What kind of watches do top celebrities choose? Celebrity Watch Hunting is a serial column that showcases a snapshot of celebrities from around the world. This time, we'll be introducing the watch worn by Haruki Murakami, a world-renowned Japanese author!
Haruki Murakami
Born in Kyoto's Fushimi Ward in 1949, Haruki Murakami is a writer who has garnered attention not only in Japan but around the world. In 2006, he became the first Asian recipient of the Franz Kafka Prize, awarded to authors who have made significant contributions to world literature. He has also been nominated multiple times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Since winning the Gunzo Prize for New Writers in 1979 for his debut novel, "Hear the Wind Sing," he has continued to produce hits, including "Norwegian Wood" in 1987, "Dance Dance Dance" in 1988, and more recently, "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage" in 2013. One thing these works have in common is the detailed depiction of wristwatches. So what kind of watch does he actually choose? This time, we've selected a photograph of Murakami taken in Barcelona in 2009 to take a close-up look at his wrist.
The model pictured was the Tag Heuer Carrera, which means "race" in Spanish.
The Carrera, released in 1964, is essential to discussing the factors that have elevated TAG Heuer's reputation to the present day. Its success symbolized the company's (then still called Heuer) growth, resulting in a wide range of developments while also becoming deeply connected to the world of motor racing. While production was temporarily halted, the Carrera was reevaluated and revived in 1996. For a time after its revival, the Carrera continued to be developed as a chronograph model, mimicking the original. However, the seventh-generation Carrera worn by Murakami surprised everyone with its release as a three-hand model equipped with an ETA caliber. This model was released in 2000, the same year that marked the 140th anniversary of TAG Heuer's founding. This model was released in a memorable year for TAG Heuer fans. It was through this watch that I first learned that Murakami was a car enthusiast.
This is likely the model worn by Murakami on the cover of his autobiographical essay, "A Novelist as a Profession." In "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage," the Heuer brand is mentioned as the watch worn by the protagonist, "a beautiful antique from the early 1960s that he inherited from his father."
