Precision timekeeping is innately linked to motorsport, and although the partnerships that have arisen between watchmakers and racing teams have been all but inevitable, few are as appropriate or exciting as the official alliance of TAG Heuer and Porsche announced earlier today with the introduction of the TAG Heuer Carrera Porsche Chronograph.
Putting the shared Carrera namesake aside, the two brands have enough parallels and shared history in the racing world—not the least of which being the Porsche-built TAG-Turbo engines that propelled Lauda and Prost to a string of F1 championship titles with McLaren—to make this pairing feel like an overdue one, but we think this chronograph is a perfect place to begin.
When Jack Heuer decided to market the Carrera’s functionality for racing drivers in the 1960s, he chose Porsche factory driver Jo Siffert to team up with, with Siffert’s influence turning grids of drivers into Heuer wearers. And when the spectacle of Siffert and co’s Le Mans battles between Porsche and Ferrari was put to film, the Heuer brand found another link to Porsche in the Monaco worn on the wrist of Steve McQueen’s 917-driving character, Michael Delaney.
Representing the relationship in official capacity now, we have this handsome timepiece based on last year’s Carrera Sport Chronograph from the Carrera line that originated in 1963 (the same year as the 911). The new watch succeeds in incorporating Porsche’s racing identity into the design without the cloying heavy-handedness produced by less thoughtful collaborations between the realms of horology and motorsport, which is cause enough for celebration.
The Porsche name has been subtly located in place of the usual “tachymetre” text on the black ceramic bezel, and the applied indexes on the asphalt-inspired dial also make use of the Porsche font, creating an aesthetic effect alluding to the gauges on the dash of a 911 Carrera. The sub-dials count hours, minutes, and seconds, and a date function is included at the 6 o’clock position on the lower dial.
On the reverse side, the mechanisms of the watch (the movement is courtesy of the watchmaker’s in-house Calibre Heuer 02 Automatic) are visible through a clear crystal overlaid with a design that reflects the steering wheels seen in many of Porsche’s modern sports cars. Porsche Motorsport’s red, black, and white colorway is artfully applied throughout the design of the new chronograph, and continues with the packaging of this special edition piece in the form of a model-specific black watch box and black travel pouch lined with a red interior.
The TAG Heuer Carrera Porsche Chronograph is available for purchase with either a hand-stitched calf leather band ($5,850), or a steel H-pattern bracelet ($6,050). The 44mm steel case is water resistant to 100m, and the movement has a power reserve of 80 hours.
