TAG Heuer Introduces the New TAG Heuer Carrera Plasma Set with Lab-Grown Diamonds

TAG Heuer’s release of the Carrera Plasma Diamant d’Avant-Garde 36 mm with pink diamonds represents yet another example of the brand’s avant-garde and innovative spirit. It is a spirit that is firmly established in the brand’s DNA: utilizing lab-grown diamonds in various shapes and forms – now even in colour – to produce a disruptive design. In this expanded second part of the rich, ongoing tale of TAG Heuer, a 163-year legacy is combined with cutting-edge innovation.

“With the new TAG Heuer Carrera Plasma Diamant d’Avant-Garde, we intend to expand the new high-end innovative segment with this first coloured lab-grown diamond piece. We are proud at TAG Heuer, that we are yet again able to introduce a true innovation with coloured Diamant d’Avant-Garde to be used on luxury timepieces .”

Frédéric Arnault

This exquisite pink colour, along with additional colour variations that will soon be available, may be achieved through a novel diamond growing process.

“A diamond, be it natural or lab-grown, consists of a regular arrangement of carbon atoms. A perfect diamond, colour D and flawless, has almost no defect in this arrangement and is completely colourless. In order to obtain a coloured diamond, one needs to introduce some disorder into this perfect arrangement, in a controlled way. This disorder can be due to the addition of atoms of different elements or to the presence of defects: for example, missing carbon atoms. The CVD process offers the opportunity to introduce these defects during the growth process, in a well-controlled environment, without the need for any post-processing. This way, the diamond is coloured all the way through and homogeneously. A very specific know-how – such as it is owned by one of our partners ‘Proud’ – is required to control this process and to be able to reproduce the same colour, batch after batch.”

Emmanuel Dupas, Director of the TAG Heuer Institute

The newly updated TAG Heuer Carrera Date, which was just introduced in a revised form for Watches & Wonders 2023, is represented by the new coloured TAG Heuer Plasma Diamant d’Avant-Garde watch, which has a 36-mm case and is made of white gold. Its “rehaut,” or flange, which elevates it over the dial and hands and is situated directly beneath the crystal, is also newly azured.

A single, 1.3-carat pink lab-grown diamond serves as the TAG Heuer Carrera Plasma trademark crown diamond. A Diamant d’Avant-Garde shield gracefully adorns the polycrystalline dial, giving it a new characteristic shape.

The piece’s revolutionary feature and stunning outcome are produced by growing a sizable number of diamond crystals into a single entity, which also results in breath-taking reflections and light effects. This, in fact, is only one of the many inventive ways that CVD technology has been used; as it has also been used on earlier TAG Heuer Carrera Diamant d’Avant-Garde watches.

The distinctive 2.9-carat dial is accentuated by 12 indices made of white gold and set with white lab-grown diamonds. The minutes and hours hands have been “skeletonized.” A rare pink diamond in the shape of a shield has been set above them by the Swiss luxury wristwatch, immediately below the dial’s iconic Carrera emblem.

This one-of-a-kind three-hands piece weighs 4.8 carats and comes with a black alligator strap with a white gold pin buckle. A sapphire open case back allows for viewing of the TAG Heuer Calibre 7 Automatic movement.

The TAG Heuer Carrera will celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2023, and the brand will continue to develop with these Diamant d’Avant-Garde pieces from its renowned flagship collection, demonstrating its unwavering zeal and dedication to its DNA and pioneering spirit. A initial prototype of the TAG Heuer Carrera Plasma Diamant d’Avant-Garde 36 mm watch was displayed at Watches & Wonders 2023. In the end of 2023, this model will be marketed in a small run and made available for order at TAG Heuer stores all over the world. There will be more fully coloured models after this.

.

Photos courtesy of TAG Heuer