TAG Heuer Watch Week 2024: Two of the most interesting new models.
Where does TAG Heuer stand now that Frédéric Arnault has left for a bigger role within the LVMH Group? The age of Arnault was an issue, but the changes he made to TAG Heuer are worth a lot of credit. Arnault’s focus was getting TAG Heuer’s core models to be performing at optimum levels. Naturally, much of the focus was shone on two of Jack Heuer’s darlings — TAG Heuer Carrera and Monaco, although the TAG Heuer Aquaracer is one of the biggest beneficiaries after drifting listlessly for several years now.
This year’s novelty release at the LVMH Watch Week wields Arnault’s influence, which is a given considering watch designs take an average of 18 months at the earliest to conceptualise and then go into production. While there is much excitement as to what Julien Tornare brings to the table, having worked with a chronograph specialist for six years, we will still see pieces that bear Arnault’s identity, which is pushing the limits of conventional watchmaking, or into the avant-garde realm as TAG Heuer’s slogan suggests.
TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph – This watch features the new Glassbox design of 2023, and the Dato configuration. Similar to a few other reproductions, such as the TAG Heuer Carrera 60th Anniversary and Carrera Skipper, this year’s iteration tugs on the heartstrings of vintage Carrera enthusiasts. After several experimental productions after the original Heuer Carrera was born in 1963, the team arrived at a design in 1968 which saw the date window relocated to the nine o’clock position after it made a brief stop at the 12 o’clock position in 1966. This configuration, combined with a newly-designed Glassbox and calibre will help the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph have a successful year.
Read More about the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph in Gold
Curiously, the choice of dial colour might baffle some who would prefer a classic colourway for the Dato’s reintroduction, but TAG Heuer has a thought of their own. The unique teal green dial debuted in the 2021 TAG Heuer Carrera limited edition before reappearing in 2023’s TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph. This shade pays tribute to motorsport’s past, and in particular the vintage shades of green of racing cars from the 1920s through the 1960s. Selecting the colour was a nod to TAG Heuer’s racing heritage and the golden age of motorsports.
Another of Arnault’s marks would be the highly polarising TAG Heuer Carrera Date Plasma Diamant D’Avant-Garde. When the initial TAG Heuer Carrera Plasma Diamant d’Avant-Garde Chronograph Tourbillon concept was launched, it caused a stir amongst the watch community, notably for its synthetic diamonds and, unfortunately, price. Watchmakers have been proud of natural gemstones for many decades. Finding and matching the right colour is the most challenging part of setting gems. These constraints are eliminated by lab-grown stones, which can be reproduced. However, as a nod towards tradition, they haven’t gained much popularity amongst the watchmakers. As specialists of the avant-garde, TAG Heuer’s foray into this field would have raised nothing more than a few eyebrows. Who else would be willing to take on the challenge of tapping into the unlimited potential that lab-grown stones offer? The first piece was the ideal test bed; diamonds of irregular shapes were encrusted into the TAG Heuer Carrera Plasma Diamant d’Avant-Garde Chronograph Tourbillon’s case and bracelet, demonstrating diamonds need not be of the usual cuts.
Read more: TAG Heuer Carrera Road Map to Success
This year’s TAG Heuer Carrera Date Plasma Diamant D’Avant-Garde takes a more muted approach following last year’s pink predecessor. At the heart of this avant-garde creation is TAG Heuer’s revolutionary Plasma technology, which enables the delicate and sensitive growth of lab-grown diamonds. Diamonds, in their purest form, are colourless due to the absence of defects within the stone’s atomic arrangement. TAG Heuer has to dope the stones by adding atoms from different elements to get the perfect hue. Here is where TAG Heuer’s Plasma technology sparkles (no pun intended), as it can execute a controlled doping disorder in a perfectly regulated environment to produce high-quality lab-grown diamonds.
The 36mm white gold case is proudly adorned with a 2.9-carat multicrystalline dial. This dial is created by growing an enormous number of diamonds together to create a single entity with a high-faceted sparkle. 12 white gold indexes set with white baguette-cut lab-grown diamonds of 0.5 carats, and TAG Heuer’s signature shield cut in yellow lab-grown diamond sits atop the crystalline dial. Much of the attention, though, will gravitate towards the diamond crown — a single, 1.3-carat, yellow lab-grown diamond.
MensFolio.com is the original source of this article.
Click here to learn more about the latest watch readings.