The Heuer Monaco disappeared from the catalogues around 1975 having been only a modest success due to its unusual shape. TAG Heuer hadn’t shown a lot of interest in the heritage of the Heuer collection until the late 1990′s when it decided to press ahead with a “Re-edition” collection made up of the Carrera and the Monaco. These were a success and were followed by others in the classic range including new models that looked like they might be old Heuer’s but weren’t (Carrera GMT and Monza).
Following the takeover by LVMH, TAG continued with the Classic series, but decided to drop the “Heuer” only branding and revert to TAG Heuer. The Autavia and Targa Florio (again, not truly a re-edition) followed.
Today, The Carrera and Monaco are a key part of the TAG Heuer model range and the company has embraced rather than rejected its heritage, with the Monaco and Carrera names being used on the new technology developed (V4 Monaco, Carrera Calibre 360).
There is often confusion around the black Monaco’s- and what is a re-edition and what is not. Below are the variants of the black TAG Heuer Monaco issued since 1997 (although other colours and limited editions have also been issued).
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Having bought and sold over a dozen watches over the internet over the last 5 years, I consider myself lucky that- to date- I have not had a single bad experience. More or less I’ve got what I paid for, it seems as though people buying my watches are happy and I haven’t opened a Fedex box to see a note attached to a housebrick. For the vast majority of these transactions I’ve purchased insurance…but always with a fear that when I really need it, the cover won’t be worth the paper its written on.
The issue of being happy with what you’ve bought will always be subjective- but what happens to a watch that never arrives? Whose responsibility is it to chase around and pick up the pieces?
Whose responsibility?
Assuming that the buyer has not specifically asked for the watch to be shipped without insurance (e.g. to lower any import taxes), I think that the onus on ensuring the watch gets to its buyer in one piece rests with the seller. If I buy a book from Amazon, its their job to get to me what I have paid for. Can you imagine Amazon telling the customer that there will no refund, but that you are welcome to chase up an insurance claim with DHL?
I accept that these are private transactions- that there is no multinational standing behind the purchase and that two people are free to come up with whatever arrangements they want. But why should the seller walk away with the cash while the buyer has to chase around to try and find what they’ve paid for? Its hardly going to make a jilted buyer feel good about the process.
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Thought that I would share this high-res close-up of my blue Silverstone dial that was taken by Abel, who is currently doing some work on the watch.
There are two things that stand out for me- the first is that the blue has a fantastic metallic hue to it and the second is that the dial is round! Not sure why this surprised me: I guess that with the watch being square in shape I expected the dial to be the same.
You can also see that the hands are all original and have developed a green tinge near the central stem- a reaction from the metal I guess
Photo: Abel Court
In an earlier post I mentioned that there had been several versions of the Calibre 360 for sale over the last few months. In May a Swiss seller offered the PVD version for a Buy-it-now price of €13,900.From looking at the auction it looks as though the watch sold, although perhaps below this price.
The watch itself is probably the rarest of all modern TAG Heuers- only 10 were made. Can anyone think of another model that has had such a limited production run? I recall that there was a very limited production run of a platinum Tag 6000 series in the early 1990′s, but that’s all I could think of that comes close in terms of rarity.
Even putting rarity aside, its a great looking watch- the detailing on the dial and the contrast between the red, black and silver make this really stand out. The closest to this look that Tag offer today is the Grand Carrera RS2 and the upcoming Carrera 36 RS2 Caliper Ti. Both great watches, but are not quite as elegant as the Calibre 360.
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Bamfords have been customising Rolex watches for a while and are now offering to customise a PVD Monaco for about £5000. If nothing else they have produced an entertaining website where you can play designer. Here are a few efforts- “Stealth”, “Gulf” and “Rosso”- I’ll stick to the original thanks!
Try here: http://www.bamfordwatchdepartment.com/monaco.cfm
There has been a lot of discussion recently at Onthedash.com about the Heuer range of diving watches. These first appeared in the late 1970s and are still a staple part of the TAG Heuer range today with the excellent Aquaracer series (and especially the Aquagraph with its divers kit).
My favourite diver is the 1000m diver- model ref. 980.023L, pictured below:
This is the only Heuer diver with the crown at 4pm and has a great chunky feel to it. It can be described as the “poor-man’s” Autavia Diver 100, with a very similar dial, bezel and Mercedes hands.
The watch is powered by a ESA quartz movement and came on a standard tropic rubber strap with divers extension, as well as on a jubilee bracelet.
This diver stayed on during the TAG years, with an automatic ETA variant, as well as a rare yellow face luminescent model. There was also a TAG Spirotechnique version, which is the rarest of them all.
Spirotechnique as you may know was a famous French company that were the leaders in underwater breathing apparatus. There are some great photos here along with more information about the history of this watch here.
As well as being available as a TAG Heuer, there was also a variant of this watch made for Auricoste, a French company that specialises in providing watches to the French navy. Many of the Auricoste watches come with decommissioning papers, which adds to their value.
The Auricoste Spirotechnique is almost identical to the TAG variant, expect for the white hands and Auricoste branding.
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In 2006 TAG Heuer released four limited edition Carrera 360 models- White Gold, Rose Gold, Stainless steel and black PVD. The watches marked a turning point for TAG in the development of its own in house movements. Although based on an ETA movement, TAG developed a complex chronograph module that achieves 360,000 vibrations per hour, 10 times of the El Primero movement and allowing timing to 1/100 of a second. So a real landmark watch, and at a real landmark price for TAG- between $12,000 and $25,000 depending on the model- serious cash for any watch and well above the price of most Tag’s.
Fast forward to late 2008 and TAG released a Day/ date Carrera that borrows heavily in style from the Calibre 360- same Arabic numerals, similar case style and similar crown.
This is by no means unusual and generally works well- the hardcore and wealthy enthusiast gets the first sight of new technology and the latest shape, while the rest of us wait a couple of years and then get a reasonably priced version of these halo watches. The benefit for TAG is also clear, as they are able to showcase their latest materials and technology while at the same time establishing the brand at higher price points, which seems to be the aim of every watch brand these days.
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Hello and welcome to the Calibre 11 blog, which will focus on Heuer and TAG Heuer watches. I’m not sure how the blog will evolve, so lets see what happens. Comments from everyone welcome.
To start things off, here is a photo of my 1133B Monaco- no service hands here!
Cheers Arno
