Swinging Sixty

60th The TAG Heuer Carrera celebrates its anniversary with new additions to the storied watch family that highlight its legacy as an icon of timeless design.

- Renée Batchelor

The TAG Heuer Carrera, like many legendary watches, has a tale to tell. First introduced in 1963, it has since been seen on the wrists of arbiters of cool-think singer Mick Jagger, actor and race car driver Patrick Dempsey, and actor Ryan Gosling, the current face of the brand. The 60-year-old watch, originally designed with motorsports professionals and enthusiasts in mind, seems to have only gotten better with age.

From the start, the watch's racing roots have been an integral part of its identity. It was named after the Carrera Panamericana, a dangerous road race in Mexico that was run just five times in the 1950s before it was cancelled out of safety concerns. A young Jack Heuer, the company's newly-installed chief executive then, was enraptured by the romance and visceral edge of this high-speed race, and thought the name would make the perfect moniker for a new wristwatch chronograph the company was producing. The various meanings of "carrera"-it could be translated to "race," "career," or simply "path"-offered an open interpretation that leaned further into the watch's mystique.

Today, the watch is a symbol of aspiration and achievement, prized for its simplicity and performance, with an aesthetic influenced by Sixties design. Though Heuer was an electrical engineer by training, he had a keen interest in design and culture, and developed a taste for the works of Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer and and furniture designer Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Heuer carried that blend of function, modernism and beauty to his watch creations, including the TAG Heuer Carrera.