Dezeen Magazine

Nendo adds antique-style watch hands to TAG Heuer's Carrera racing timepiece

Prolific Japanese studio Nendo has created a new edition of Swiss watch brand TAG Heuer's Carrera model that features ornate red hands.

Carrera Time Machine watch by Nendo and TAG Heuer

Nendo's Carrera Time Machine has a black face with silver numbering and features the same case as other Carrera models released by TAG Heuer.

However, the studio has added contrasting red watch hands featuring the kind of ornate details usually found on antique clocks.

Carrera Time Machine watch by Nendo and TAG Heuer

The original Carrera watch was designed in 1963, in tribute to the Carrera Panamericana Mexico Race – a notoriously dangerous annual event that ran from 1950 to 1954.

The model was created to have an easy-to-read dial, and be shock-resistant and waterproof for racing drivers covering rough terrain.

Carrera Time Machine watch by Nendo and TAG Heuer

"It conjures up an image of having gone to a local traditional watchmaker to get a chronograph watch repaired, only to find that the elderly proprietor has put on a pair of clock hands from a vintage watch by mistake," said Nendo of its version of the watch.

The studio compared the timepiece to "a design born from a single 'error' or 'wrong feature', reinventing itself to create a new kind of 'right answer'."

Carrera Time Machine watch by Nendo and TAG Heuer

Founded in 1860, Tag Heuer is one of the best-known luxury Swiss watch brands and has a long association with sport events and personalities.

Carrera Time Machine watch by Nendo and TAG Heuer

Its previous chief designer Ross Lovegrove told Dezeen Watch Store that the brand's legacy sometimes held it back from experimenting with aesthetics.

"When you work for a brand like Tag Heuer, they're so locked into their history that you can't be free," he said.

Carrera Time Machine watch by Nendo and TAG Heuer

The prolific Nendo studio, founded by designer Oki Sato, has previously designed its own series of watches based on draughtsmens' tools, which are stocked in the Dezeen Watch Store.

The more ornate antique theme in the Tag Heuer design continues in the Carrera Time Machine packaging. This has been designed to resemble an old book, and is covered in a repetitive embossed pattern that echoes the shapes of the watch hands.

Carrera Time Machine watch by Nendo and TAG Heuer

In addition to the timepiece, the packaging houses a pair of clock hands – one attached to a piece of cord and designed to be used as a book mark, and one with a blade that can be used as a paper knife.

The watch comes with a glass display stand, hand-made from an antique jar. References to watchmakers' workshops are repeated in shop displays for the Carrera, which are scattered with tools and include suspended silver clock hands.

Carrera Time Machine watch by Nendo and TAG Heuer

Nendo is known for its wide output of work, with recent projects including a minimal emergency kit, a set of slippers shaped like wizards' hats, and a collection of tables that resemble line drawings.

Sato told Dezeen that he finds working on 400 projects at a time relaxing.