TAG Heuer Grand Carrera Calibre 36 Caliper Chronograph, early 2010s

Dealer description — Analog/Shift

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 36 Caliper 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 43mm stainless steel case with a sapphire crystal, a signed crown, ribbed pushers, a signed, red crown for the inner bezel, and a steel tachymeter bezel. It features a luminous blue dial with applied ‘doorstop’ indices and a matching handset, and a sophisticated chronograph with a ‘caliper’ scale that allows one to measure elapsed 1/10ths of a second. Pretty cool tech if you ask us! Said technology, by the way, is the TAG Heuer Calibre 16, 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 stainless steel, multi-link bracelet with a signed deployant clasp. Dating to the early 2010s, this Carrera is from a time when TAG Heuer was taking big risks, designing chronographs unlike any the watch world had ever seen. It’s a cool relic from a very specific period in modern watchmaking, and one we don’t see too many of. Check it out for yourself!