31 May, 2022

TAG Heuer, TAG Heuer Carrera, Watch Manufacturers, Watch Reviews

TAG Heuer Carrera x Porsche Limited Edition

The TAG Heuer Carrera x Porsche Limited Edition was recently unveiled at Watches & Wonders 2022. As well as sharing the same name, the Swiss chronograph and the Swabian thoroughbred also have many traits in common. Indeed, both products are synonymous with performance, precision and quality. Mark McArthur-Christie, a self-confessed horophile and petrolhead, shares his thoughts.

TAG Heuer x Porsche

Here’s a challenge for you. Pour yourself something good, sit down and come up with a headier combination than TAG Heuer, the Carrera Panamericana and Porsche. If you have any sort of petrol in your veins, you’ll already have images in your head of dust from dry Mexican roads clouding behind sideways 911s, Jack Heuer and the watch he named after the race.

Heuer ref. 2447

Depending on who you believe, the story goes that Jack Heuer got chatting to the parents of two Mexican drivers, Pedro and his younger brother Ricardo Rodriguez, whilst attending the 12 Hours Race at Sebring in 1962. They told him about a hardcore 2,178 mile race along the new north-south Mexican section of the Pan-American Highway. The ever-savvy Heuer realised that ‘Carrera’ was a belting good name for a watch. He said, “I loved not only its ‘sexy’ sound but also its multiple meanings – which include road, race, course and career. All very much Heuer territory.”

He loved it enough to register it and his first Carrera came off the bench just a year later, the ref. 2447. It is still – for my money – one of the most beautiful watches ever. Full stop. It’s what happens when someone designs a watch to do a single job in the simplest, purest possible way.

TAG Heuer Carrera x Porsche Limited Edition

The Carrera was designed solely as a professional timer for professional drivers. Jack Heuer wanted it to be readable at a glance, so the dials weren’t shiny or sunburst originally – that would reflect the light too much for a driver to read them easily – instead, they featured an eggshell finish. You got a running seconds at 9, a 30 minute counter at 3, a 12 hour totaliser at 6 and a chrono seconds emanating from the dial centre. You started the chronograph by doing nothing more complicated than pushing the button at 2, you stopped it the same way and reset it from the pusher at 4. There wasn’t really a way to make the watch any more stripped back.

Porsche 550 Spyder

Porsche, on the other hand, already had strong links to the race. In 1954, Hans Herrmann’s 550 Spyder had notched a class win – and came third overall – despite him having only two years of racing experience and coming down with something nasty just before the race. The latter was apparently solved by a kill-or-cure mixture involving half a litre of hot cognac and milk. Herrmann’s average speed for the 1,908 miles was, near as spit, 98mph. After that, in those conditions, he didn’t deserve a laurel wreath, he deserved canonisation.

TAG Heuer Carrera x Porsche Limited Edition

Carrera Panamericana

So both Porsche and TAG Heuer have every right to claim Carrera Panamericana heritage. This isn’t, though, the first time the two have collaborated. They already have the TAG Heuer Carrera Porsche Chronograph to their combined names. Now there’s another; this limited edition, released at Watches and Wonders 2022.

Although the original 2447, particularly in its early incarnations, feels almost fragile next to this new watch, there are still strong genetic links. There’s that black gold plated 30-minute counter at 3 with a Super-LumiNova tip, running seconds have moved to the 6 subdial (lumed too) with a 12-hour totaliser at 9 (more lume here). But you still start, stop and reset with the same snicky precision with the pushers at 12 and 4. Were he still with us, that greatest of Heuer aficionados, Jo Siffert, would have been able to buckle it on and use it without a second thought.

TAG Heuer Carrera x Porsche Limited Edition

TAG Heuer Porsche Carrera

Heuer always had an obsession with chrono clarity, so it’s good to see TAG Heuer continuing the tradition; the chrono subdials are differentiated from the main dial by using different backgrounds. The 3 o’clock dial has a grained effect, the 6 takes a matte black background but with graining around the edges and back to graining again for the 9 dial. That clarity is just as good in low light; the minute numbers at each hour position (take a quick glance at the dial to see) and the hour and minute hands are Super-LumiNova infilled with yellow and prove very bright indeed. The yellow’s a neat Porsche racing colour touch and really lifts the black dial.

Calibre Heuer 02 Automatic

Inside the case is TAG Heuer’s Calibre HEUER 02 in-house movement, first released in 2016, that’s already powered the Autavia, other Carrera models as well as some Monacos. Siffert might be surprised by the size of the new watch – 44mm diameter – but it would have perhaps been even larger had the Calibre HEUER 02 not been a tight 31mm diameter itself (the movement is just shy of 7mm in depth).

Heuer has played straight with the power reserve too – 80 hours – and still kept the beat rate up at 28,800vph. That’s the handy thing about a longer mainspring. The power gets into the mainspring by the steering wheel-shaped winding weight and, thanks to proper reversing wheels, it doesn’t matter how you move around, your watch still gets the motive power it needs; the winding is unidirectional.

Flipping the watch over, you might spot the bright Porsche yellow column wheel. Yep; this is a traditional column wheel movement with a vertical clutch too, so no second hand stuttering.

Your watchmaker isn’t forgotten either. Heuer managed to rationalise the parts list down to just short of 170 parts, including a KIF shock absorber for the balance. Unsurprisingly, the watch is said to deliver ‘exceptional chronometric performance’.

Although the TAG Heuer Carrera x Porsche Limited Edition is very much about function, the Calibre HEUER 02 is still a movement you could take home to meet your mother. There’s plenty of Geneva striping going on and all the screw heads you can see are polished.

All this finds a home in the 44mm stainless steel case that’s been DLC (diamond-like carbon) coated. There are plenty of yellow highlights, even in a band around the crown, to reinforce the Porsche connection too. The Porsche logo tachy bezel is ceramic too (and doesn’t move). All in all, the watch should survive most of what you’d throw at it in everyday life. And should you decide to throw your watch into something wet, it’s fine for 100m of water resistance.

Collaborations can often be sticky, with both partners vying for dominance. With this watch, though, we very much get a sense of balance. It’s clearly Porsche and clearly TAG Heuer which, given the brand constraints and strengths of both businesses, must mean a lot of common ground – either that or a seriously impressive design project manager.