Introducing the TAG Heuer Carrera NISMO Calibre 16 Day-Date Chronograph Special Edition (specs & price)

When you think about racing cars and car-oriented chronographs, you should have only a restricted amount of watches in mind. If you think now about the 24 Hours of Le Mans, you certainly only have one single brand in mind: TAG Heuer – mainly because of the Heuer Monaco worn by Steve McQueen during the movie Le Mans. For 2015, TAG Heuer partners with the Nissan / Nismo Team and the result of this collaboration is a modified Carrera. Here is the new TAG Heuer Carrera NISMO Calibre 16 Day-Date Chronograph Special Edition.

Even though TAG Heuer is actually in a transitional period with a repositioning strategy (the difficult moments we reported seem to be part of the past now), conducted by its new CEO Jean-Claude Biver and that led to different types of watches, like the vintage-inspired Carrera Calibre 18 Chronograph Telemeter or the very modern Hublot-style Carrera Heuer-01, TAG Heuer’s latest piece of news was refreshing. In fact, even before seeing the watch in question, knowing that TAG Heuer continues its path with racing-oriented chronographs is more than welcome for us, long-time aficionados of the brand. Knowing that the latest partnership concerns the 24 Hours of Le Mans is even more appreciated. These have been the roots of the brand for more than 60 years.

This special edition of the Carrera Calibre 16 Day-Date Chronograph celebrates the new partnership between TAG Heuer and the Nismo team, engaged this year at Le Mans again after 16 years of absence (with a very special car, a 1000hp hybrid front wheel drive behemoth). Don’t expect to see such a specification sheet with the latest creation of TAG. The TAG Heuer Carrera NISMO Calibre 16 Day-Date Chronograph is a simple chronograph with a decent price, a variation of an existing edition with new colours and materials. At least, TAG Heuer stays loyal to its new conduct line – watches priced under 5.000 Euros, except some limited editions or semi-prototype watches.

The TAG Heuer Carrera NISMO Calibre 16 Day-Date Chronograph comes with a 43mm case made in titanium and coated in black, with titanium-carbide. This dark colour scheme can also be found on the dial, with a black background and charcoal grey pinstripes, black and polished applied numerals and several red accents – for the chronograph hands (the central second one, the minute one and the hour one), for the stitching of the Soft Touch matt black alligator strap and for the Nissan / Nismo logos, both on the bezel and into the small-second counter at 9.

This special edition is powered by the calibre 16, meaning an ETA Valjoux 7750 or one of its clones, like the Sellita SW500. This 12-hour chronograph, actuated by a cam, featuring 42 hours of power reserve, with day and date indications and ticking at 4Hz is an ideal and robust choice. The use of the Calibre 1887 (TAG’s proprietary movement) would have led to a watch priced over 5.000 Euros (because of the coated titanium case). In addition, the reliability of the Calibre 16 / Valjoux 7750 is unbeatable.

The TAG Heuer Carrera NISMO Calibre 16 Day-Date Chronograph Special Edition (but apparently non-limited) will retail for 4.750 Euros. More details on: www.tagheuer.com.