Calling this a review of 2009 is a little indulgent given that the first Calibre 11 post only appeared in July, but nonetheless five hard months of blogging feels like time to take a look back over the year that was for TAG Heuer and Heuer collectors and put forward some thoughts on what we might see in 2010.
TAG Heuer have recently announced a new Monaco for 2010- the CAW2114, which is the first black Monaco with red highlights- the “Black McQueen”.
The hands on this new Monaco are a clear nod to the design of the original Heuer Monaco hands, which had thin slivers of red extending half-way up the hour and minute hand, meeting the lume filler. The new Monaco is available on the traditional crocodile leather strap, as well as a rubber strap, which seems to fit the look of this watch better.
Like all new Calibre 12 TAG Heuer Monaco’s, the watch has a 39mm case (vs. the old Calibre 17 TAG Heuer Monaco at 38mm) and features sapphire crystal rather than plexiglass. While these seem like small changes, when you look at the watches side-by-side the contrast become more apparent.
All of the new Monaco range have what TAG Heuer are calling a “Calibre 12″ movement- and its described as being based on the “Dubois Depraz 2008″- which is a little confusing, as this seems to be a reference to the chronograph module, rather than the base movement itself.
The Calibre 17 was an ETA 2894-2, while the new Calibre 12 is actually an ETA 2892 with the Dubois Depraz chrono module- in fact, the Calibre 17 (ETA 2894) was an ETA chronograph movement based on the 2892- so essentially the only difference between the Calibre 12 and the Calibre 17 is that TAG Heuer have replaced an ETA Chronograph with a Dubois-Depraz one. For more information on these movements, read more at this link.
Ever seen a TAG Heuer Vanquish?
The Calibre 360 movement was first shown by TAG Heuer at the 2005 Basel show with this watch- The Calibre 360 Chronograph. This Calibre 360 Chronograph set the style template for the production versions of the Carrera Calibre 360 that were subsequently shown at Basel in 2006. The Calibre 360 movement is the is the first mechanical wrist chronograph to measure and display time to 1/100th of a second and features an in-house TAG Heuer chrono module mounted on a base ETA movement.
But before TAG Heuer released the 2006 version of the Carrera Calibre 360 they made a very special production run of the Calibre 360 Chronograph- called the TAG Heuer Vanquish
You may recall that back in October, Calibre 11 posted an interesting Monaco project that was for sale in Singapore- a chance for a very brave soul to bring back a what looked like a PVD Monaco from very poor health.
Almost exactly two months later, we can now bring you the full story of that watch and the work that was done. Want to read all the details? Take a look here at the dedicated page to this fantastic Heuer restoration project.
There is also a link to the Heuer Monaco restoration page at the top of the Calibre 11 homepage.
My thanks to Abel Court for his time in detailing the work done on his Monaco.
A quick update on the Calibre 1887 controversy, which if you’re not familiar with you can read about at this link where the story first broke
The issue has created an amazing amount of column inches and threatened to over-shadow the build-up to TAG Heuer’s 150th anniversary in 2010.
My view hasn’t really changed since the original post, where I wrote:
“It is clear that TAG Heuer has made a very significant investment in its movement design and manufacturing capabilities over the last few years, and of this it is rightly proud. It would be a shame if these developments were compromised by over-ambitious marketing claims that focus people on what TAG Heuer didn’t do, rather than what TAG Heuer did accomplish.”
Sometimes watch companies must wonder what the secret is to a developing a successful new model. Watches that are lovingly developed by the world’s most powerful luxury goods company and backed by history and large marketing budgets can sometimes fail to catch 
fire (TAG Heuer Autavia), yet others that are developed as side projects can turn into hugely popular models that enjoy success over more than a decade. The watch that has become known as the Heuer and TAG Heuer 1000 Professional series is a great example of the latter.
Having gone through the 1970s naming its watches after wonderfully evocative race tracks and cities, Heuer seemed to give up as the 1980s came around, simply using reference numbers in the place of model names. So the Heuer 1000 never really had a name for the first 5 years of its life and was instead known by its reference numbers- 844 and 980. It wasn’t until 1985 that the watch was given a proper name- The TAG Heuer 1000.
The 1000 was a watch that Heuer didn’t initially believe in enough to invest in tooling up for production itself, instead outsourcing the production to a French company in 1979. Heuer had produced diver watches before with the Autavia, but this was something different- a low cost diver model with the option of a quartz movement.
By the time the TAG Heuer 1000 Professional was finally retired in 1992/3, it had not only proved to be one of the most successful TAG Heuer watches, but had created a design template the survives today through the latest TAG Heuer Aquaracer.
A brief video below of the event held at the McLaren Technical Centre to mark the 25th anniversary of the TAG Heuer/ McLaren partnership, as well as to launch the TAG Heuer Silverstone re-edition and the new book to mark TAG Heuer’s 150th anniversary.
Looks like it was a great evening combining watches and F1 cars- who could ask for more?
Last month I wrote about the amazing Heuer Chronosplit- the space-age LED/ LCD watches released by Heuer in the 1970s. I mentioned that there were a number of experts on these watches, making the decision a little easier about whether or not to enter the potentially frustrating world of Chronosplit ownership.
Without doubt one of the best websites dedicated to the Heuer Chronosplit is LED-forever , which has pages on all sorts of funky LED and LCD watches, including a special Chronosplit section.
There are separate pages on both versions of the Chronosplit (LED/ LCD and LCD/ LCD) as well as photos of the various models offered. You’ll also find photos of the Chronosplit modules, copies of the Chronosplit instruction manual, photos of various F1 drivers wearing their Chronosplits and a repair service which would be useful if it all goes bad with your watch.
Its an amazing site with some great photos and useful information, so anyone with a passing interest in these watches should certainly check it out. The main page is here and the Heuer section can be found here
I still haven’t been brave enough to buy a Chronosplit, but the day is getting closer…
A while back I posted the official TAG Heuer launch image of the new Carrera Day Date Carbon Fibre/ Titanium watch- and now here are some photos of the watch out in the wild. This is the same as the Limited Edition version of the Carrera Day/ Date launched for the 2009 Singapore Grand Prix, but with more appealing red accents rather than green.
The titanium version of the usual steel Carrera Day/ Date features a carbon-fibre look dial and the Calibre 16 movement (ETA/Valjoux 7750).The 43mm titanium case has a brushed finish and weighs in about 20 grams lighter than the standard version- safe to say that the benefits of titanium are aesthetic rather than to save weight.
The band has the basket-weave look of Carbon Fibre, but is actually standard calfskin leather that has been treated to give it a distinctive look.
Its been a busy week for TAG Heuer- releasing the new Silverstone re-edition, celebrating its 25th anniversary of working with the Mclaren F1 team and announcing a brand new in-house movement, the Calibre 1887. Like may Swiss watch makers, Heuer/ TAG Heuer gave up making their own movements in the early 1980s and began to reply upon suppliers such as ETA and Lemania- both controlled by the Swatch Group.
For the last few years Swatch has been trying to eliminate supply of its ETA movements to customers outside the Swatch Group- however, the EU has intervened and forced Swatch to scale down external supply over a number of years, rather than to cease immediately. This uncertainly around supply of movements has shocked the Swiss houses into action, and TAG Heuer has been at the forefront of developing its own movements- the V4, the Calibre 360, the Calibre S and the Microtimer.
Generally I find that being in a different time-zone to most of my fellow Heuer collectors can be a disadvantage when it comes to buying watches, as many of the best watches can get listed while Hong Kong sleeps, meaning that you get to read about what you missed out on over breakfast the next day. This time, however, I got lucky.
This New Old Stock (“NOS”) Heuer Autavia 11630 GMT had only been listed for about 20 minutes when I saw it on eBay with a Buy it Now price. One week later, the watch has arrived and certainly lives up to my expectations.
The 11630 GMT came in two models- one model with white sub-dials and the other rarer model with black sub-dials. The crucial aspect of these watches is the quality of the blue and red bezel. Its impossible to get genuine Heuer GMT bezels from TAG Heuer- and has been for several years now. There are a range of aftermarket GMT bezels that are pretty good, but the blue tends to be too bright and the font on the numbers not quite right. With the bezel being the main driver of the value of the Autavia GMT, it means that you have to be very careful wearing the watch- a fact that doesn’t really appeal much to me because, as we all know, knocks happen.
TAG Heuer celebrated the launch of the new Silverstone re-edition by holding a launch event last night at the Mclaren Technical Centre outside of London. The event also marked the 25th anniversary of the relationship between Mclaren and TAG Heuer, which was a good excuse to get Lewis Hamilton into Alain Prost’s 1986 Mclaren-TAG F1 car.
The relationship has been a great one for TAG Heuer to reinforce the links that it had with many of the great F1 drivers of the 1970s- just take a look at the roll-call of world champion drivers that have been part of McLaren over that 25 year period- Prost, Lauda, Senna, Hakkinen and Hamilton all winning world championships at McLaren.
However, as this is a watch blog, the real star of the show isn’t the F1 car or the world champion- its the new Heuer Silverstone re-edition, which TAG Heuer launched last night. The key points on the new watch are:
Cheers Arno
