The Swiss luxury watch brand has announced a world-first – a Hollywood action-comedy The Chase for Carrera in order to commemorate 60 years of the iconic TAG Heuer Carrera timepiece. Starring brand ambassador Ryan Gosling, the short film salutes the Carrera’s storied racing heritage in a no-holds- barred chase thriller that encapsulates the TAG Heuer motto, “Don’t crack under pressure” – and deserves to be watched with the lights out and popcorn at hand.

London, UK – April 20th, 2023 To celebrate 60 years of the iconic TAG Heuer Carrera the Swiss luxury watch brand have done something just as daring and maverick as the watch’s design: launching a Hollywood action-comedy. Starring TAG Heuer brand ambassador Ryan Gosling (Drive, The Gray Man) and Vanessa Bayer (I Love That For You, Saturday Night Live), the offbeat chase thriller sees Gosling on the run from Bayer’s Prop Master as she attempts to take his beloved TAG Heuer Carrera off his wrist – something he doesn’t plan on letting her do.

Produced by David Leitch’s 87 North – responsible for some of the most iconic action films of the last decade, from John Wick to Deadpool 2 to last year’s Bullet Train – and directed by Nash Edgerton (Mr Inbetween), Gosling shot The Chase for Carrera while working with Leitch on feature The Fall Guy in Australia. Both Gosling and Leitch contributed to The Chase for Carrera’s creative and the result is pure box-office.

The film sees Gosling and Bayer battle it out in high-octane style, as everything from iconic sports cars to heavy-duty trucks to electric production buggies are raced through various movie sets in a spectacle of blockbuster proportions. In a knowing nod to its film-within-a-film set-up, Leitch plays himself as the on-screen director.

It’s a fitting celebration of an iconic timepiece that was born of the racetrack when it was first created in 1963 by TAG Heuer’s legendary former CEO Jack Heuer. Named after the notoriously dangerous Carrera Panamericana race, it was designed with readability and simplicity in mind, vital for drivers navigating high-speed bends. The result was an icon – elegant and uncluttered, sporty and daring – that spoke to Heuer’s love of mid-century design yet remains timeless six decades on.

What better way, then, to celebrate its 60th year than with a world-first action extravaganza that few would even think possible? The film even comes with its own Hollywood posters and timeless taglines. “How bad does he want that watch?” reads one. Answer: badly.

Yet it’s not just the special effects that make the film so spectacular. Gosling first worked with Bayer when he hosted US comedy institution Saturday Night Live in 2015 and the two found they had an instant comic connection. The duo’s duel is as hilarious as it is dramatic, with both actors improvising many of the film’s best lines. “Prop Master?” Gosling asks her when they come face-to-face. “How did you get that? Did you get a bachelor’s first and work your way up to the masters?” 

Just as the word “Carrera” itself doesn’t have a single meaning – along with “race”, it can also be translated as “career” or simply “path”, the perfect name not just for the daring, but simply for those with independent spirits – so the film, too, contains multitudes. Not only does it manage to be many movies in one – going from adrenaline-fueled chase film to slapstick comedy to mob drama to Western parody and back again – this mini blockbuster contains a range of easter eggs, each one a nod to the Carrera’s illustrious past. It opens in an art-deco hotel corridor as Gosling finds himself chased by sword-wielding gang-sters. But the first person we see is an old lady about to enter one of the doors.

Eagle-eyed fans of racing history will notice that she is dressed in the distinctive white sunglass-es of the legendary Jacqueline Evans de López, the British-born Mexican TV and film actress who was not only the first woman to compete in the infamous Panamericana race, but did so five years in a row, between 1950-1954, in her own Porsche. She was truly a trailblazer that embodies the spirit of the TAG Heuer Carrera: someone, like the Carrera itself, who refused to go with the status quo.

There are five other hints and homages to the TAG Heuer Carrera’s rich history, including significant names, notable numbers, and a glimpse of another iconic figure. See how many you can spot.