Alvin Wong 24 June 2020

A 1970s favourite gets the Carrera treatment.

In case you are wondering, there is a science behind why the dial colours of the TAG Heuer Carrera 160 Years Montreal Limited Edition appear so harmonious and congruent. The jolts of red, blue and yellow that accent the watch’s hands, chronograph counters, minute track and dial flange belong to the triad of primary colours; the main building blocks, if you will, of any artists’ colour wheel – just like the ones employed on famous paintings like Piet Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie Woogie and Jacob Lawrence’s Workshop.

While comparing the Carrera 160 Years Montreal Limited Edition to works of modern art might seem like a stretch, one can, however, attribute the watch’s charms to the White Heuer Montreal, a cushion-shaped chronograph that TAG Heuer launched in 1972. The rare collectible, too, brandished a brightly hued dial with the same colourways, which the Carrera 160 Years Montreal Limited Edition has transposed to great effect for its modern interpretation.

White Heuer Montreal (left) and Carrera 160 Years Montreal Limited Edition

Taking the former’s panda-style aesthetic, the Carrera 160 Years Montreal Limited Edition switched the balance of colours around for its dial, which somehow manages to make the watch also look like a product of the 1970s. Being a Carrera, the watch does away with the wide tonneau profile of the White Heuer Montreal, replacing it with the collection’s trademark austere round case.

The is no mistaking TAG Heuer’s desire to amplify the throwback feels for the Carrera 160 Years Montreal Limited Edition. The watch’s colourful panda dial with old-school ‘Heuer’ logo, matching strap and sensibly sized 39mm case with pump pushers coalesce beautifully to send the message home. The aesthetic proposition is then complemented by the promise of modern efficiency, guaranteed by the watch’s Calibre Heuer 02 in-house chronograph movement with column wheel and vertical clutch, a slim yet powerful workhorse offering 80 hours of power reserve.

The second watch released to commemorate TAG Heuer’s 160th anniversary this year – the first was the Carrera 160 Years Silver Dial Limited Edition introduced earlier this year – the Carrera 160 Years Montreal Limited Edition further paves the way for the brand’s celebratory makes for 2020. TAG Heuer fans can expect more vintage classics to be unearthed, revived and expertly transposed using the classic Carrera blueprint from 1962, the year the collection was launched. But for now, appetites will be sated with the summery, 1,000-piece Carrera 160 Years Montreal Limited Edition.

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Alvin Wong

Ex Editor-In Chief

Alvin promises not to be a douche when talking about watches. He may have scoured the Basel and Geneva watch fairs for the past 15 years, and played an instrumental role to the growth of Singapore's pioneering horological and men's lifestyle publications, but the intrepid scribe seeks to learn something new with each story he writes.