TAG Heuer Carrera Automatic Chronograph Day-Date Review

[onzenuub]

Tag Heuer Carrera Automatic Chronograph Day Date

Some history of Tag Heuer and the Carrera

Heuer:

Founder: Edouard Heuer

Pronounced: "Tag Hoy-Yer"

Heuer Watch Company was founded in 1860 by Edouard Heuer. He opened a watchmaking workshop in St-Imier, a village in the Swiss Jura region. Heuer watches soon became recognized for a high level of accuracy and workmanship. Perfect for the timing of sporting events Heuer soon found its niche.

TAG Heuer has a long tradition of technological innovation in precision timepieces, including stopwatches and water-resistant watches. Reflecting this heritage, the TAG Heuer brand has long been closely associated with the world of competitive sports, providing official timing services for the Olympic Games, FIS Ski World Cup, FIA Formula 1 World Championship and other major international sporting events - automobile racing, ski competitions - since the early 1900's.

In addition, TAG Heuer continues winning an active following among sports enthusiasts around the world. Throughout its history, TAG Heuer has steadily built its reputation understanding design and innovation, as well as, a tradition, establishing itself as a leading producer of prestigious sports watches and chronographs

Timeline:

1860 - Edouard Heuer founds a watchmaking company in St-Imier, Switzerland

1882 - Heuer patents his first chronograph.

1887 - Heuer patents an "oscillating pinion" still used by major watchmakers for mechanical chronographs.

1911 - Heuer introduces the first automobile dash-board chronograph.

1916 - Heuer invents a stopwatch that is accurate to within 1/100th of a second called the micrograph.

1920's - Heuer watches are timekeepers at the Antwerp, Paris and Amsterdam Olympics.

1933 - Heuer launches the "Autavia" the first dashboard stopwatch for race-cars.

1950 - Heuer introduces the "Mareograph - Seafarer" a wristwatch with chronograph functions and tide indicator. (COOL WATCH!)

1963 - Heuer launches the "Carrera" chronograph. This watch was named for the 1950's "Carrera Pan-america Mexico" road-race.

1965 - Heuer patents the MICROTIMER, the first miniature electronic timekeeping device which was accurate to within 1/1000th of a second.

1969 - Heuer introduces the "Chronomatic", the first automatic chronograch with a microrotor. They also introduce the widely popular "Monaco" worn by movie-star Steve McQueen.

1971 to 1979 - Heuer is named the official timekeeper for formula one racing.

1975 - Heuer launches the "Chronosplit", the worlds first quartz wrist chronograph.

1985 - Heuer joins "TAG" group and the famous watch name and logo are changed from HEUER to TAG-HEUER. Since then the company has craftily built one of the most recognized watch names in the world. Tag-Heuer becomes a very popular and fashionable status symbol.

In 1950 Mexico was about to compete its section of the great Pan-American highway. To celebrate that event, it was decided to create a motor race on the 3,500 km distance of the highway from the border of Guatemala and the United States. From 1950 through 1954, "Le Carrera Panamericana Rally Mexico" was held five times. And five times the worlds greatest drivers traversed the vast expanse over terrain that varied from deserts, prairies, mountains and tropical jungles. A legend was born.

Introduced in 1963, Carrera was the first Heuer line of watches with it's own brand name. Although the Carrera was a evolution in terms of design for Heuer, its look was completely distinctive when compared to the commonly seen and sold chronographs of the 1940's and 1950's. Jack Heuer (pictured at left), the CEO of the company, wanted a watch with an excellent readability. So he printed the 1/5 sec scale on the "rehaut" (the inner bezel) of the watch. Tachymeter or pulsometer scales were not placed in the centre of the dial (a typical design feature of 1940's and 1950's chronographs), but formed an outer ring around the five minutes markers. The dial immediately looked bigger and cleaner.

It's fair to say that Heuer was already moving in this direction prior to the first formal naming of a Carrera model. The line was in continuous production until the late 1970's/early 1980's in one form, model, style or another. Design changed with the taste of the times from classical-elegant, round case, small lugs (until mid 1960's) to, well 1970's style - large and fancy cushion cases. The last vintage Carreras in the 1980's showed more modern designs like the contemporary Lemania, Omega or Porsche Design watches.

The official full name of this watch is TAG Heuer Carrera Automatic Chronograph Day-Date, it is added to the TAG Heuer Carrera family in 2008.

The TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph Day-Date has a TAG Heuer Calibre 16 automatic chronograph movement. This TAG Heuer watch comes with a 43 mm polished steel case with a tachymeter scale on its polished steel bezel and silver dial, with scratch resistant sapphire crystal with double AR.

Additional versions include brown aluminum bezel / brown dial, black aluminium bezel / black dial, bracelet made with 5 row alternate fine brushed and polished steel, black or brown alligator strap or black rubber strap. This are the three versions:

The Rep

The front

The watch I bought has the white dial and is from Precious Times. After unpacking it it looked great. Compared to the gen, the gen has a more white dial, the dial of the rep looks some more creme. Another flaw is the Tag Heuer badge above the day/date display

[MasterOfPuppets]

Great job

Thx

[By-Tor]

Excellent, excellent review.

This review deserves more attention (I'm guessing it's "hiding" in an obscure subforum, thus... the slow response).

Moved temporarily to General Discussion. I'll move it back to TAG Area or the "Other watch reviews" area. Let me know where you want it then.

From now on the newest high profile reviews like this can be kept in General Discussion so they won't get "lost" from the members.

PS: If I didn't have the white dial Panda Discovery, I probably would have bought this one. Very classy.

[onzenuub]

Excellent, excellent review.

This review deserves more attention (I'm guessing it's "hiding" in an obscure subforum, thus... the slow response).

Moved temporarily to General Discussion. I'll move it back to TAG Area or the "Other watch reviews" area. Let me know where you want it then.

From now on the newest high profile reviews like this can be kept in General Discussion so they won't get "lost" from the members.

PS: If I didn't have the white dial Panda Discovery, I probably would have bought this one. Very classy.

Thnk you master of reviews, just place it in the area what you think is best.

[By-Tor]

How is the bracelet on this one? I never owned a Carrera and I always thought the Carrera bracelets look very flimsy.

Actually my gen Aquaracer chrono bracelet is superbly finished but not the heaviest, either.

[onzenuub]

How is the bracelet on this one? I never owned a Carrera and I always thought the Carrera bracelets look very flimsy.

Actually my gen Aquaracer chrono bracelet is superbly finished but not the heaviest, either.

The bracelet is great, not that heavy as the Chopard bracelet, but works for me.

[maxman]

Fantastic review, very well done Thanks for taking the time to do It Mike

[By-Tor]

This excellent review has been added to the TAG Guide. Thanks for the contribution again.

[Marcoriain]

This is a great review, can you help direct me to a location to buy this rep.....I don't want to be ripped off. Surely you guys know who are scammers and who have Decent quality. Please help