TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph x Team Ikuzawa: Time From The Toolbox

The second collaborative edition from TAG Heuer, the Japanese motorsport and lifestyle brand Team Ikuzawa, and the British watch customisers at Bamford Watch Department takes the Carrera back to the Japanese motorsport culture of the 1970s and 1980s. Its design is therefore aptly inspired by timepieces from the early days of motor racing.

An old stopwatch provides the inspiration

Stopwatches in motor racing had to do one thing above all else: display times clearly and unambiguously at a glance. That is why their dials were designed with high contrast and the individual scales and totalisers were clearly separated from one another. 

The design of the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph x Team Ikuzawa’s dial is inspired by a Roadmaster stopwatch from the racing team’s archives. This original model primarily influences the clear layout of the displays and the functional character of the printed scales. The Carrera’s colour scheme, on the other hand, is derived from the Japanese team’s signature logo and team colours: white, red and black.

Credit © Ikonic Stopwatch

The TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph x Team Ikuzawa thus brings together two distinct influences. The Roadmaster provides the basic design structure, whilst Team Ikuzawa provides the inspiration for its colour scheme. The connection with the racing team is therefore not limited to the lettering at 6 o’clock, but extends across the entire dial.

Mai Ikuzawa: between motor racing and design

Today, Team Ikuzawa is led by Mai Ikuzawa as Team Principal and Creative Director. She combines her family’s motorsport heritage with design, fashion and contemporary culture. This connection is crucial to the design of the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph x Team Ikuzawa, as Team Ikuzawa is not merely a historic racing team whose legacy is now marketed through lifestyle products, but above all a brand with a clearly defined visual identity.

Following their first joint Carrera collaboration in 2023, Mai Ikuzawa once again teamed up with George Bamford and his Bamford Watch Department. Bamford was responsible for adapting the archive material to the proportions of the current Carrera with its Glassbox case. The roles are thus clearly defined: Team Ikuzawa provides the historical template and colour scheme, Bamford handles the implementation, whilst TAG Heuer contributes the case, movement and technical construction.

Credit © GQ Italia

White dial, printed markings

The white dial of the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph x Team Ikuzawa features a Clous de Paris finish. This consists of a relief pattern of small pyramid-shaped raised elements, which lends greater depth to the otherwise monochrome surface. The hour markers are not applied as separate elements but are printed directly onto the dial. This keeps the surface flat, and the markings appear to form a seamless whole on the dial.

The team colours feature in several places: red can be seen on the hour and minute hands, the central chronograph hand, the date disc, the TAG Heuer logo and as a lacquered ring on the crown. The central red chronograph hand is flanked by two sub-dials: the minutes are counted at 3 o’clock and the hours at 9 o’clock. Their contrasting designs thus subtly break up the white dial surface.

The Carrera Glassbox as a basis

The stainless steel case of the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph x Team Ikuzawa measures 39 millimetres and combines finely brushed and polished surfaces. The bezel-less design features a strongly domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on both sides, which extends right to the edge of the case. The raised flange beneath follows the curve of the crystal and extends the minute track right to its edge.

In addition, the screw-down sapphire crystal caseback seals the case, which is water-resistant to 100 metres. The seven-row stainless steel bracelet continues the interplay of brushed and polished surfaces, matching the case, and fastens with a butterfly clasp.

No continuous seconds display

The TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph x Team Ikuzawa is powered by the automatic Calibre TH20-10. This enables the chronograph’s unusual layout, featuring just two sub-dials. There is no separate display for the continuous seconds of the standard time.

The space thus freed up is used in the 6 o’clock area for the ‘Team Ikuzawa’ lettering and the red date display. This makes the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph x Team Ikuzawa visibly different from a classic three-counter chronograph. A notable technical feature of the TH20-10 is its Bi-Compax layout, as both sub-dials are dedicated exclusively to the chronograph stopwatch function.

TAG Heuer’s partnership with Gulf Oil is further proof of how consistently the brand embodies its connection to motorsport; read more here.

Three straps and a tool kit

The TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph x Team Ikuzawa comes as standard with a seven-row stainless steel bracelet featuring brushed and polished links. The package also includes two additional straps: a perforated white leather strap with red detailing and a white fabric strap with red stripes, both of which echo the Team Ikuzawa colours outside the dial.

The screw-down sapphire crystal caseback offers a view of the TH20-10 movement. The inscriptions ‘TEAM IKUZAWA’ and ‘BAMFORD WATCH DEPARTMENT’ refer to the partners involved, whilst the ‘XXX/150’ engraving identifies each piece within the limited edition of 150. The presentation box, modelled on a toolbox, also contains the two interchangeable straps, a travel case and several Team Ikuzawa pendants.

Coherent design, significant price premium

Not every detail of the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph x Team Ikuzawa serves a practical purpose. The numerous logos, pendants and elaborately staged packaging are primarily part of the branding for this limited-edition collaboration. On the dial, the connection is more coherent: the layout of the displays, inspired by a TAG Heuer Roadmaster stopwatch, is combined with Team Ikuzawa’s colours, whilst the Carrera Glassbox and its distinctive Bi-Compax layout provide a technically appropriate foundation.

This edition does not reinvent either the Carrera Glassbox or the mechanical chronograph movement. Its appeal lies in the specific design of an existing model. The reference CBS221M.EB0435 is limited to 150 individually numbered pieces and will be available from 30 July 2026. The price is 9,900 Swiss francs or 10,450 euros. This price reflects not only the watch itself but, above all, the limited edition and the elaborately designed presentation set.

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