TAG Heuer’s decision to lead LVMH Watch Week 2026 with an all-Carrera presentation is clearly a strategic one. This is not the brand claiming the Carrera as its only story for the year ahead. It is, instead, a choice to open the season with the collection that aligns most naturally with its current visibility – Formula 1 – and with the values TAG Heuer wants to emphasise: timing, legibility and mechanical credibility.

While all the watches featured here carry the Carrera name. That does not mean other pillars are likely to be side-lined this year. After a strong run of late-2025 Monaco releases, including the Flyback Chronograph TH-Carbonspring and Split-Seconds Chronograph Air 1, it would be surprising if Monaco didn’t resurface later in 2026. It almost certainly will. But for now, TAG Heuer is keeping things tight.

What that reveals is three very different uses of the Carrera idea. One consolidates what is already working. One tests how far the name can stretch. And one unsettles things, just a little.

The Glassbox: Where the Collection Feels Settled

The TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph has quietly settled into its role as the modern center of gravity for the collection. Introduced in 2023, the glassbox no longer needs the structure of an anniversary for context; it now stands on its own as the clearest expression of what a contemporary Carrera looks like and how it behaves on the wrist.

For LVMH Watch Week 2026, that idea is refined rather than revisited. The new Carrera Chronographs move into a 41mm steel case joining the previous 39mm and 42mm iterations. This reflects what TAG Heuer hears from clients rather than what circulates online and it gives the watch a little more physical presence without disturbing the balance that makes the glassbox design work.

TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph (©Revolution)

The watches are offered in three colorways: a classic blue, a teal green that has become something of a modern TAG Heuer signature, and a black dial with red accents that leans most overtly into the brand’s motorsport codes. All three rely on contrast and depth for clarity, using the domed sapphire crystal and curved flange to keep the information close to the eye and easy to read.

The classic blue dial and rhodium-plated applied indexes and hands with Super-LumiNova (©Revolution)

The teal green dial and rhodium-plated applied indexes and hands with Super-LumiNova (©Revolution)

The black dial with red accents and rhodium-plated applied indexes and hands with Super-LumiNova (©Revolution)

Nicholas Biebuyck, TAG Heuer’s Heritage Director, is clear that this is what grounds the watch. When he talks about what defines a Carrera, it is never a single case size or dial layout. It is a set of priorities: legibility first, then proportion, then how the dial, rehaut and crystal work together. Heritage, in his view, only becomes valuable when it pushes design forward rather than freezing it. “If you’re just scanning an old watch and remaking it,” he says, “you’re not really designing anything. You’re doing a disservice to the client, because when they buy a new watch, they should be getting a new watch.”

A Carrera, it is never a single case size or dial layout. It is a set of priorities: legibility first, then proportion, then how the dial, rehaut and crystal work together (©Revolution)

Powered by the in-house TH20-01 and paired with TAG Heuer’s seven-row steel bracelet, these Carrera Chronographs feel like a natural evolution. This is the Carrera at its most self-assured: not reinvented, not explained away, just quietly refined. And at this point in the Carrera’s long life, that may be exactly what it needs to be.

The in-house calibre TH20-01 (©Revolution)

Tech specs: TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph

Movement Calibre TH20-01 automatic chronograph with column wheel and vertical clutch; 80-hour power reserve
Functions Hours, minutes, seconds; chronograph
Case 41mm stainless steel; bezel-free construction, domed sapphire glassbox crystal with anti-reflective coating; screw-down sapphire caseback; Victory Wreath engraving on the right-hand lug; 100m water resistance
Dial Blue, teal or black with red accents; curved flange with tachymeter and seconds scale; three counters with azurage finishing; rhodium-plated applied indexes and hands with Super-LumiNova (black dial model uses red lacquered hands for chronograph functions)
Strap Seven-row stainless-steel bracelet; folding clasp with safety push-buttons
Price CHF 7,500
Availability January 2026

The Rattrapante: Walking the Line

A Split-Seconds Chronograph was always going to raise eyebrows. From the outset, the Carrera collection was conceived as a tool for clarity at speed. A rattrapante, with its mechanical theatrics, introduces a level of complexity that runs counter to that instinct bringing the risk of design overload.

TAG Heuer Carrera Split-Seconds Chronograph

What’s striking here is how carefully that risk has been managed. The 42mm grade-5 titanium case remains recognisably Carrera. The glassbox crystal has been subtly reworked to reduce distortion. The chronograph pushers are at 2 and 4 o’clock, while the split-seconds pusher is integrated into the caseband at 9. The curved flange follows the sapphire rather than fighting against it. Even the translucent dial, an easy place to tip into excess, feels pared back, allowing the Caliber TH81-01, developed in collaboration with Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier, to be seen without turning the watch into a display piece.

he chronograph pushers are at 2 and 4 o’clock, while the split-seconds pusher is integrated into the caseband at 9

For Biebuyck, that balance is the entire point. When asked whether a rattrapante sits comfortably within the Carrera lineage, he returns not to precedent, but to principles. The question, he suggests, is not whether the complication existed historically, but whether the watch still behaves like a Carrera. “As long as we preserve the core philosophies that were laid down in 1963,” he explains, “we feel we’re doing a good job of respecting what the collection stands for.”

Those philosophies, he adds, are uncompromising: legibility, functionality, and a dial that communicates without confusion. Haute horlogerie, he suggests, only works at TAG Heuer when it is executed with a lightness. The finishing can be celebrated, but it cannot interfere with use. To that end, the crystal and dial of the rattrapante went through multiple iterations, including late changes made specifically to improve legibility which, although a small detail, is a telling one.

This does not feel like an attempt to reposition the Carrera as a complication-led collection. Instead, it reads as a proof of concept: that the Carrera’s design language is strong enough to accommodate a rattrapante without losing its sense of purpose.

The Caliber TH81-01 automatic split-seconds chronograph developed in collaboration with Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier

Tech specs: TAG Heuer Carrera Split-Seconds Chronograph

Movement Caliber TH81-01 automatic split-seconds chronograph developed in collaboration with Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier; 5 Hz frequency; 65-hour power reserve
Functions Hours, minutes, running seconds; chronograph; split-seconds function
Case 42mm grade-5 titanium; domed sapphire glassbox crystal; glassbox sapphire caseback; chronograph pushers at 2 and 4 o’clock; split-seconds pusher at 9 o’clock; 30m water resistance
Dial Anthracite translucent acrylic glass dial; curved flange with tachymeter and 1/5-second scale; subdials in matching translucent material; rhodium-plated applied indexes with Super-LumiNova; open-worked hour and minute hands with Super-LumiNova; red lacquered chronograph and split-seconds hands
Strap Black rubber strap with textile embossing and red stitching; black DLC-coated grade-5 titanium folding clasp with double safety push-buttons
Price CHF 110,000 (TBC)
Availability April 2026

The Seafarer: An Open Question

The Carrera Chronograph Seafarer is easy to like. The tide indication is historically rooted, mechanically integrated, and potentially very useful. The color choices feel modern rather than awkwardly nostalgic, and the TH20-04 calibre handles the additional function without fuss. Whatever hesitation surrounds the Seafarer, it has very little to do with the watch itself.

TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph Seafarer (©Revolution)

The sapphire crystal caseback allows a clear view of the in-house TH20-04 tide indicator calibre (©Revolution)

Historically, Seafarer-type watches, alongside the Solunar and Mareograph, existed before the Carrera name and moved freely across case families. They were defined by function, not by collection. Seen in that light, the modern Seafarer feels less like a Carrera variant and more like a named watch that happens, for now, to live within the Carrera framework.

Details on the champagne opalin dial: On 3 o’clock, a lacquered blue teal and beige “azuré” minute chronograph counter; On 6 o’clock, a beige second chronograph counter; On 9 o’clock, the teal blue and yellow lacquered tide indicator

That raises a structural question rather than a critical one. Would the watch gain clarity if “Seafarer” stood alone on the dial? Probably. Would a standalone sailing line allow these pieces to develop without stretching what the Carrera is meant to represent? Possibly.

Either way, the Seafarer earns its place through execution. And in doing so, it quietly underlines how much weight the Carrera name now carries and how carefully it needs to be handled.

Tech specs: TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph Seafarer

Movement Caliber TH20-04 automatic chronograph with tide indicator; column wheel and vertical clutch; 80-hour power reserve
Functions Hours, minutes, seconds; date; chronograph; tide indicator
Case 42mm stainless steel, fine-brushed and polished; bezel-free construction; domed sapphire glassbox crystal with double anti-reflective treatment; chronograph pushers at 2 and 4 o’clock; shaped pusher at 9 with “TIDE” engraving; screw-down sapphire caseback with Victory Wreath engraving; 100m water resistance
Dial Champagne opaline dial; beige flange with 60-second / minute scale
Three counters: 3 o’clock, azuré minute counter in teal and beige; 6 o’clock, chronograph seconds counter in beige; 9 o’clock, tide indicator in teal and yellow; yellow gold-plated applied indexes; yellow gold-plated hands with teal Super-LumiNova
Strap Seven-row stainless-steel “beads of rice” bracelet with folding clasp and double safety push-buttons; additional beige textile strap with teal lining and folding clasp
Price CHF 8,300 (TBC)
Availability March 2026

A Framework, Not a Free-for-All

Taken together, TAG Heuer’s LVMH Watch Week presentation feels measured. The Carrera is not being asked to explain everything the brand does, but it is being used to open the year in a way that feels coherent with Formula 1 visibility, chronograph credibility, and a renewed belief in design continuity.

TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph (©Revolution)

The glassbox shows where the collection comes from. The rattrapante shows how far it can go. And the Seafarer, perhaps unintentionally, opens a useful discussion about where certain stories might sit best.

If there is a theme running through all of this, it is discipline. The Carrera works when it sticks to clear rules, capable of evolution, but resistant to becoming a catch-all. So far, TAG Heuer seems well aware of where that line is.