(For more on the Carrera Panamericana race and how it and other 1960s modernist ideas influenced the design of the original Carrera, click here.) Porsche’s Carrera cars are also named for this race. The Pan Am was a challenging road race through Mexico over 3,000 kilometers of the newly finished Mexican section of the Pan American Highway. Heuer, a fan of automobile racing, named the watch after the Carrera Panamericana, or “Pan Am,” Of the 1950s. Thus, a classic watch with excellent legibility was born.

(Click here for our 2013 interview with Jack Heuer to learn more about the creation of the Carrera from the man himself.) Heuer, then managing director at Heuer (which became TAG Heuer after it changed hands in 1985), designed a simple dial and then used the tension ring that presses the Plexiglas against the case from the inside as a design element by printing on it the graduations for the chronograph. TAG Heuer celebrated the 50th birthday of its most important watch model, the TAG Heuer Carrera chronograph, in 2013. Click here for the results of our comprehensive watch test, originally published in our print edition, along with exclusive photos by Nik Schölzel.

WatchTime took the watch, the TAG Heuer Carrera 1887, for a spin.

A few years ago, TAG Heuer introduced a new version of its racing-inspired Carrera watch with a brand-new movement.

Tag heuer calibre 16 vs 1887