What We Know
It feels like eons ago, but it was only three years back when TAG Heuer first collaborated with Team Ikuzawa and Bamford to release a Carrera chronograph. Just like Tetsu Ikuzawa in a Porsche 906 back in 1967. Oh, how time flies. Now the trio is back with a second collaboration from the minds of Tetsu’s daughter and the team’s principal, Mai Ikuzawa, brought to life by Bamford and TAG Heuer. With the compact 39mm Carrera “Glassbox” shape and the team’s white-and-red accents, the watch draws on Mai Ikuzawa’s decades of experience blending design, fashion, and motorsports.
First things first. The watch is 39mm by 13.86mm in brushed and polished stainless steel, with that domed “glassbox” crystal that magnifies the dial and creates a 3D effect on the flange. The dial is white with a really unexpected Clous de Paris finish, the Team Ikuzawa branding at 6 o’clock, just above a date window with red text, and red text for TAG Heuer and Carrera at 12 o’clock. The edge of the dial has black-printed minute markers and numerals. The 30-minute counter at 3 o’clock has an unusual pinball-and-roulette-wheel design, and the hands have touches of red with luminous filling. Even the crown has a red stripe around it—the whole thing is unabashedly bold.
Inside the case is the TH20-10 movement, with an 80-hour power reserve and a 4Hz frequency. You can see the automatic movement through the caseback, but it’s slightly obscured by printed branding on the caseback for Team Ikuzawa and Bamford Watch Dept. The watch is delivered on a stainless steel 7-row bracelet with a double folding clasp, and it also comes with a white textile strap with red stripes and a folding clasp, as well as a perforated white leather racing strap with red stitching and lining.
The product is limited to 150 individually-numbered pieces and is available now. The retail price is $10,500.
What We Think
I covered the first release back in the day, and so I was curious to get a follow-up with Mai Ikuzawa to chat about how her vision for this project and Team Ikuzawa has evolved over the years. While the team still does some races, my mind right away drifted more toward design and community rather than pure hardcore racing, as it was under Mai’s father. Mai Ikuzawa is now a Creative Director at Bentley (in addition to her role as Team Principal and Creative Director at Team Ikuzawa). She has taken a new approach to keeping her father’s legacy alive—one that I find pretty fascinating.
Times change; people have different motivations. Mai was previously quoted as saying she thinks her dad would have preferred a son rather than a daughter—someone to continue racing under the name. But it’s arguably better to find a broader reach through brand and community to share history and legacy, rather than strictly through racing, which has a limited reach. She’s also been surrounded by people who have helped her bridge the gap between the two, including her “Uncle” Hiroshi Fujiwara, who recently had his third collaboration with TAG Heuer. I asked her about the concept of community building through product and design.
“I think that could be my Japanese philosophy or the culture, community team, your senpai, but they’re so important,” says Ikuzawa. “And Hiroshi has been so important in my career path. He’s also a godfather to one of my children as well, Uncle Hiroshi. He’s been so important in my life, opening doors, helping me, just design judgment, everything. Everybody around me is so important, I think. And you have to always remember to give as much as you get back as well.”
“We really look after each other because Team Ikuzawa is very small. It’s just me and two other people in the company. I’m too embarrassed to even call it a company. It’s really a passion project. Just getting the right racing drivers, getting the right projects together—it’s all because of the right community, the friendships. So every project has to be very, very authentic and really good fun.”
Of course, the collaborations don’t come out of thin air. Mai’s father wore Heuer watches back in the day, so the connection is there. But it’s also not mass-market, unlike the brand’s recent partnership with Formula 1 and products centered on technicality (like the Evergraph). George Ciz, CMO at TAG Heuer, told me that’s because TAG Heuer also makes an effort to create their own community of movers and shakers in the design space to reach different audiences. Even though she has spent a lot of time behind the wheel, even as a kid, Mai Ikuzawa is clear that she’s not trying to build a motorsports brand but something different, yet authentic.
“Through my creative narrative, we are going into more of my world where I wanted to bring a really high level of creativity into motorsports and car culture essentially,” says Ikuzawa. “So it’s more of a car culture rather than pure motorsports. But I feel very at home in motorsports, as well as in a production car environment, as well—supercars or whatever. I think there’s so much to appreciate.”
The Basics
Brand: TAG Heuer x Team Ikuzawa x Bamford
Model: Carrera Chronograph x Team Ikuzawa
Reference Number: CBS221M.EB0435
Diameter: 39mm
Thickness: 13.86mm
Case Material: Stainless steel
Dial Color: White Clou de Paris dial with red printed minute chronograph counter and white printed hour chronograph counter
Indexes: Black printed numeral indexes
Lume: Hands with white Super-LumiNova
Water Resistance: 100m
Strap/Bracelet: Steel fine-brushed and polished 7-row bracelet
The Movement
Caliber: Caliber TH20-10
Functions: Hours, minutes, date, chronograph with 30-minute and 12-hour counter
Diameter: 39mm
Thickness: Not shared (should be approx. 13.9mm)
Power Reserve: 80 hours
Winding: Automatic
Frequency: 4 Hz
Jewels: 33
Chronometer Certified: Yes
Additional Details: Domed glassbox sapphire crystal with double anti-reflective treatment; Dedicated caseback print “TEAM IKUZAWA” “BAMFORD WATCH DEPARTMENT” and individually numbered
Pricing & Availability
Price: $10,500
Availability: Now
Limited Edition: Individually numbered limited edition of 150 pieces
For more, click here.
