The Carrera Connection: How TAG Heuer and Porsche Came to Share This Evocative Name

Yes, the legendary German carmaker and Swiss watchmaker have had a successful ongoing partnership since 2019, but the fascination with the name “Carrera” goes back much further for both companies.

By Watchonista

By all accounts, Jack Heuer, the great-grandson of watch brand founder Edouard Heuer, was always a keen racing fan. In fact, his first business trip after joining the company in 1958 was to Monte Carlo for the Grand Prix.

Still, it was his attendance at the 1962 Carrera Panamericana race in Mexico that the Heuer brand identity would be forever changed because it was at this race that he first became enamored with the word “carrera.”

He thought it was the perfect name. It had an immediate resonance with racing fans, yet it also sounded elegant and evocative in nearly every language. So, naturally, after he took control of the company in 1962, creating the first Carrera timepiece became his primary focus.

Three inspiring factors make up the long-lived yet constant appeal of the Carrera: design, car racing, and technology.

Plus, as a fan of mid-century design masters like Le Corbusier, Jack Heuer always considered the outside of the watch as important as the inside. That design dedication is abundantly apparent in the dial and case variations and innovations of the TAG Heuer Carrera over the decades.

Watchonista’s Marco Gabella caught up with TAG Heuer’s Heritage Director Nicholas Biebuyck to discuss the history of the combined use of the Carrera moniker and how the shared inspiration informs timepieces under the umbrella of the current partnership, especially in the TAG Heuer Carrera x Porsche 911 RS 2.7 Limited Edition timepieces.