The watch was released in conjunction with a new concept-car from former Pininfarina designer Ken Okuyama (the K.O 7- below) which borrowed elements of the dial design for its dashboard. From a technical perspective, the key development was the Caliper system, which is reviewed in more detail below. The highlight of the dial was the metal bridge connecting the two sub-dials with its Cotes de Geneve finish. This means that there is no way of distinguishing between say 11 seconds and 31 seconds- perhaps a case of form over function when combined with a narrow window that can be difficult to read. From 0-40 seconds the disc shows a black line, while from 41-60 the line changes to red. On the left hand-side of the dial is a narrow window that shows seconds using TAG Heuer’s Linear System (“LS”)- again a rotating disc that rotates every 20 seconds. The disc at 3 0’Clock shows elapsed minutes, while the counter at 6 o’clock shows elapsed hours.
Like the rest of the range, the Grand Carrera Calibre 36 RS uses the Rotating Disc system in place of traditional sub-dials.
#Tag heuer grand carrera calibre 36 series
The concept watch took the design of the Grand Carrera series further- a much more “industrial” design with an emphasis on extreme sportiness rather than elegance. Concept Watchįollowing the successful introduction of the Grand Carrera, TAG Heuer then announced a special Grade-two titanium version of the watch at Basel 2008- The Grand Carrera Calibre 36 Concept Chronograph. With the benefit of hindsight, I think its a shame that the Grand Carrera name was used, as the watch is special enough to warrant its own name rather than being an off-shoot of an existing model. The rationale for this was that the watch was a premium version of the Carrera- TAG Heuer’s largest selling model. Thankfully, enough people- including Jack Heuer– decided that the name didn’t suit the new mode, and so the name “Grand Carrera” was adopted. The codename during the early days was “ Vanquish“, a name that TAG Heuer would use on the limited edition version of the Carrera Calibre 360 in 2006.
We now know that there was much debate within TAG Heuer during its development on what the new watch should be called. Every model in the range was COSC certified and featured the Rotating Disc system (hence the “RS”) developed by TAG Heuer, which distinguishes the watch from other ETA-powered watches. From a first glance you can see that a special effort has gone into the watch- the dials of each model have applied hour-markers and TAG Heuer logo, Cotes de Geneve finishing on metal parts of the dial and a new bracelet design with improved fit and finish. The purpose of the Grand Carrera was to introduce a premium line of TAG Heuer watches, one that grew the Carrera line into premium price points.
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