While TAG Heuer released a re-edition of the famous 1133B Blue Monaco only five years after bringing the Monaco back, it has taken another 13 years for a re-edition of the grey 1133G Heuer Monaco to appear- the TAG Heuer Monaco Vintage Chronograph.

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This new watch- Ref CAW211B (The watch shown for this review is pre-production and still has the old Reference number as shown at Basel- CAW2115)- is basically a grey version of the 40th Anniversary Monaco released last year, with two important differences. Firstly, the case of the …

The short life of the Calibre 1887 movement has been far from dull. Over the last 12 months we’ve had the announcement of the new movement, the initial controversy over its origins, the excitement of the launch of the Carrera 1887, the post-Basel re-design and now- finally- the first watches arriving in stores.

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And these developments have been covered in detail here at Calibre 11, including this article that discussed the origins of the movement and how it differed to its Seiko origins.
And there have been two questions that have …

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The design philosophy that shaped TAG Heuer watches in the 1990s was the absolute dedication to what the company called the “Six Features”.
While each model in the 1990s TAG Heuer range had its own design and movements (from quartz to COSC Automatic), all the watches had the Six Features.
The Six Features were initially a big success and were a key part of establishing TAG Heuer as new brand, distinct to the old Heuer. However, the mistake was to see these six worthy features as more than just “things a …

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Greetings everyone and welcome to the first in an irregular series at Calibre 11 written by Rob Caplan from Topper Jewelers, a TAG Heuer Authorised Dealer. Despite having a single store, Topper have a much bigger internet presence, being a sponsor of several forums on Watchuseek- including the TAG Heuer forum- as well as a great supporter of Calibre 11.
I met Rob at Basel in March and I mentioned that I found it frustrating to only have the studio photos of new TAG Heuer watches to show at Calibre …

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A few months ago, I posted an article on the series of watches that TAG Heuer had released in partnership with the McLaren Formula 1 team.
Several helpful readers pointed out that while the article captured all the Formula 1 linked watches, it missed perhaps the rarest of them all- the TAG Heuer 6000 Chronometer that was given to the 64 owners of the McLaren F1 road car.
Given the fantastic insight and information in the comments posted by Shelton, Erik and Justin, I thought that it was worth summarising their …

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The latest of the Basel 2010 watches about to make their way to the dealers is the Aquaracer 500m Chronograph (Ref. CAJ2110), which as the name suggests is a Chronograph version of the successful Aquaracer 500m series.
The Calibre 5 Aquaracer 500m was launched at Basel in 2009 and represented a significant step-up in size and style for the Aquaracer series, with its vertically textured dial, distinctive rubber bezel with applied markers, helium-escape valve and “cyclops” sitting over the date at 9 o’clock.
The new model Aquaracer Chronograph builds on this …

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Each year the annual Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Geneve awards are presented to recognise the best in the year of Swiss watch making. This year, TAG Heuer is nominated in three categories: Men’s Watches (TAG Heuer 300 SLR) Design and Concept watches (TAG Heuer Monaco V4) and Sport Watches (TAG Heuer Monaco 24).
So far, so good you might think- but take a look at the Monaco V4 that is nominated. Here, for the first time is the second version of the Monaco V4- a Rose Gold edition.
The new V4 …

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TAG Heuer’s tradition of issuing Limited Edition watches for the Singapore Grand Prix continues in 2010.
The Singapore GP edition was a Grand Carrera in 2008 and a Carrera Day/ Date Carbon Fiber in 2009- and this year? A Monaco and a Lady F1.
The Monaco is based on the Calibre 12″Black McQueen“, but with Green hands and markings in place of the usual red. The watch comes with both a black leather strap (with Green stitching) and a rubber strap .
These great photos below come from PuristSPro- a first-rate website …

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Welcome to the new and improved Calibre 11: full-fat and with 20% more crunch.
The idea behind the new layout is to make it easier to find stories on the watches that you’re interested in and to make the reading experience more of a “Magazine” feel, rather than just a list of posts.
Some of  the most popular posts have covered the background behind a particular watch series, tracing back its origins and design influences- there will be more of these stories in the coming months.
So what’s changed apart from a …

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Almost 18 months after it was first shown at Basel 2009, the TAG Heuer Monaco Twenty Four (to give the watch its full title) will be released in the next couple of months. The Monaco 24 is one of the most-anticipated new TAG Heuer models for some time and is the latest effort by TAG Heuer to modernise the iconic Monaco into a true 21st century watch- not just a reminder of the Heuer glory days of the 1970s.
The magic of the Monaco 24 (Ref. CAL 5110) is the …

With all the focus on the “Big 4″ vintage Heuer chronographs (Monaco, Autavia, Carrera and Silverstone), it’s easy to forget that there were many other models that sat alongside these classics during the 1970s. Names like Verona, Jarama and Daytona also appeared during this time and like the Big 4, were powered by the family of Chromomatic movements.

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Another forgotten model from this time is the Heuer Cortina, of which there were two distinct series produced in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The original Heuer Cortina emerged in 1977 and …

A comparison that I’ve meant to post for a while now is the comparison between the original Heuer Monaco and the modern TAG Heuer Monaco. While the Monaco was re-introduced by TAG Heuer in 1997, the first re-editions were black-only and it wasn’t until 2003 that collectors could once again buy an iconic blue Monaco, the colour made famous by Steve McQueen.

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While it’s common to think of the TAG Heuer Monaco as being a faithful reproduction of the original Monaco, there are in fact many detailed differences between the …