BASELNEWS: Where Legacy Meets Luxury - TAG Heuer Grand CARRERA
This season, TAG Heuer reaffirms its unchallengeable claim as the N° 1 watch brand in motor sports with an extraordinary new lineup of premium Grand CARRERA automatic chronographs and watches revved to a peak level of luxury performance. More than daring trendsetters, more than the luxurious embodiments of TAG Heuer’s peerless timekeeping heritage and unequaled legitimacy in the glamorous world of motor racing, these are status symbols that defy the status quo.
From Carrera to Grand CARRERA: A Unique Motor Racing Legacy
A timekeeping tribute to the grueling “Carrera Panamericana Mexico Road Race,” the original 1964 Carrera chronograph is a standard-bearer of TAG Heuer’s motorsports pedigree — a radical synergy that began with automobile-oriented timekeeping devices like Time of Trip (1911), the first car dashboard chronograph, and continues to this day through the brand’s partnerships with top level drivers and teams in every motor racing discipline.
In 2007, the iconic Carrera became the award-winning Grand CARRERA. A powerful fusion of sleek design and visionary technology, the Grand CARRERA — the first-ever chronograph inspired by the high-performance engine of a GT sports car — represents a revolutionary new way of telling time.
The Grand CARRERA is the first mechanical line of movements powered with an ultra-exclusive Rotating System, a new technology replacing traditional watch hands with rotating discs — just like on the dashboard of a sports car — enabling instantaneous and easy-to-read access to small seconds, second time zone (GMT) and chronograph time.
At Baselworld 2008, TAG Heuer pushed the concept even further with the Grand CARRERA Calibre 36 RS Caliper Concept Chronograph. The first automatic chronograph in the world featuring Caliper Rotating System, the Caliper Concept is powered by a COSC-certified TAG Heuer Calibre 36 RS, a column wheel movement oscillating at an astonishing 36,000 vibrations per hour, enabling the central seconds hand to tick off 1/10th second intervals. With unparalleled timekeeping accuracy and at-a-glance, cockpit-fast readability, the black-dialed Calibre 36 RS Caliper swept the most prestigious awards in the watchmaking world, including “2008 Sports Watch of the Year” at the Grand Prix de l’Horlogerie in Geneva, “Best Chronograph of the Year” at the 2008 Salon International de Alta Relojería (SIAR) in Mexico City, China’s “Fortune Design Award” and the Red Dot Design Award 2009. Now, in 2009, TAG Heuer once again showcases its unique ability to turn the most avant-garde concepts and innovations into high-prestige, ultra-luxury timepieces.
The bodywork of the Grand CARRERA Calibre 36 RS Caliper Chronograph is pure streamlined simplicity. Under the hood — avant-garde engineering of the highest order. The engine is the same movement that so impressed the watchmaking industry at Basel World: the powerful, COSC-certified TAG Heuer Calibre 36 RS column wheel movement, operating at an astonishing 36,000 vibrations per hour and measuring time to a breathtaking 1/10th of a second.
The dashboard is a stylish black 43mm dial designed for optimum readability and information. The spotlight feature is the exclusive Caliper Rotating Scale, an ingenious display mode marked by an oversize crown and red line at 10 o’clock that enables precise readings of 1/10th of a second — magnified 10X for rapid readability.
Ultra luxury and high-performance details include a linear second counter at 9 o’clock, and a date window at 4:30. The two Rotating Systems, indicating chronograph minutes at 3 o’clock and chronograph hours at 6, are stunning to look at, with high-luxury Côtes de Genève decorations and polished beveling. Other standout features are curved, faceted horns on both case sides, a curved, sapphire crystal with double antireflective treatment and a double sapphire crystal caseback sealed by six screws.
A matchless creation, the Grand CARRERA Calibre 36 RS Caliper Chronograph sports a black rubber strap with solid steel end piece, or a 3-row multi-faceted bracelet. Both options have a solid-steel folding clasp with safety push buttons and applied TAG Heuer logo. The Grand CARRERA Calibre 36 RS Caliper Chronograph is also available in a super-sleek Titanium Edition.