A H E M I S P H E R E S S U P P L E M E N T
WATCH GU I DE
B.R.M.
V12-44-
CATERHAM-AN
F1 Team:
Caterham F1
Star driver:
Charles Pic
Director RonHoward’s recentmovie
Rush
depicts the cut-and-
thrust of Formula 1 motor racing in its most glamorous and
dangerous era, through the tale of the epic ba le between James
Hunt and Niki Lauda for the 1976 championship. Watch closely and
you’ll spot a word emblazoned on the cockpit of the Ferrari
driven by Lauda (played by Daniel Brühl): “Heuer.”
Nowadays the relationship between watch brands and
sports teams—particularly F1 teams—is ubiquitous,
but back then Jack Heuer was the first to establish a
direct link. Appropriately enough, both Brühl and
LiamHemsworth, playing Hunt, sport vintage 1970s
Heuer watches in the movie.
It was 13 years earlier, however, that Heuer created what
was arguably the first modern sports watch, inspired by a race
that was even more glamorous and dangerous than Formula 1. The
Carrera Panamericana was a furious five-day romp across Mexico,
which claimed 27 lives between 1950 and 1954, a er which it was
canceled. But the jet set had flocked to see professionals and
gentleman amateurs hurtling across Mexico’s dusty roads, and in
1963 Heuer seized on the machismo of the event as he sought to
create a chronograph wristwatch that would appeal to the young,
red-blooded and sophisticated men of the early 1960s.
The Heuer Carrera would become an icon of the modern
watch era, and it celebrates its 50th birthday this year,
having been in production—in constantly changing
forms—ever since. The original Carrera was sleek,
modern and minimalist, far removed from the fogyish
military chronographs that were rife at the time. It
was a watch fit for daring young men—and that’s the
case with its latest iteration too, the Carrera Calibre 1887
Racing Chronograph. With a high-tech movement made
in-house by TAG Heuer, a ceramic bezel bearing a tachymeter
scale—a traditional hallmark of the automotive chronograph—and
numerals inspired by old sporting stopwatches, it’s a dashing piece
of wrist candy fit for the modern racer, among them current
Formula 1 driver, and former world champion, Jenson Bu on.
LIFE IN
THE FAST
LANE
THREE
OTHER F1
WATCHES
1
2
3
IWC INGENIEUR
CHRONOGRAPH
RACER
F1 Team:
AMG
Mercedes Petronas
Star driver:
Lewis Hamilton
CASIO
EDIFICE
A1200RB
F1 Team:
Infiniti
Red Bull Racing
Star driver:
Sebastian Vettel
TAG Heuer’s long-standing relationship
with motor racing has inspired the daring
Carrera Calibre 1887 Racing Chronograph
