Heuer Carrera

Clean. Well-balanced. Classic. The Heuer Carrera has been called many things. Among today’s collectors it has earned a place as one of the most iconic chronograph designs. Each disparate part, from the case by Piquerez to the dial by Singer, unites to form a cohesive whole that is as attractive now as it was innovative when it debuted in 1963. We’ve offered plenty of them over the years, and many of us here at Analog/Shift count a Carrera in our personal collections. In other words, we’ve caught the bug. From the black-and-white dial of this Reference 2447NST to the silvery subtlety of this 3647S, we’ve offered them all, and love them all equally. But this is the first time that we’ve ever offered a gold-plated one.  In many ways a gold chronograph is a contradiction in terms. It’s a sports watch, a tool, not a luxury item to be pampered. Heuer’s chronographs were worn by the greatest of Formula 1 drivers, many of whom lost their lives going for the gold, so their watches had to be as tough as they were. And yet we’re hard-pressed to think of any one of them who wore a gold Carrera. That, we suppose, is the beauty of this watch. The lines are the same, the facets on the lugs as sharp in gold as they are in steel. Although the metal is unorthodox for a sports watch, the look of the watch is somehow enhanced in this most elegant of metals. Moreover, this watch, a Reference 2448, was made more than a decade before Audemars Piguet introduced the concept of luxury sports watches with the Royal Oak. While the Reference 2448 is by no means the first gold chronograph ever to hit the market (we've seen one or two mid-century examples), the fact that Heuer had the idea to encase such an iconic sports watch as the Carrera in gold is quite telling. What’s also telling is that, of all the Carrera designs to reintroduce, Heuer picked this one for a reissue in the 1990s. If that doesn’t speak to the timeless appeal of this watch, we don’t know what else does.