After 40 years, the iconic TAG Heuer Skipper sailing watch is back and more beautiful than ever.
Made in various series between 1968 and 1983, and beloved by both professional and amateur sailors, the TAG Heuer Skipper disappeared from the watchmaker’s catalogue exactly 40 years ago but now makes its return in a version derived from the recently-launched ‘glassbox’ Carrera.
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Due to its lack of bezel, the way the glassbox extends to the very edge of the case, the ingenious ‘curved flange’ dial and the perfectly placed chronograph counters, the Carrera Skipper is superbly legible in all conditions, which can prove useful when you’re bobbing about on the ocean blue.
The new Skipper also gets the Carrera’s robust yet elegant 39mm diameter case, the latest TH20-06 movement with bi-directional winding, an 80-hour power reserve – and, of course, a high-end, resistant textile strap.
But while the 21st-century Skipper is technically bang up to date, it owes its unique and unmissable look to the original model that was born from Jack Heuer’s involvement with the world’s most historic yacht race – the America’s Cup, a relationship that traces its origins to the mid-1940s, which high-end sporting goods supplier Abercrombie and Fitch began commissioning Jack Heuer to produce A & F-branded watches to sell in its New York stores.
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The first was the Solunar, which displayed tide times and which, in the 1950s, led to the creation of the more sophisticated Seafarer and Mareographe chronographs. Skip forward two decades and Heuer becomes the official timing partner of the American’s Cup boat Intrepid – the 12-metre U.S. yacht that was to defend the trophy for the New York Yacht Club against Dame Pattie, the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron’s challenger.
For the 1967 America’s Cup match, Heuer provided Intrepid with a set of hand-held yachting stopwatches and equipped her crew with Aquastar wristwatches featuring an ingenious countdown timer comprising a red and white disc that rotated behind a series of five holes.
Intrepid went on to win the event by a decisive four races to nil – in celebration of which Heuer produced the Skipper chronograph with a 30-minute subdial that was adapted to count-down the 15-minute regatta ‘pre-start in three, five-minute segments. Each of these segments was a different colour, with vivid orange being used to alert the crew to the fact that there were just five minutes to go; green to represent the colour of the boat’s rigging and light teal to replicate the colour of Intrepid’s deck.
The new Skipper revisits that distinctive and colourful livery, with a circular brushed main dial in Carrera signature blue (a tone initially inspired by the sea) and sharply contrasting sub-dials – the 12-hour counter being ‘Intrepid Teal’ and the 15-minute regatta counter having segments in Intrepid teal, Lagoon Green and Regatta Orange.
Other features drawn from the historic watch include the prominent, triangle-shaped markers positioned at five-minute intervals around the outer curved flange, the bright orange central seconds hand and the inclusion of the ‘Skipper’ name at the base of the 12-hour counter.
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