The Tag Heuer Carrera is, for my cash, the most well liked watch of the 12 months thus far. It’s the Carrera’s sixtieth anniversary, which Hodinkee marked with a 9,000-word testament to the collector enthusiasm for the watch, because the model commemorated with the revival of a legendary classic mannequin. “The Tag Heuer Carrera is our flagship assortment,” Frédéric Arnault, the model’s CEO stated in an electronic mail. “It’s additionally our bestselling line, commercially talking. Though we animate all pillars of the model, this 12 months, with the sixtieth anniversary, the Tag Heuer Carrera is certainly the spotlight.”
Tag Heuer got here out swinging with grail Carreras in January, at LVMH Watch Week, the place the model debuted a watch impressed by a really fascinating (and uncommon) model of the Carrera with a panda dial. The watch isn’t flashy, however as a reincarnation of a beloved racing-inspired watch with a black-and-white dial, it turned all the proper knobs for watch collectors.
At any time when I speak to specialists about why sure manufacturers, traits, or specific watches appear to be making a comeback, I often hear the identical phrase: scholarship. As individuals be taught extra a couple of specific watch, it tends to turn into extra fascinating. Collectors discover a fascinating colorway they didn’t know existed, or join emotionally with a beforehand unknown quirk. “Complete data and attention-grabbing tales drive curiosity in watches,” Jeff Stein, founding father of Heuer-dedicated web site OnTheDash, advised me. The Carrera, he stated, benefitted from a “Reference Factors” bump—the eye created by Hodinkee’s legendarily lengthy breakdowns that run by way of each model of a selected line of watches. That is the place funky, defining particulars are given the highlight. And the watch world is dominated and arranged by funky, defining particulars. Stein is now getting texts concerning the Carrera’s idiosyncrasies: “Most collectors had by no means heard concerning the distinction between ‘eggshell’ and ‘sunburst,’ and now I get messages from individuals on the lookout for the eggshell fashions.”
If the panda-dial Carrera is a sublime throwback, Tag Heuer’s new Carrera Plasma got here to celebration. It comes fitted with 108 lab-grown diamonds, or a in model with a neon-pink dial.
