TAG Heuer’s Carrera Calibre 360 Chronograph voted “2006 Sports watch of the year”

An independent international jury of watch experts, journalists, retailers and historians named TAG Heuer’s Carrera Calibre 360 the “2006 Sports Watch of the Year” at the sixth annual Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix. This fourth award for TAG Heuer in just six years (“Design” in 2002 and 2004, “Ladies watch” in 2005) definitely positions TAG Heuer amongst the most innovative, knowledgeable, versatile and desirable luxury Swiss watch brands.

The Carrera Calibre 360 chronograph — the world’s most accurate mechanical chronograph beating at 360,000 vibrations/hour — was selected over 10 other nominees drawn from the world’s most prestigious watch making workshops and manufactures. It is the fourth time in six years that a TAG Heuer watch has won a coveted Grand Prix, which is considered the most important honor that can be conferred in the world of luxury watchmaking. In 2002, the Grand Prix jury bestowed the Design Watch award on the Microtimer F1, the first Swiss wrist chronograph accurate to 1/1000th of a second. In 2004, the Design prize was awarded to the TAG Heuer Monaco 69, a reversible model combining a manual-winding mechanical movement with a digital movement. In 2005, the “Haute Couture” Diamond Fiction, a stunning blend of designer jewelry and avant-garde watch making, won the Ladies watch category.

This 2006 award pays a tribute to the genius of Charles-Auguste Heuer who, back in the year 1914, challenged his watch masters to develop a stopwatch capable of measuring the 1/10th of a second. This fraction of time was urgently needed by the International Olympic Committee to ensure the integrity of results after the 1/5th of a second had shown its limits at the 1896 Olympic Games 100 meters race. Two years later, on October 2nd 1916, Charles-Auguste Heuer filed with the Federal Office for Intellectual Property a patent for a stopwatch precise to within one hundredth of a second, i.e. beating at 360,000 vibrations/hour, the absolute record for a mechanical stopwatch and 10 times more accurate than the goal he had set for his watchmakers! A few weeks later, the Mikrograph measuring 1/100ths of a second and the Split-Mikrograph accurate to within 1/50th of a second were added to the Heuer Catalog at 100 and 90 Swiss Francs respectively. They would continue to be manufactured until 1969 when 1/1000th of a second electronic timekeeping, again pioneered by Heuer, would supersede mechanical timing. They would also allow the Company to be selected by the International Olympic Committee as the Official Timekeeper of the 1920s Olympic Games. Only such know-how and heritage could have enabled TAG Heuer contemporary watch masters to invent and develop today’s award-winning Carrera Calibre 360.



Launched in a limited edition of 360