in the commercial market, and decided to re-release two watches: the square-cased Monaco and the Carrera.

The Grand Carrera Calibre 17 Chronograph that we have here, however, is a long way off from those simple, early chronographs envisioned in the early 1960s. Innovative and bold, it’s housed in a 45mm black titanium case with a sapphire crystal, a signed crown, and a titanium tachymeter bezel. It features a luminous gloss and milled dial with applied, polished indices, a matching handset, a date display at 6:00, and a dual-register chronograph that uses an innovative readout system reminiscent of automobile gauges. Pretty darn cool, if you ask us! 

Powering the watch is the TAG Heuer Calibre 17, an automatic chronograph based on the architecture of none other than the famed Zenith El Primero family of movements. COSC-certified, it’s visible via a sapphire display caseback. Paired to the watch is a black and orange rubber and leather strap with a signed titanium deployant clasp.

Dating to the early 2020s, this Carrera is proof that TAG Heuer is a brand that isn’t content to merely rest on its laurels, but rather, is a company taking risks in its designs and pushing the aesthetic envelope.