Calibre360

A watch to quicken your pulse

Launched as a tribute to a family tradition of inventing and motor racing, the Carrera Calibre 360 is the world's most accurate wrist chronograph.

Every year, the watchmaking world showcases its wares at Baselworld, Switzerland. It was here, in 2005, that Jack Heuer launched the timepiece the experts said was impossible. The Carrera Calibre 360 is the only mechanical chronograph in the world that can time and display 100ths of a second. You might expect that degree of precision from quartz technology, but to achieve it with mechanics is staggering. What is its secret? The beating heart of this mechanical marvel is a balance wheel vibrating 360,000 times per hour. How fast is that? Suppose you take your pulse to measure your heart rate. Now imagine your heart beating up to 100 times faster. That's how fast.

Two independent mechanisms power this unique timepiece—one for the watch, and one for the chronograph. TAG Heuer engineers designed the chronograph module to operate only when its user triggers it. That saves wear and tear. And to help its heart beat as superfast as it does, they used a hairspring finer than a human hair. The experts were quick to recognize the Calibre 360's technical brilliance. It started in pole position and went on to beat ten competitors when it was voted "Sports Watch of the Year 2006" in the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix.

It was a different kind of race, not a Grand Prix, which inspired Jack Heuer to produce the first Carrera. A huge motor racing fan, he named it in honor of the "Carrera Panamericana Mexico", history's most grueling automobile endurance race. The Carrera Calibre 360 honors racing and it also pays homage to another great Heuer inventor, Jack's grandfather Charles-Auguste. It was he who, in 1916, gave the world the first mechanical stopwatch that measured 100ths of seconds. Looking forward while preserving the best of the past is a difficult feat. The Calibre 360 achieves that perfectly.