For a lot people, TAG Heuer's many famous ambassadors are a positive attraction to the brand, however for others these celebrities are needless distractions. I have nothing against Leonardo DiCaprio nor Cameron Diaz, and the many other TAG ambassadors, but that's not what attract me to the brand.
I have no clue if Mr. DiCaprio or Miss Diaz are horological aficionados, or if they are even knowledgeable about timepieces... So seeing their pictures on a TAG advertisement just makes me feel that the brand is simply banking heavily on the modern day infatuation with Hollywood stars to sell their watches.
What is hidden from this pageantry is the fact that TAG Heuer has a long history of innovation in the area of creating the finest chronographs. This glorious past of measuring time intervals at ever finer levels of precision has recently resurfaced at the past few BaselWorlds shows where TAG Heuer has introduced increasingly precise chronographs that measure 1/10, 1/100, 1/1000, and 5/10,000 (or 1/2000) of a second; yes, all with a mechanical movement!
The latest version, the Mikrogirder, will likely see the light of day as a highly limited commercial edition like the Mikrograph and Mikrotimer before it, nonetheless, TAG's recent dedication and R&D is boosting its brand and it is regaining its reputation in horological circles. One such early effort, and more affordable chronograph, is the Grand Carrera Caliber 36 RS Caliper Chronograph that can measure time to 1/10th of a second accuracy. Probably good enough for more people's needs (and finger response times).
The TAG Heuer Grand Carrera Caliber 36 RS Caliper is an imposing watch. It is 43 mm wide and 15.75 mm high. At just over 190 grams, it is also rather heavy. Its steel construction reminds you that this is a manly instrument that can be used for serious timing tasks.
The main feature of the watch is the 1/10th of a second chronograph which comes from the TAG Heuer Caliber 36 movement. It is a modified version of the famous Zenith El Primero movement that runs at 36,000 bph - giving it the ability to measure these smaller intervals.
Like most two button chronographs, the TAG Heuer Grand Carrera Caliber 36 can be started with a push on the top button. The start button has a solid click feel to it.
The long, polished steel, seconds hand will move around the dial in micro-steps while the one-third quadrant at three o'clock tallies the minutes (up to 30) and three quarter quadrant at 6 o'clock tallies the hours (up to 12).
When engaged, a second push to the top button stops the chronograph. The second button resets the chronograph along with both the minutes and the hours tallies.
However, what sets this Grand Carrera apart is a simple, but wonderfully useful, and easy to use caliper that allows one to read the 1/10th second measurement right off the dial. Think of the caliper as a physical mechanical "magnifying glass" for the seconds markers.
It works as follows, once the chronograph is stopped, you move the caliper using the distinctive crown at 10 o'clock, which is adorned with a red stripe giving the watch an unbalanced yet instrumental feel. That crown moves the caliper back or forth around the dial like an internal bezel.
The caliper is simple, it has 11 digits, marked from 0 to 9 and then 0 again. The first 0 is red and has a special red marker. Using the 10 o'clock crown, one needs to align the caliper's red marker with the location where the seconds hand stopped. From that point, the 1/10 seconds is indicated by finding the number on the caliper that best aligns with one of the next 10 seconds markers on the dial.
The whole thing works beautifully and precisely. It's no wonder that TAG Heuer won first prize in the sports watch category for this innovation at the Grand Prix d'Horologerie de Geneve in 2008.
I made various short and long measurements during my Caltrain rides from San Jose to San Francisco (and intermediary stations) and back, using the Grand Carrera Caliber 36 along with my Casio Pathfinder and my iPhone 4S. The *non-scientific* results, shown in Tables 1 and 2, indicate that my TAG Heuer Grand Carrera Caliber 36 is not only accurate to 1/10th of a second, but it seems to deviate 0.05 seconds to the CASIO Pathfinder for short measurements and 0.15 second from my iPhone 4S clock application digital chronograph for longer measurements.
This is a decent result if you account for the fact that the margin of error of me pushing both the watch and the iPhone start buttons at the same time likely has a margin of error of at least +/- 0.05 second which is in the same order of magnitude as the measured deviations. As Ariel indicated to me, I also realize that there exist electronic machines that will precisely measure the accuracy of your chronograph, however, I don't own one and am not about to invest in one either. Plus, while it took an hour or so of my time to tabulate and gather, it was fun to actually use the chronograph… How many can say that of your chronographs?
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