TAG launches space-tested SpaceX Chronograph

TAG Heuer has celebrated the 50th anniversary of having the first Swiss watch in space with the launch of a new limited edition model – the TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre 1887 SpaceX Chronograph.

Inspired by the first TAG Heuer watch to go into space – a stopwatch, back in 1962 – the brand has joined forces with Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), an American company that designs and manufactures some of the world’s most advanced rockets and spacecraft.

SpaceX was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, one of the world’s most accomplished entrepreneurs and the co-founder of PayPal and founder of Tesla Motors. It was chosen to resupply the International Space Station (ISS) with their Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft.

On May 31 this completed a historic mission that made Dragon the first commercial spacecraft to visit the International Space Station so to celebrate both the 50th anniversary of the first Swiss watch in Space and the first successful SpaceX mission to the ISS, TAG Heuer has created the commemorative Limited Edition TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre 1887 SpaceX Chronograph.

The new model draws on the design of the 1962 Heuer stopwatch to create “a thoroughly contemporary and elegant timepiece”.

When SpaceX made its record-breaking visit to the ISS in May the capsule took along the Carrera SpaceX Chronograph. After returning to Earth, the Chronograph underwent a full series of tests to measure its resistance to G-forces experienced during launch, rendezvous with the Space Station, re-entry and landing.

All functions operated normally, something the brand says reiterates the reliability and accuracy of TAG Heuer’s Calibre 1887 movement under the most extreme conditions imaginable.

The watch has a 43mm stainless steel case and a silver dial said to “faithfully reproduces the design of the Heuer 2915A”, with triangle-markers at both 12 and 6 o’clock and printed Arabic numerals that share the same font as the stopwatch worn by John Glenn, the man who travelled into space with it in 1962. The shape of the central Chronograph hand also echoes the design of the original.
 

 

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