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TAG HEUER CARRERA AND MONACO

A design that remains contemporary and avant-garde across decades is not easy, and few designs – in architecture, in automobiles, anywhere – manage to achieve that timeless modernity. The Swiss watchmaking legend’s authentic link to motor-racing sports through its timekeeping activities, famous brand ambassadors and team sponsoring — from Juan-Manuel Fangio in the 1950s to Lewis Hamilton in 2007, and from F1 team Scuderia Ferrari in the 1970s to Vodafone-McLaren-Mercedes today — has always powered its unique creative drive, producing some of the most innovative timepieces and timekeeping devices in history.

The TAG Heuer Carrera is one of them. Carrera is Spanish for ‘race’, evoking the famous Carrera Panamericana rally in Mexico. Big names like Juan Pablo Montoya and Jeff Gordon wear it, and while the TAG line is full of iconic motorsport-inspired timepieces (like the square Monaco popularised by Steve McQueen in Le Mans), the Carrera Automatic Chronograph Tachymetre is an all time favourite. Like its Porsche namesake, the Carrera has been updated to keep with the times, but remains unmistakable. To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Steve McQueen’s trendsetting Monaco, and to pay tribute to TAG Heuer’s new partnership with the Gulf, a new limited edition version of the vintage chronograph
is unveiling its most advanced timepiece to date: the Monaco Twenty Four Concept Chronograph, a cutting-edge creation inspired by the supercharged race cars of the 24 of Le Mans. The luxury watch carries an oversize ‘24’ at 12 o’clock and the emblematic blue and orange livery of Gulf Oil – the same colours TAG Heuer Ambassador Steve McQueen wore in his 1970 classic film. The sophisticated concept watch is the latest in a series of groundbreaking concept watches based on the mythic watch of Steve McQueen. In 2003, the double-sided Monaco Sixty-Nine won the coveted Design Watch of the Year Award at the Grand Prix d’Horloge in Geneva. In a world first, the MonacoTwenty Four Concept Chronograph’s powerful TAG Heuer Calibre 36 movement ‘floats’ inside a black PVD case, suspended within an ‘energy manifold’ steel-tube, housing very much like a race car driver’s protective cockpit cage. The components inside the polished black PVD-coated case (based on the MonacoV4 case) are further insulated with a shock-absorbing ‘composite filter’ material used in aerospace and auto racing. The manifold arms collect vibrations and direct them away from the movement and into the composite filter, which absorbs and dissipates their energy.
The TAG Heuer Grand Carrera is a new premium collection of superlatively sophisticated timepieces inspired by the spirit of modern GT cars. Innovative and contemporary, it draws its DNA from the classic TAG Heuer Carrera collection born in 1964 and consistently reinterpreted ever since to become a TAG Heuer icon. The new TAG Heuer Grand Carrera embodies TAG Heuer’s unique motor-racing heritage and passion for avant-garde design and technologies. Amongst its many premium features is the ingenious GT car engine-inspired rotating system, making it possible to replace conventional hands by disk displaying functional information even more clearly on the dial.

   
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