Jack Heuer is the man behind the TAG Heuer Carrera, the iconic sports watch that turns 50 this year. In this story from my blog, Watch-Insider.com, I reveal the Carrera’s fascinating history, with quotes and insight from Jack himself, and unveil the 2013 TAG Heuer Carrera watches introduced at Baselworld.
In 1963, Jack Heuer of the Swiss watch company Ed. Heuer & Co. SA (today’s TAG Heuer), the man responsible for some of the most groundbreaking advances in sports timekeeping, turned his attention to the specific needs of professional motor-racing drivers. A longtime fan of and participant in the sport, he knew exactly what was needed: a wide-open, easy-to-read dial and a shock-resistant and waterproof case tough enough for even the most intense road wear. He also had in his mind the ideal inspiration: the “Carrera Panamericana Mexico Road Race”, the world’s most grueling open-road endurance competition.
Jack Heuer: “I first heard about the Carrera from Pedro Rodriguez at the Twelve Hours of Sebring, where I was the Official Timekeeper. He and his brother Ricardo were two of the fastest, smartest and bravest endurance drivers of all time. To hear them talk of the Carrera, which our brand’s longtime friend Juan Manuel Fangio had won in 1953, but which had been stopped in 1955 after a number of fatalities, made my imagination soar. Just the sound of the name itself was elegant, dynamic, easily pronounced in all languages and charged with emotion. I knew then that my new chronograph was the perfect tribute to this legend.”
Heuer knew what the look and feel of the watch should be, too. Inspiration came from a range of innovative ideas, including many from early 1960s modernism – the geometric purity of Oscar Niemeyer’s new architecture, for example, and the curving, sensual lines of an Eero Saarinen building or chair, and the clean, uncluttered aesthetics of Pop Art. At the same time, the Carrera’s iconic design values are firmly rooted in the enduring codes of motor sports, such as the black & white of vintage dashboard counters and the perforated leather gloves favored by Formula One legend Juan Manuel Fangio and his contemporaries.
