The Tag Heuer Carrera is, for my money, the hottest watch of the year so far. It’s the Carrera’s 60th anniversary, which Hodinkee marked with a 9,000-word testament to the collector enthusiasm for the watch, as the brand commemorated with the revival of a legendary vintage model. “The Tag Heuer Carrera is our flagship collection,” Frédéric Arnault, the brand’s CEO said in an email. “It’s also our bestselling line, commercially speaking. Although we animate all pillars of the brand, this year, with the 60th anniversary, the Tag Heuer Carrera is definitely the highlight.”
Tag Heuer came out swinging with grail Carreras in January, at LVMH Watch Week, where the brand debuted a watch inspired by a very desirable (and rare) version of the Carrera with a panda dial. The watch isn’t flashy, but as a reincarnation of a beloved racing-inspired watch with a black-and-white dial, it turned all the right knobs for watch collectors.
Whenever I talk to experts about why certain brands, trends, or particular watches seem to be making a comeback, I usually hear the same word: scholarship. As people learn more about a particular watch, it tends to become more desirable. Collectors find an enchanting colorway they didn’t know existed, or connect emotionally with a previously unknown quirk. “Comprehensive information and interesting stories drive interest in watches,” Jeff Stein, founder of Heuer-dedicated website OnTheDash, told me. The Carrera, he said, benefitted from a “Reference Points” bump—the attention created by Hodinkee’s legendarily long breakdowns that run through every version of a particular line of watches. This is where funky, defining details are given the spotlight. And the watch world is ruled and organized by funky, defining details. Stein is now getting texts about the Carrera’s idiosyncrasies: “Most collectors had never heard about the difference between ‘eggshell’ and ‘sunburst,’ and now I get messages from people looking for the eggshell models.”
If the panda-dial Carrera is an elegant throwback, Tag Heuer’s new Carrera Plasma came to party. It comes fitted with 108 lab-grown diamonds, or a in version with a neon-pink dial.
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