Combining the DNA of their Carrera Sport with a playful flying tourbillon, luxury watch brand TAG Heuer have launched an all new TAG Heuer Carrera 02T Blue Tourbillon watch limited to only 250 pieces, housed entirely in lightweight titanium and dressed in a handsome blue dial.
Since its launch in 1963, the TAG Heuer Carrera watch collection has served as a reminder of the luxury watch brand’s undeniable relationship with the world of motorsport. It was designed by Jack Heuer himself and named after one of the world’s most legendary races, the Carrera Panamericana, with a clean, organised and highly legible aesthetic for measuring time and average speed during races. Since then, the TAG Heuer Carrera has taken many forms but in 2015 it famously entered the realms of haute horologerie with the arrival of a chronometer-certified chronograph with a flying tourbillon. This design was not only remarkable in its delivery, but it remains the most affordable tourbillon on the market.
Five different versions of the TAG Heuer Carrera 02T have since been made, all boasting skeleton dials which expose the Heuer 02T movement and caged within high-tech carbon and titanium. For the sixth model, the Swiss watch manufacturer has chosen a more classic look with a solid blue dial which delivers a subtle glimpse of the flying tourbillon at 6 o’clock and a full grade 5 titanium case. To match the case, for the first time in TAG Heuer tourbillon watch history, the H-shape bracelet is engineered entirely of lightweight grade 5 titanium as well.
For us, one of the most beautiful elements of the TAG Heuer Carrera 02T Blue Tourbillon watch is its blue sunray dial. Blue dialled watches never fail to catch our eye, they’re bright enough to be exciting and yet not too bold that it becomes overly quirky. The blue face hosts azurage-finished subsidiary dials at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock for the chronograph counters and is paired with visually matching rhodium plated hands and baton-shaped indices polished and coated in glow in the dark white Superluminova. At 6 o’clock, the flying tourbillon cage rotates on its axis every minute serving as a running seconds counter and balances the dial out by giving it an almost tri-compax look.
Blue highlights also appear on the crown, tips of the subsidiary dial hands, the tip of the central chronograph seconds hand and across the fixed ceramic bezel adorned with a white tachymeter scale. Through the exhibition case back, the TAG Heuer Carrera 02T Blue Tourbillon watch continues to showcase its COSC certified calibre with more blue colouring on the skeletonised oscillating rotor. Among many of its attributes, the revolutionary Carrera Heuer 02T movement delivers a frequency of 28,800 vibrations per hour, an integrated, column wheel controlled chronograph and a power reserve of up to 65 hours – a feat mastered by only a single mainspring barrel.
Other than its tourbillon movement and newly integrated titanium bracelet, the TAG Heuer Carrera 02T Blue Tourbillon watch maintains much of the personality of its original 2015 predecessors. The grade 5 titanium case is given a polished and fine-brushed finishing with its lightness and modular construction sitting extremely comfortably on the wrist at 45mm in diameter. Flat sapphire crystal glass protects both the blue sunray dial and the movement through the case back and is treated with anti-reflective coating for optimal legibility. The screwed case back, which is water resistant to 100 metres, also bears a special engraved indication of the watch’s limited edition number out of 250 pieces.
In our opinion, the TAG Heuer Carrera 02T Blue Tourbillon is the epitome of a TAG Heuer watch. It looks exactly as a Carrera should while demonstrating the ambition of the luxury watch brand as they sit among Switzerland’s more advanced manufacturers. The piece retails at £17,400, so it remains one of the best value Swiss made tourbillons out there, and it is available to order now on the Jura Watches website here.
Specifications: TAG Heuer Carrera 02T Blue Tourbillon (CAR5A8C.BF0707)
- Case Size: 45mm
- Case Material: Grade 5 Titanium
- Bezel: Blue ceramic, fixed with tachymeter scale
- Glass: Sapphire crystal with anti-reflective treatment
- Crown: Screw in
- Case Back: Screw down, exhibition
- Water Resistance: 100 metres
- Movement: Calibre Heuer 02T automatic
- COSC: Yes
- Functions: Hours, minutes, chronograph seconds, 30 minutes counter, 12 hours counter, flying tourbillon 1 minute
- Power Reserve: 65 hours
- Jewels: 33
- Frequency: 28,800vph
- Dial: Blue sunray with white Superluminova hands and indexes
- Strap: Grade 5 titanium bracelet
- Buckle: Folding
- RRP: £17,400
- Limited Edition: 250 pieces
