Hodinkee has just published its "Reference Points" covering the Carrera . . . video done by Nick Biebuyck (Heritage Director at TAG Heuer) and Ben Clymer (Hodinkee founder) --

https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/reference-points-tag-heuer-carrera

Good weekend reading!!

Jeff

 

What an amazing collection of Carreras!

 

The video is superb, everything you ever wanted to know about the Carrera in a nutshell.

Nick and Ben look like they could be brothers, lol. Even the watches they're wearing are siblings, the Hodinkee Dato & Hodinkee Skipper.

 

Just watched the video, great stuff, very entertaining also. We all want a 1158CHN, Skipper or 2447sn but as Nicholas points out you can indeed find vintage Carreras that look a lot like those 40k+ watches for as 'little' as 4k-6k.
Will work through the article another time

 

It’s Hodinkee after all

 

A quote from @Jeff Stein in the comments section of this article:
--
The Carrera does have a fantastic history, and I am getting more and more into the approximately 477 different versions of the Carrera that TAG Heuer has produced since 1995 . . . we'll cover those in Parts Three and Four.
--

There are 477 Carreras made by TAG Heuer (and counting), that seems like an astonishing number of variations. But not that surprising when you really start to think about it.

 

very impressive to see all those Carreras on one table. WOW!

 

Watching this video made me feel like @Jim Dollares while winding his Ice King…

I’m ok with Hodinkee selling a few watches after posting this. Just about every week the dink has a new vintage Heuer for sale, and they don’t usually last long. The Carrera deserve more of this type of respect and attention. These “reference points” have so much information. I also enjoyed the interaction between the two of them and the interest and passion that they have for the Carrera.

 

Wow, a fantastical history lesson for me. Let the legend live on!

 

i agree for the most part. The support from Hodinkee to vintage Heuer had been great over the years. They are however offering the very two watches which they selected as highlights of the era in the video. Even cleverly setting up the Skipper as a 6 figure watch. I don’t follow all auctions but I’ve never seen a Skipper going quite that high. Usually 40-50k and one for 88k at Phillips last year. That one had a near perfect dial and was probably the best one to ever surface. @abrod520 and I had it in our hands and we were in total awe. 99% of all Skippers found have varying degrees of flaked blue dials. The one now for sale on Hodinkee also looks really good. Don’t know min 100k good.

 

It's almost like they 'know' what's coming... let the hyping begin!

 

Isn't it funny how the game moves on, if they'd done this last year it would have been the 2447N, but of course the Panda is done, no point in picking that one... what's coming down the track? Hmm. Hilarious and predictable.

 

Of course if you didn't know these watches were coming out this year you would just take it at face value, and then when they came out you would already have it in your head that 'Oh, Hodinkee picked these and now they are available - how lucky is that?'

 

It’s the year of the Carrera, of course they are going to get us excited about opening up out wallets. I expect it.

This hype will be overshadowed shortly by all the Rolex predictions for the Daytona and Submariner anniversary watches. Last year was a dud for them and I bet they churn the hype big time. Unfortunately any new releases by any other brand will be glossed over.

I hope the new Carrera’s and anything else from Tag is well received. I tire of the Tag bashing

 

Same here.

 

I know, right!? Love how Nick unveils the 60th Anniversary at the end of the video and calls it the appetizer for what's to come next.
Just when I felt my wallet was permanently closed after getting the panda.

 

But surely there couldn't be anything better than the Panda Coming?

 

Eats, shoots and leaves?

 

Depends if you think a gold panda is better or not...