EDOUARD HEUER WAS 16 when he started apprenticing beneath a neighborhood watchmaker in Saint-Imier, the Swiss Alpine village the place he spent a part of his childhood. 4 years later, in 1860, Heuer opened a small workshop on his mother and father’ farm, the place he made silver pocket watches. Inside a decade, he’d acquired his first patent — for a crown-operated winding system — and in 1887 he filed one other, for an enchancment on the design of the oscillating pinion, which allowed his chronographs to begin and cease extra effectively. Identified for its accuracy and technical precision, the model gained reputation amongst athletes and aviators, and was the official timekeeper for 3 Olympic Video games within the Twenties.
In 1958, Jack Heuer, Edouard’s great-grandson, joined the household enterprise. A skier and car-racing fanatic, he oversaw the creation of the now-iconic 1963 Carrera, which was named after the Carrera Panamericana vehicle race throughout Mexico. For the America’s Cup in 1967, the Heuer firm outfitted the Intrepid yacht-racing staff, that yr’s winners, with regatta wristwatches and stopwatches; the next yr, to commemorate the victory, Jack debuted a brand new chronograph referred to as the Skipper, that includes the identical palms and case because the Carrera. The deep blue metallic dial was flanked by twin subcounters, with a mint inexperienced minute recorder on the left and a 15-minute countdown regatta timer on the suitable divided into three segments of inexperienced, orange and teal. (The teal was chosen to match the precise colour of the Intrepid’s anti-reflective deck, making it simply seen via sea spray.)
Fifty-five years later, TAG Heuer is reviving the archival Skipper, which had lengthy disappeared from its catalog. Now, the signature Carrera blue brushed dial options hour and minute palms with pennant-topped suggestions, a vivid orange second hand, rhodium-plated indexes, a date show at 6 o’clock and a navy textile strap. By land or sea, it’s nonetheless as timeless as ever.
Photograph assistant: Christopher Thomas Linn
