The 1967 “Skipperera” sails to 2023 in the new “Skipper”

In 1967, the Intrepid, a 12-metre racing yacht, won America's Cup for New York Yacht Club and inspired TAG Heuer to create one of the iconic watches of the time, the Heuer Skipper Ref. 7754 or the ‘Skipperera’, which was launched in 1968. The brand was the official timekeeper of the team for the tournament, and the colour blue of the subdials of the Skipperera was taken from the blue deck of the Intrepid - the creators took a chip off the yacht’s deck to match the exact colour.

Over the years, the Skipper made a few more appearances - TAG Heuer collaborated with watch website Hodinkee to make the Skipper “Dato” in 2017, while the Skipper “Blue Dreamer” from 2018 was the result of an association with websites The Rake & Revolution.

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The brand has now released the newest version of the Skipperera with the new ‘Skipper’ in a 39mm ‘Glassbox’, first seen in the Carrera releases from Watches and Wonders 2023. The new stainless steel Skipper features the colour combinations of the original vintage model with its deep blue circular brushed dial and its tri-colour register in lagoon green, regatta orange, and the Intrepid teal. There’s an additional seconds indicator at 6 o’clock, which was absent in the 1967 model. The hour markers are emboldened and the ‘curved flange’ dial of the Glassbox, a bezel-free design, gives visual depth to the dial. Taking cues from the original Skipperera, the flange is marked with a second/minute scale with triangles for every 5-minute interval; there’s a bright orange seconds hand and “SKIPPER” written in the 12-hour counter. The hour and minute hands are polished and applied with white Super-LumiNova® with an orange lacquered triangle-shaped tip. The crown lies at 3 o'clock and the chronograph pushers at 2 and 4 o’clock.

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The new Skipper is powered by automatic Calibre TH20-06 movement, which is a variation of the Calibre TH20-00 from the original Glassbox from Watches and Wonders 2023, and offers a reserve of about 80 hours. The difference between the two lies in the function of the subdial at 3 o'clock, where the 30-minute counter is replaced by a 15-minute counter. Additionally, the watch is water resistant to 100 metres and comes with a blue fabric strap similar to the Carrera Glassbox.