Mario C 
TAG Heuer’s entrance into LVMH Watch Week 2025 has certainly been a stunner, but in my opinion – Purple Reigns! A new Carrera Glassbox reference has dropped with a new coat of paint, and some additional tricks besides!
Hot off the heals of the Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon in purple comes the new TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph in a matching smokey purple dial, and I’ll start out by saying, it’s stunning! Purple is one of those colours isn’t the easiest to master, and with this release, TAG Heuer seems to have nailed it. Being one of the most iconic chronographs in history, the Carrera has played host to a number of different complications and colours, but only once has it ever been decked out in a spectacular royal purple. That one time was in a now discontinued, 36mm ladies quartz watch.
Now that they have the 2023 Carrera Glassbox at their disposal, however, I’m certain that TAG Heuer’s design department is keen to make good on lost opportunities. If you’re unfamiliar, the aesthetics of the 2023 Carrera Glassbox are a heartfelt homage to the retro Carreras of old: A relatively smaller case size at 39mm and a convex sapphire crystal topping off the watch are the two main design inspirations that TAG Heuer have revived in this new wave of the now 62-year-old collection. As mentioned, however, their most spectacular fumé purple dial has also made a return from the archives, adorning the watch as if to once again walk the tightrope of sportiness and demure dress appeal.
The black perforated leather strap – similar to the one available on the Reverse Panda Glassbox released in 2023 – also makes its appearance on this new watch. There is a twist, however, as turning the watch around also reveals the inclusion of tool-less, interchangeable straps! This is something I felt was foreshadowed with the customisation options available for the Glassbox Carreras released in 2024, but nevertheless I’m glad that the brand is finally including interchangeable straps outside the Connected and former Autavia models.
Staying with the case back, you can also still find the legendary TH20-00/Heuer 02 movement. An automatic chronograph movement with a whopping 80-hour power reserve, the TH20-00 is a minor update to the record-setting Heuer 02. With the TH20-00, TAG Heuer addressed a lot of the pain points regarding the original. The new version still packs the same horological punch, but now the rotor has bidirectional winding, removing the rattling motion pervasive in most Heuer 02 movements. That, and it’s perfectly silent – another pain point successfully addressed. All that technical goodness has been finished with a sapphire crystal case back, as well as an automatic rotor that bears the silhouette of the original Heuer logo.
My Thoughts
TAG Heuer, for the last couple of years, has been on quite the roll. While 2024 can probably been seen as their ‘break period’ compared to 2023’s run, the quality of work put out by the LVMH brand in 2024 hardly felt phoned-in. The Aquaracer revival, the Monaco Split-Second Rattrapante, and countless others made 2024 a commendable victory lap in the TAG Heuer comeback story.
But now more than ever, the brand needs to pick up the pace. With the announcement that they are officially returning as the main sponsor of the Formula One, they have to live up to the glorious reputation they established and upheld for generations. The fact that TAG Heuer is making this as part of their first releases of the year is part of a year-long message they plan to send to the watch world.
Their goal, since Frédéric Arnault took the helm in 2020/1, has been to re-establish TAG Heuer as a high-end watchmaker. If they want to be able to compete on the grand stage with the other big watch brands of the world, they have to let the watch community know one thing: That they are, and always were, one of the most significant, most innovative, and heritage-rich brands in watch history. To put it in a less professional way – as Roy Jones Jr. once said – “Y’all musta forgot!”
Reference: CBS2219.FC6607
- Dimensions: 39mm case diameter x 46mm lug-to-lug x 13.86mm thickness
- Case Material: Brushed and polished Stainless steel
- Dial: Purple sunray fumé dial with circular grained subdials at 3 & 9 o’clock, small seconds and date at 6 o’clock
- Movement: Automatic TH20-00 movement with chronograph, beating at 4Hz / 28,800 Vph on 33 Jewels
- Power Reserve: 80hrs
- Water Resistance: 100m (10bar)
- Strap: Black perforated leather with steel folding clasp
