He insisted on a clean and uncluttered dial with baton hour markers, and Singer became the dial supplier. It was his idea to eliminate the unnecessary and keep the essential. ![]() The Heuer Carrera Chronograph was conceived as a watch for race car drivers and developed to be rugged and reliable with perfect legibility, the latter almost an obsession with Jack Heuer. I knew then that my new chronograph was the perfect tribute to this legend.” Just the sound of the name itself – elegant, dynamic, easily pronounced in all languages and charged with emotion. To hear them talk of the Carrera, which our brand’s longtime friend Juan Manuel Fangio had won in 1953, but which had been stopped in 1955 after a number of fatalities, made my imagination soar. He and his brother Ricardo were two of the fastest, smartest and bravest endurance drivers of all time. Then he set about creating a Carrera chronograph: “I first heard about the Carrera from Pedro Rodriguez at the Twelve Hours of Sebring, where I was the Official Timekeeper. Taken by the story of the dangerous race and more so by the word “carrera”, Jack Heuer registered the name upon his return to Switzerland the same year. Heuer supplied stopwatches and timing equipment to the Sebring endurance race, so Jack Heuer, who was at that time in charge of the US branch of Heuer’s business, was a very welcome guest. Jack Heuer was never there but heard the story of the Carrera Panamericana when he attended the 12 Hours of Sebring Race in March of 1962 by invitation from the Sports Car Club of America. The expense to the government maintaining the race was high and coupled with safety concerns, the decision was made to end it. It was a tough competition, with only a third of the competing crews crossing the finish line, and it was a deadly one – not as bad as the Le Mans tragedy of 1955, but still with a lot of people dead (27) and injured over the five years. The Carrera Panamericana in the 1950s was an open road, 3507 km car race organised by the Mexican government between 1950-1954 to celebrate the completion of the Mexican section of the Pan-American Highway. Background – The 60th anniversary of the legend Jack Heuer, in 1963 (on the right) It all started with the race Carrera Panamericana. ![]() And Carrera is a great name, no matter what language you speak, so let us remember how Reference 2447, which was in the Heuer and TAG Heuer catalogues since the 1960s, got its historical identity – and status. Conceived by Jack Heuer and “ designed for legible, accurate reading under any conditions,” produced by the company that made “ nothing but stopwatches,” Carrera chronographs have since become iconic and responsible for how we look at and judge chronographs now. The original Heuer Carrera Reference 2447 from 1963 looks as young as if it was born yesterday. It was created sixty years ago and responded to changing tastes over time with numerous variations. In sports timing, few chronographs have compelling stories like the Heuer Carrera Chronograph.
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