ReviewVintage Inspiration For The Race To The Future: Introducing The TAG Heuer Carrera Dato Chronograph

With the release of the ‘glassbox’ chronograph in 2023, TAG Heuer unlocked a sort of portal into the past and their vast archives of fantastic timepieces. The Carrera Dato Chronograph in a monochromatic green is the latest addition to an illustrious line of Carrera chronograph revivals. With a date window at nine, and a single 30-minute recorder at three, the Carrera Dato Chronograph pays tribute to the first of the Carrera chronographs featuring a date window, released in the 1960s. However, in recalling the brand’s history, the Carrera Dato Chronograph comes into its own with the new bezel-less glassbox design that is futuristic and trendy even as it evokes classic watches from the past.

Carrera Dato Chronograph Through The Ages

First introduced in 1963 by Jack Heuer, grandson of the founder, the Carrera line made waves for its racing inspired features. A date window first appeared in a Carrera Chronograph at 12 o’clock in 1966. The brand soon realised that this little window was easily obstructed by the stationary central chronograph hand, and shifted the window to nine o’clock. This 1968 model with a date window at nine featured a 45-minute recorder at three o’clock on the panda dial. Called the ‘Dato 45’ (dato is Latin for date), the watch was among the first ever chronographs to feature a date wheel. In 2021, TAG Heuer released a limited-edition revival of the Dato 45 in collaboration with Hodinkee, only the register at three was a 30-minute one.

Carrera Dato Chronograph In Green

At the LVMH Watch Week in January this year, the brand released the Carrera Dato Chronograph in a stunning green. The brand call it ‘teal’ but it’s actually a much richer, almost forest green, although the colour changes in different light conditions. The green hue is a nod to TAG Heuer’s racing roots, when race cars and liveries of the drivers were in the country’s colours.

What’s most fascinating about this new Dato Chronograph, though, is the glassbox design that the brand introduced last year to mark 60 years of the Carrera line. The curved hesalite crystal found in vintage watches was replaced with scratch-resistant sapphire crystal. The success of the 60th Anniversary Carrera ‘Glassbox’ Chronograph with a panda dial paved the way for other revivals framed by the curved glass—such as the Skipper and the gold chronograph— each more stunning than the last.

What’s most fascinating about this new TAG Heuer Carrera Dato Chronograph is the glassbox design that the brand introduced last year to mark 60 years of the Carrera line, with a curved crystal over a bezel-less dial

Dialing It Down With The Carrera Dato Chronograph

The latest Carrera Dato Chronograph features a 39mm steel case with alternating brushed and polished finishes, angular lugs and no bezel to speak of. The curved sapphire crystal glass sits over the dial, its legibility heightened by the raised, angular flange beneath the glass. Unlike other Carrera chronographs that feature a tachymeter scale on the flange, the Carrera Dato Chronograph houses the minutes/seconds track. The screwed-down caseback with a sapphire crystal window offers a view of the TH20-07 automatic calibre, complete with a skeletonised TAG Heuer shield-shaped rotor. With timekeeping, date and chronograph functions, the movement offers an impressive 80-hour power reserve.

The latest Carrera Dato Chronograph features a 39mm steel case with alternating brushed and polished finishes, angular lugs and no bezel to speak of

₹6,52,800

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The screwed-down caseback with a sapphire crystal window offers a view of the TH20-07 automatic calibre, complete with a skeletonised TAG Heuer shield-shaped rotor

₹6,52,800

Check Our Selling Price

A circular-brushed finish on the green dial gives it a different glow with shifting light. At three o’clock is a circular grained sub-dial that houses the 30-minute register marked in white, and opposite this, at nine, is the date window with clean black numerals on white. Faceted, rhodium-plated baton indexes and hands are marked in Super-LumiNova, aiding legibility in low light. A central chronograph hand features the same rhodium plating. And no, there is no running seconds sub-dial. Revolutionary? We think so.

Its size, contemporary finishes, glassbox design, and clean dial make the Carrera Dato Chronograph dressier than other sports watches

₹6,52,800

Check Our Selling Price

Facetted, rhodium-plated baton indexes and hands are marked in Super-LumiNova, aiding legibility in low light

₹6,52,800

Check Our Selling Price

Carrera Dato Chronograph On The Wrist

The watch is mounted on an alligator leather strap in black, highlighting the green of the dial. Unlike most chronographs, which tend to be chunky by nature, this timepiece wears extremely comfortably at 39mm, just right for any wrist size.

A circular-brushed finish on the green dial gives it a different glow with shifting light. At three o’clock is a sub-dial housing the 30-minute register, and at nine is the date window

Its size, contemporary finishes, glassbox design, and clean dial make the Carrera Dato Chronograph dressier than other sports watches. Then there’s the water resistance rating of 100m, which is more than sufficient for daily wear, should one want to make that sort of statement every day. For a watch inspired by history, the TAG Heuer Carrera Dato Chronograph is very contemporary. This just goes to show what a visionary Jack Heuer was, and the timelessness of his ideas.