In a posting just prior to Baselworld 2013, we pondered the question of what the new Carrera Caliber 36 chronographs would look like. We had some excellent clues, from the “Teaser” image posted by TAG Heuer in the run-up to Basel, and were able to make some good guesses about the appearance and features of these new chronographs.
Now that TAG Heuer has introduced the the Carrera Calibre 36 at Basel, and released photographs and specifications, we can provide an introduction to these chronographs. We will begin with a description of the watches, and then explore some Heuer history, to understand the origins of these watches and place them in the context of Heuer’s heritage.
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In yesterday’s posting, we pondered the question of what the new Carrera Caliber 36 chronographs would look like. We had some excellent clues, from the “Teaser” image posted by TAG Heuer in the run-up to Basel, and were able to make some good guesses about the appearance and features of these new chronographs.
Now that TAG Heuer has released photographs and descriptions of the new Carrera Calibre 36 chronographs, we can provide a quick introduction to these chronographs. Initially, we will post only a few photos of the new chronographs with brief descriptions, and we will soon add some background and more detailed descriptions to this posting.
Three Versions of the Carrera Calibre 36 “Flyback” Chronograph
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The BaselWorld fair, the biggest annual event in the watch world, opens on Thursday, April 25. BaselWorld 2013 promises to be especially important for TAG Heuer, as the brand continues its year-long celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Carrera and introduces new watches that will push the frontiers of “haute horologerie”.
This year’s fair will also mark the last Basel fair for TAG Heuer CEO Jean-Christophe Babin, as he will soon depart to become CEO of Bulgari. Since his arrival at TAG Heuer 13 years ago, Babin has focused on Heuer’s unique heritage in motorsports and its accomplishments in precision timing. We can expect to see more of both these themes in the watches TAG Heuer will introduce at Basel.
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Watch freaks are . . . well, come to think of it, “freaks” is a pretty good way to describe them. And surely one of the most bizarre habits of the watch freaks is “watch spotting”. Watch freaks watch (and re-watch) movies and TV shows, and put their 10X loupes on the weekly issue of People magazine, all in an effort to determine the watches that the actors, actresses, celebrities, athletes and politicians are wearing.
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On Monday, January 21, 2013, I attended the opening of TAG Heuer’s “50 Years of Carrera” celebration, in Geneva, and on Tuesday, January 22, I visited TAG Heuer’s Museum, archives and factory, in La Chaux-de-Fonds. I will cover these two amazing days in two separate “Scrapbook” postings, with this posting covering the Carrera celebration in Geneva and a second posting covering the visit to TAG Heuer’s headquarters. In addition to these Scrapbook postings, I will also post more detailed write-ups covering specific interviews, watches and experiences.
The Celebration – 50 Years of Carrera
There are two major watch exhibitions each year, January in Geneva and March (or April this year) in Basel. TAG Heuer chose to launch its “50 Years of Carrera” celebration in Geneva, on January 21. Hey, if you’re going to have a year-long celebration, better to start in January than in April!
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For vintage watch collectors, the difference between a “grail” watch and an ordinary watch is often a matter of small details. The texture of the paint, the length of a hash mark, the style of the serifs or the aging of the lume can all affect the collectability and value of a vintage watch. The 10x loupe has become standard equipment for examining the rare ones; sometimes, we need the extra power of a microscope, just to be sure. We showed you how little details can make a difference in the Black PVD Heuer Monaco.
It’s not so nuanced, however, for those pursuing the rarest of the vintage Heuer chronographs. There is one word — located at the top dead center of the dial — that evidences the rarest of the rare in the world of vintage Heuers. The word “Chronomatic” alerts the collector that he or she has found the ultimate vintage Heuer chronograph. In this posting, we will consider where the origins of the word “Chronomatic” and provide an overview of the four (or five) models that bear this special designation.
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Paul Gavin is one of our regular contributors to OnTheDash, and most of us consider Paul to be our very best photographer. Paul displays his beautiful photographs on his website HeuerWorld.com, and you can read more about Paul over there.
Recently, during a rainy weekend in the south of England, Paul spent some time producing some “art photos”, different in style from his usual more realistic photos. Paul posted links to these photos in a message on our discussion forum, and he has given us permission to give these art photos a more permanent home here. Accordingly, this page shows the six art photos that Paul posted on our forum (five Heuers and one Zenith), as well as two other photos that I especially admire (both manual-wind Carreras).
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“Leap Day” (February 29th) is a special day that only occurs every four years. Watch guys who own perpetual calendars marvel as the “29″ arrives at midnight; 24 hours, they are even more impressed when the date moves to “1″. This year, I marked Leap Day by playing hooky from work — traveling to New York City to take care of a couple of non-work related matters. I mean, in most years (or 75% of them, to be precise), 28 days are enough for February, so I decided to end February 2012 on the 28th and declare the 29th to be a free day . . . off the calendar.
During the course of the day, I saw a “Watch You Wearing” message on our discussion forum, so I decided to take some wrist shots, all along the way. [I usually don't take wrist-shots, but maybe I will make an exception every February 29th.]
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On November 3, 2011, Rich Crosthwaite — one of our Monaco experts — posted a message on our discussion forum regarding the Carrera Chronomatic dial shown immediately below. While our community had seen a handful of Chronomatic Carrera chronographs, all these had a gray-blue dial, with white registers, we had never seen a Chronomatic Carrera in the white-on-white design.
 
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Shown below is an eBay listing for a Chronomatic Carrera, that should teach all of us a lesson. The Chronomatics are among the rarest of the vintage Heuers, with no more than 20 samples known within the community of collectors. Of these, the Chronomatic Carreras are especially rare, with only three or four having been spotted over the past decade.
Read the eBay listing below, to see how a local jeweler — hoping to surprise the owner with a little extra work on the dial – destroyed the watch. It ended up selling on eBay for $1,200; an original Chronomatic Carrera in decent condition would probably have been worth at least five times that amount
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