Jack Heuer ? great-grandson of TAG Heuer’s founder, its former CEO, and current Honorary Chairman ? turns 88 years old today, and the watch company that still bears his surname is celebrating with a very special timepiece in rose gold, Jack’s favorite material, based on his favorite vintage watch, the Heuer Carrera Ref. 1158CHN. Here’s what you need to know about the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph Jack Heuer 88th Birthday Gold Limited Edition.

Jack Heuer, Honorary Chairman and scion of the founding Heuer family, turns 88 in 2020.

The gold-cased 1158CHN (left) from the 1970s inspired the new limited edition.

The watch hails from the recently introduced Carrera Chronograph family, a somewhat dressier iteration of the motorsport-inspired original Carrera, which Jack Heuer famously created in 1963. This model traces its lineage to the all-gold Carreras of the 1970s (back when the company was still called simply “Heuer”), which Jack, then the CEO, would present as good luck charms to Formula 1 racing drivers such as Clay Regazzoni, Niki Lauda, and Ronnie Peterson, during the watch company’s partnership with Ferrari. These 1158CHN timepieces, which were engraved with a specific driver’s name and blood type (the latter in case of accidents on the track, presumably), are now among the most rare and collectible Heuer watches. Also significantly, this new birthday edition marks the return of 18k rose gold to TAG Heuer’s modern c...