This award category honors projects that showcase creative synergy across disciplines, and fuse watchmaking with design, art or science in meaningful ways. And while the competition was strong this year — the Ulysee Nardin × Urwerk collab was an impressive contender, for sure — our vote goes to the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph × Fragment Limited Edition.

TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph × Fragment Limited Edition

Launched in late 2025, this is TAG Heuer’s third collaboration with Hiroshi Fujiwara, founder of Fragment Design and widely regarded as the godfather of streetwear. Variously a designer, musician and DJ, Fujiwara rose to prominence in the 1990s through deep ties to Tokyo’s underground music and fashion scenes. Above all, he is also widely known as a cultural tastemaker, shaping the direction of global street culture, thanks to immensely successful collaborations with both high street and luxury brands, including Nike, Louis Vuitton and, of course, TAG Heuer.

Hiroshi Fujiwara

Beyond hype and superficial pyrotechnics, Fujiwara has always emphasized restraint in his collab projects. His very first 2016 Louis Vuitton collab, for instance, was a rework of Louis Vuitton’s Monogram in black and white, with Fragment’s discreet lightning bolt motif very subtly woven in. For Fujiwara, it has always been a question of “if you know, you know.”

This year’s TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph × Fragment Limited Edition is the third collaboration between the two brands, and it follows in the very precise and sensitive approach established in all of Fujiwara’s collabs. A watch lover, collector and something of a horophile himself, Fujiwara has long emphasized the importance of respecting a watch’s heritage. This is clearly evinced in 2018’s Carrera Heuer 02 by Fragment, where he honored the DNA of the brand and the legacy of the Carrera with a decidedly retro pathway, and again in 2020’s Caliber Heuer 02 Automatic Chronograph. The latest Carrera Chronograph × Fragment collab once again shows Fujiwara’s deft ability to balance respect for TAG Heuer’s heritage with his own design sensibilities.

An open sapphire caseback reveals fragment’s iconic lightning bolt logo on the sapphire glass and pure black lines décor on the oscillating weight

The black-on-black dial recalls the original collab with TAG Heuer, only here, it is further stripped bare of embellishments. Housed in TAG Heuer’s 39mm modern glassbox design Carrera and paired with the vintage seven-row beads-of-rice bracelet released earlier this year, the result is sleek with a decidedly minimalist aesthetic. Fujiwara is typically big on subtlety and here, it is manifested in the very discreet Fragment lightning bolt logo that’s tucked away in the date disk at “1” and “11.” Flip the watch over and you’ll see another Fragment bolt, this time strategically placed at the center of the movement. Below sits the TAG Heuer logo, reworked graphically and doing double duty as an oscillating weight. As far as logos go, these are understated and low-key, a further reminder of why this is not your usual co-brand exercise.

The dial framed by a white flange and dressed in black opalin

Indeed, what makes this a “Best Collab” for us is how it truly reflects the spirit of collaboration. In his characteristic restraint, Fujiwara has presented a piece that reminds us of all that we love about the Carrera, and in leaving his stamp on it, he marks it as one that’s unmistakably of its moment.