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It’s LVMH Watch Week and TAG Heuer has dropped a new Carrera Chronosprint – the Porsche Rallye in black. We went hands-on with it prior to the launch to see how the new variant handles.

It’s no secret that TAG Heuer and Porsche share a long history, both in a shared name, the Carrera, stemming from the Carrera Panamericana race, as well as an association with each other. There have been numerous TAG Heuer x Porsche pieces over the years, but one of the more unique pieces was the Carrera Chronosprint x Porsche TAG Heuer, which was developed and launched in late 2023. We didn’t do a hands-on review on this piece at the time, more like a pseudo-review as we did have the watch for the day prior to launch and were able to play with it and see how it looked and wore on the wrist. We also showcased the strange, but cool way it tracks the time on the chronograph, mimicking the original Porsche 911’s time of 0-100km/h in 9.1 seconds using a specially designed snail gear in the chronograph mechanism. If you want a refresher, take a look below.

This year, TAG Heuer has extended the collection by adding a new black dial variant (along with a Gold model), and this piece is in tribute to the Porsche 911 “147” that competed in the 1965 Monte Carlo Rally and had an acceleration of 0-100k/h in just 8.4 secs, which is now represented in the new Chronosprint’s timing mechanism and the red timing track between 12 and 4 o’clock. It also has a range of vintage touches and makes this a different-looking piece on the wrist. It’s amazing what a change of colour can do. Watch Advice was lucky enough to have this piece on loan for a little while prior to Christmas to get a sense of how this piece performs in the wilds, and unlike the previous Chronosprint x Porsche which we only had for the day, gave us, and me specifically, a chance to see how it would rate over a longer period.

Initial thoughts

Pulling it out of the box, it is not a bad-looking watch with a vintage colour scheme. The blend of gold-coloured numerals and markings mixed with the burgundy-red contrasting the dark dial kind of gives off that vintage car vibe. Think of some of the race cars back in the late ’60s and early ’70s with the muted livery. According to TAG Heuer:

“This draws inspiration from the Heuer dashboard timer present in the Porsche 911 “147” in 1965 and echoing elements of early Porsche dashboards. The black dial, a nod to the Heuer Master Time / Monte Carlo stopwatches from 1965, and beige markings reference the original car’s steering wheel, while the dial’s finish evokes the shimmering effect of its bodywork, adding a refined touch.”

The steel bracelet on this Carrera has the same look as the silver Panda Carrera Glassbox released last year, which, if I’m being honest, was slightly underwhelming for me personally. I’ll explore this later, but I’ve always felt the TAG Heuer Carrera looks best and belongs on a leather or rubber strap. Mostly as these are vintage styled and I love a racing strap on them. Setting any other thoughts aside, it was time to get more acquainted with the Carrera Chronosprint x Porsche Rallye.

The Design

The design of the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronosprint x Porsche Rallye is part Carrera and part race car, so to speak. You get the iconic case shape of the Carrera Chronograph; the tapered angular lugs, the pump-style pushers and the broadsword-styled hands. There is no mistaking it is a Carrera at all. This piece is however, a larger version of the Carrera Glassbox coming in at 42mm vs the 39mm of the Glassbox, but you still have that glass box crystal with the curved flange so you can read the numbers at an angle – a design cue going back to the ’60s when Jack Heuer wanted to make reading the numbers on an angle easy. And it is.

The dial on the new Carrera Chronosprint x Porsche Rallye is, as I mentioned, a reference to the 1965 Porsche 911 “147” that races in the Monte Carlo Rally that year, which of course, had great success coming in fifth overall and second in its class. Now I say of course as it makes sense to look back at a success, but at the time, the car itself wasn’t expected to go the distance as it was a lightly modified road car, not primarily destined for competitive racing. This as the race that year was particularly gruelling with snow-covered winding roads through the Swiss Alps. Out of 237 cars that started the race, only 22 finished in the South of France.

The black shimmery dial references the way the bodywork paint shines on the race car, and at first looks, you could be fooled into thinking it was Aventurine glass. This provides the perfect backdrop for the beige and red markings on the main dial and the flange, with the sector from 12 o’clock to almost 4 o’clock that tracks the chronograph seconds speeding away to the 20-second mark in just 8.4 seconds.

The sub-dials also have this fleck through them, as well as circular graining to allow them to stand out with the silver outer tracks. At 3 o’clock you have a 30-minute register to track the minutes, at 6 o’clock, the date inset into the small seconds hand, inclusive of the red markings echoing a rev meter. At 9 o’clock, a 12-hour sub-dial makes this a true 12-hour chronograph.

The domed crystal in the “Glassbox” style works well on this piece as it assists with that vintage feel of the watch, going over the flange and into the side of the case. The one differing aspect of this piece to the 39mm Carrera Glassbox is the crystal doesn’t blend seamlessly with the case. This is neither a good nor bad thing as aesthetic-wise, this is all about personal preference. TAG Heuer has given the case a nice blend of brushed and polished finishing across the case and the bracelet in keeping with that higher-end sports piece.

The bracelet is one area that I’m not 100% sold on. To me, the Carrera collection has always looked best (in my opinion) on the leather sports strap, like the perforated or racing style. At a stretch, a rubber strap with some design elements to it works well too. Perhaps this is just me looking at the historical angle, and part of this is how the strap matches or contrasts with the dial, depending on the colour, and the case. Thankfully, there is a second strap of this style included so you can swap depending on your style choice.

TAG Heuer has done a good job with the build quality of the bracelet, the folding push-button clasp is sturdy and the links don’t feel flimsy at all. A quick change mechanism wouldn’t have hurt though, making it easier to swap out the bracelet for the strap. That aside, the design fits with the overall theme of the watch, straddling that look between vintage and modern. The one thing I did note is the lack of a taper on the bracelet and for me, I felt that this just upset the balance slightly of the overall look of the watch. Is this a deal breaker? Probably not, but just something that you may want to consider.

Overall it is a well-designed watch that gives off those vintage vibes, which is exactly what TAG Heuer has intended here taking the inspiration from the race car in 1965.

How It Wears & Works

The one thing about a TAG Heuer Carrera is, on the whole, they are very easy wearing watches. Even at larger sizes, like the Extreme Sport, the design allows for the watch to sit on the wrist and hug it with the tapered lugs allowing the straps (normally) to conform to the wrist contour. This is still the case with the Chronosprint x Porsche Rallye on the leather strap, and even with the steel bracelet, the fixed end links are designed to mimic this and not flare out past the lugs. This helps with the comfort of the piece on the wrist for all-day and everyday wear.

While I’m talking about the bracelet on the wrist, I’ll mention that it would have been good to have had some micro-adjust on the bracelet to aid in the wearability in the warmer months, but the bracelet does have half links so you can get the sizing pretty right on the wrist without too much fuss. On that note, the links are held in place with pins, not screws, so if you do want to change the links unless you have a hammer and pin set up at home, you will need to take it into a jeweller to adjust. Once done though, you should be set.

RELATED READING: TAG Heuer Launches New Carrera Chronosprint x Porsche

The size of the new TAG Heuer Chronosprint x Porsche Rallye feels appropriate for a modern sports watch. Yes, there was a lot of happy people when the Glassbox came out in 2023 at a svelte 39mm, but the reality is, for someone like me with 17.5cm wrists, this 42mm diameter case feels about right. The 14.9mm thickness sounds like it could be on the larger side, but don’t be fooled by this as this accounts for the glass box crystal, as well as on the display case back. In essence, this also allows the watch to wear a bit thinner as several millimetres are in crystal on the front and back. This means when on the wrist, you really only see the steel case part so the visual thickness of the watch is reduced. 

Interestingly, I compared it’s next to my Rolex GMT and while the GMT probably wears slightly larger than 40mm, the Carrera didn’t appear noticeably bigger. I would potentially say if the Rolex wears slightly larger at 41mm the Carrera is probably wearing slightly smaller at around the same size. On the strap, it would wear smaller as with most watches, a leather strap always helps to slim it down.

Functionally speaking, setting a reference time wasn’t as easy as the minute markers between the hour markers are much less pronounced when compared to a standard chronograph, you have to look closely to see the ever so slightly thicker markers. Now this is not a deal breaker at all, and most people won’t worry too much about this, but when critically reviewing a piece I’m looking at these. Is it splitting hairs? Probably. And while I’m on the critical evaluation line, I still would love to see a screw-down crown on the Carrera Chronograph with the 100m water resistance, especially for the lifestyle many of us have here and if you’re like me, you jump in the water with a watch on.

Operating the chronograph though is a cool experience, looking at the second’s hand race to 8.4 secs and then as it goes around the dial, slowing down to match the second’s markers on the outer flange. It takes a little to wrap your head around that at the normal 30-second mark, the elapsed time is only 15 or so seconds, but once you know to read the beige markers, you can easily time anything as per a standard chronograph. The stop-start and reset pusher in the pump style look the part of a vintage inspired piece, and pressing the start/stop there is a little bit of resistance, so it’s not quite as smooth as I would have liked.

The Movement

Inside the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronosprint x Porsche Rallye is the TH20-08 automatic chronograph with 80 hour power reserve and vibrating at 4Hz or 28,8000 VpH. It’s a nice-looking movement, with TAG Heuer under the guidance of Carole Forestier-Kasapi slowly improving not only the robustness but also the design. This is one aspect that when I spoke with her last year, TAG Heuer is really putting a focus on. The steering wheel style rotor is always a nice addition, another nod to the Porsche, and the rest of the movement is well finished for a watch at this price point – Geneva stripes on the bridges, and machine bevelling around the edges as well complete the look.

Speaking of Carole Forestier-Kasapi, when you talk to her and about the movements now that TAG Heuer is producing, like in the Chronosprint x Porsche Rallye, she and her team are set on making them better and better. This is not an overnight process, but gradually and slowly but surely she and the team are. In her words:

“We are working with two themes here. One is quality and performance, like, accuracy, and power reserves, the other is durability. So what we want to tackle is to have a five-year warranty for all the in-house movements but beyond the five-year warranty, we also want to tackle having ten years between services. So, more quality, more durability is the vision for us at the moment.”

Final Thoughts

I’ve enjoyed my time with the new TAG Heuer Carrera Chronosprint x Porsche Rallye. Overall, it’s a nice looking piece and on the bracelet wears nicely. As I said earlier, Carrera’s always do. I’m also in the lucky position to be able to compare this Chronosprint to the previous one from 2023, and while I like the colour scheme of this new release, I am still gravitating toward the 2023 model’s colour scheme. The white shimmery dial with the red accents was a great combination and I felt that it popped more on the wrist. That being said, it is all about personal preference when it comes to colour. Neither is right or wrong.

The Carrera Chronosprint x Porsche Rallye is a limited edition piece, so you will also get a little bit of exclusivity for your money. The steel is limited to 911 pieces naturally, and ode to the Porsche 911, and in the case of the yellow gold variant, even more so, with just 11 pieces on offer. With this you do get that beautiful display box, done in the ruby-red lacquer and scale model of the “147” Porsche 911. It’s a nice touch and something that you don’t see all that often from TAG Heuer. At a retail of A$15,250 you are getting up there for the price, but what I would say to those nay-sayers is you’re getting a chronograph that is not the normal run-of-the-mill chronograph, plus you also receive the collector’s box and spare strap, not to mention a nod to a piece of TAG Heuer and Porsche history. If you are interested, get in quick as from what I understand, these are already going down well with those TAG Heuer collectors and lovers out there, now out of stock online, so head in-store to your local TAG Heuer boutique for availability.

Reference: CBS2015.EB0381 (Steel) / CBS2041.EB0382 (Yellow Gold)

Specification:

• Case: 42mm x 48.6 mm lug to lug x 14.9mm thick (including crystal front and back)
• Case Material: Steel brushed and polished case / 18k 3N Yellow Gold
• Case back: Steel screw-down or 18K 3N yellow gold screw-down, both with Glassbox sapphire caseback
• Dial: Black shimmery dial with silver or yellow gold track circular-grained sub-dials
• Crystal: Glassbox domed sapphire crystal with double anti-reflective treatment
• Water Resistance:100m / 10bar
• Movement: In-house Calibre TH20-08 Automatic. 28,800 vph (4hz) pivoting on 33 Jewels
• Power reserve: 80 Hours
• Strap/Bracelet: Steel Bracelet with H-style links and black perforated calfskin strap (Steel) or Black and brown perforated calfskin straps (Gold)

Australian Recommended Retail Price: AUD $15,250 (Steel) / A$36,550 (Gold)

Availability: Steel is limited to 911 pieces and gold is limited to 11. Available now through all TAG Heuer Boutiques, authorised dealers and online at Tagheuer.com

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