TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon x Senna Watch Review
The TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon x Senna pays tribute to the legendary racing driver while honouring Heuer’s rich patrimony and mastery at making exceptional chronographs. Mark McArthur-Christie, a self-confessed Heuerphile and 2447S owner, explores this latest apex-clipping racing machine from La Chaux-de-Fonds.
TAG Heuer x Senna
Senna’s numbers speak for themselves with records for most consecutive poles, more consecutive front row starts than anyone else, most consecutive wins at the same Grand Prix – Monaco, more consecutive pole positions at the same Grand Prix at San Marino and the highest percentage of front row starts in a season – you get the idea. But it wasn’t just Senna’s numbers it was the way his wheel and pedal inputs, although extreme, appeared utterly effortless. Senna was, as near as dammit, a god.
Watch the video of him driving the pre-production NSX at Suzuka in 1989. In full ‘80s white-sock-and-Cordovan-loafers rig, he pushes the car around the track on the edge of its abilities but effortlessly within his, with the rev counter seldom far out of the red. By the time he’d finished, the speedo needle had spent so long on its stop that it must have been bent, but there’s never any sense of rush, excess input or – God forbid – panic. He simply climbs out and wonders if Honda’s new supercar is ‘a little fragile’ before presumably strolling off for a suitably ambrosian lunch.
While he was transcending Suzuka, he had a leather-strapped TAG Heuer chronograph on his wrist, as he so often did. Now 35 years later, the firm has launched another in the long line of Senna watches.
TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon x Senna – introduction
This new watch – the Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon x Senna – is about as far away from the watch Senna was wearing that day as possible, although, to be fair, there’s plenty to love about his late ‘80s s/el CG1123. In ‘89, TAG had only just taken over the firm of Heuer four years earlier, quartz was in its infancy and the idea of a renaissance in mechanical watchmaking would have got you laughed off the circuit. Now, TAG Heuer has very much focused on mechanical innovation, particularly pushing the way cases, movements and dials interact. The evolution of the two watches, in many ways, mirrors that of their maker.
Heuer himself said of the original Carrera, “During my student years I had become a great lover of modern design. I loved all the furniture designed by Le Corbusier and Charles Eames. As a student, I even managed to save enough money to buy a Charles Eames lounge chair, although it did look a bit out of place when I put it in my rather shabby student digs in Zurich.”
It’s quite an achievement to stay true to Jack Heuer’s almost austere design principles of ‘clarity first’, but TAG Heuer has pulled it off with aplomb, despite the new Carrera’s notable complexity.
TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon x Senna – dial
There’s still very much a sense of original Heuer clarity here, with the chronograph functions all picked out in yellow. Neatly – and thoroughly appropriately – it’s the same yellow as the firm has used for the Senna logo and name on the bezel. There’s blue on the inner edge of the rehaut, the chrono subdials plus the column wheel and a green seconds track – if you know your Senna helmet colours (or your South American flags), they’ll be thoroughly familiar. There’s even a nod to the man’s fondness for speed with 400 km/h on the tachymeter scale.
Where the original 2447S dial would have been either a classical matte eggshell or sunburst, this new dial doubles as the movement’s skeletonised bridges. They’re grained black and backed with a chequered flag pattern. Despite all that studied Heuerian clarity with the chrono functions, on paper the dial just shouldn’t work. But in real life it does. Where the hands are lacquered yellow (or rhodium plate with white lume for hours and minutes), the dial base is matte. Where the hands are light, the dial’s dark. Everything’s clear, simple and easy to read at a glance.
TAG Heuer Calibre TH20-09
The movement has moved on a bit from the original Carrera’s column wheel Valjoux 72, too. The tourbillon calibre TH20-09 does duty in several of TAG Heuer’s contemporary lineup as it has since March 2023. It’s a descendent of the 2016 calibre 02, but has been reworked by the firm’s remarkable Carole Forestier-Kasapi. There are changes to gear profiles (quieter automatic winding) and the automatic weight now winds both ways. There’s plenty of reserve power in case you put your watch aside for a couple of days – 65 hours in total from full capacity – and the movement beats with 33 jewelled bearings at 28,800 vph (4Hz). As you’d expect, it’s also COSC chronometer-certified.
Building a tourbillon into a sports watch is an interesting choice. It certainly demonstrates Forestier-Kasapi’s confidence in her design, materials and team of watchmakers. It’s tempting to think of tourbillons as delicate little flowers, more suited to the world of Haute Horlogerie than going sideways around a racetrack. Not in this case – no babying required. But there’s enough proper watchmaking to keep the cognoscenti happy; a free-sprung balance, polished screw heads and contrasting brushing on the tourbillon cage.
It’s a handsome thing, too, with côtes de Genève in evidence, but to be fair, though, you don’t get to see much of it despite the display back. Here, Senna-worship perhaps fittingly beats movement veneration; the sapphire has been etched with Pascal Rondeau’s iconic shot of Senna looking out from his racing helmet.
TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon x Senna – case
The case itself has moved on considerably from both the ‘63 Carrera and TAG Heuer’s 1980s creations. No more stainless steel, now it’s a 44 × 15.1 mm brushed and sandblasted Grade 2 titanium case. Very much unlike the original watch, you could happily wear this one swimming. The screw-on caseback and screwdown crown give you 100 m of water resistance (don’t even THINK about swimming in a ‘63 Carrera).
The lug sides are recessed and machined with four channels between the pushers. Given the case is titanium, any weight saving here will be academic, so it seems a safe bet that the recessing and machining are aesthetic rather than practical – not that there’s anything wrong with that. You operate the chronograph with the two brushed and contoured titanium pushers at 2 and 4 o’clock.
The bezel is carbon fibre and fixed with a tachymeter scale and, strapwise, there’s a curved-end rubber strap (more blue) with a brushed and sandblasted Grade 2 titanium folding clasp. Unlike its inspiration, it won’t go anywhere in a hurry with double safety push-buttons.
TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon x Senna – closing remarks
A cynic might say ‘Another Senna watch from TAG Heuer? Really?’, but that would be unreasonable as well as a little unkind. This one stands in its own right whether you’re a disciple of perhaps the finest driver of the late twentieth century or a devotee of serious watchmaking. And, given the usually rarefied price tags of some tourbillon watches, CHF 37,000 may not be cheap but it gets you a lot of watch with a cracker of a movement for your money.
Further reading
Technical specifications
- Model: TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon x Senna
- Reference: CBU5081.FT6274
- Case: fine brushed and polished Grade 2 titanium, diameter 44 mm, water resistance 10 ATM (100 metres), forged carbon bezel, sapphire crystal to front, exhibition caseback.
- Functions: hours, minutes, chronograph: 1/4 second, 30 minutes counter, 12 hours counter, Tourbillon 1 minute
- Movement: Calibre TH20-09 automatic, frequency 28,800 vph (4 Hz), 33 jewels, power reserve 65 hours
- Strap: blue integrated rubber strap with fine brushed and sandblasted decor. Grade 2 titanium folding clasp with double safety push buttons.
- Price: CHF 37,000 (RRP as of 31.10.2024)