As we posted back in April, The Haslinger collection of vintage Heuer watches will be auctioned by Bonhams in London in December. As part of this auction, TAG Heuer have created a very special version of the Silverstone re-edition- a one-off Red Silverstone that carries Jack Heuer’s signature on the dial.
While the studio photos have been out for a while, thanks to Paul Maudsley of Bonhams, we are able to bring you the first photos of the Silverstone out in the wild (taken in its natural home of Goodwood no less).
What is striking about the watch is the dial- while the original Red Silverstone was a deep, flat burgundy colour, the 150th anniversary version has a brilliant metallic finish, while preserving the depth of colour of the original.
You can see a comparison of the new Silverstone to the original Heuer Silverstone after the break. Like the Blue and Brown Silverstone re-editions, TAG Heuer have done a great job of replicating the original style and dimensions.
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Few modern TAG Heuer watches have left as much of an impression as the first time that I saw the Monaco Vintage (CAW2118), which was released in 2005 as a limited edition of 4000 watches to mark what would have been the 75th birthday of Steve McQueen.
It was an outrageous design: a crisp white dial (one of the first times a Monaco has been sold with a white dial) matched with bold blue and red stripes on the right hand-side of the dial and with red sub-dials and hands. The design of course was based on the driving suit worn by Steve McQueen in the 1971 movie Le Mans, which is the movie that would eventually make the Monaco the iconic watch it is today.
The success of the Monaco Vintage meant that it was inevitable that other versions would follow, presenting TAG Heuer with the same dilemma that any watch company with a hit Limited Edition faces: How many Limited Edition versions with the same design theme can be made before the magic is lost?
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Without a doubt the best received production TAG Heuer watch at Basel this year was the TAG Heuer 300 SLR, a limited edition version of the Carrera Calibre 1887 due to be released in the next couple of months.
The 300 SLR (Reference number CAR2112.FC6267) will be launched to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Mercedes 300 SLR victory in the 1952 Carrera Panamericana, which of course is the same race that gave the Heuer Carrera its name.
While based on the new Carrera 1887, the 300 SLR has several important differences, including a special fume-coloured dial (reminiscent of the 1970s Silverstone colour), an internal tachy bezel and the use of the famous Heuer logo on the dial and crown.
The watch also uses a fantastic bespoke calf-skin leather strap that is the best strap I’ve ever seen on a modern TAG Heuer, with an orange coating on the inside and “Heuer” deployment clasp. Like the Carrera, the 300 SLR uses the new TAG Heuer Calibre 1887 movement.
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In January of this year, I posted an article on Calibre 11 about the various McLaren- branded TAG Heuer watches released over the last few years, which you can read here.
1998 was a special year for McLaren, as it produced their first Drivers and Constructors World Championships since Ayrton Senna supported by Gerhard Berger triumphed in 1991.
In fact, despite having the services of four World Champions since 1998- Hakkinen, Hamilton, Raikkonen and Alonso- several years of Adrian Newey-designed cars and the backing of Mercedes-Benz, McLaren has not won the Constructors title since that 1998 victory, let alone the Drivers- Constructors double.
So this makes the 1998 a banner year for McLaren fans and this 1998 box-set of McLaren TAG Heuer’s a rare slice of memorabilia.
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The TAG Heuer 300 SLR due in October will be the fifth SLR-branded TAG Heuer, a series that began as a limited edition watch only available if you also bought a Mercedes SLR McLaren, which at least gave you a way of getting your watch home fast.
The partnership with Mercedes-Benz grew from the shared association that TAG Heuer and Mercedes-Benz had with the McLaren F1 team, which in the early 2000s had sealed a deal with Mercedes-Benz to produce a Supercar that would be the spiritual successor to the famous Mercedes-Benz 300SLR of the 1950s.
The first SLR Calibre 36 was released in 2004 to mark the release of the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, the first McLaren car since the famous McLaren F1, although one that was developed without the genius of Gordon Murray.
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The highlight for me of TAG Heuer’s Baselworld watches was the TAG Heuer 300SLR, a new limited edition heritage watch to be released in October alongside the Monaco 24 and the new Grey Heuer Monaco re-edition.
While I didn’t manage to take any photos of the new watch, Hodinkee did manage to get some shots, which you can see here.
The 300SLR (ref. CAR2112) is based on the new Carrera Calibre 1887, but loses the external bezel and carries no Carrera markings. The dial itself is a metallic bronze colour, reminiscent of the Heuer Carrera 150.173F of the 1970s, and is finished with orange detailing.
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TAG Heuer have shown a Grey re-edition TAG Heuer Monaco at Baselworld.
The watch is very similar to the 40th anniversary TAG Heuer Monaco released this time last year, with the only real difference- apart from the colour of the dial- being that this Monaco uses the new, larger 39mm case from the Calibre 12 Monaco, rather than the 38mm of the 40th anniversary model.
The hands, pushers and leather strap seem to be identical, and I assume that this will use the same Calibre 11 movement.
No word on pricing or timing yet, but it will probably be a Q4 10 watch rather than something that will be in the stores shortly.
At this stage, the watch will be released in a limited edition of 1,860.
These photos were shot through glass and with lots of overhead light, so its difficult to properly capture the colour and finish of the dial- its more textured and grained that these photos would indicate.
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The re-editions of the Heuer Carrera are generally considered to be the best executed of the various classic Heuer watches bought back to life by TAG Heuer. The Carrera re-edition of 1996 was the first attempt by TAG Heuer to tap into the Heuer heritage and was successful in bringing the Monaco, Autavia, and soon the Silverstone, to a new generation of TAG Heuer collectors.
Of the various Carrera re-edition models, perhaps the most sought-after is the Carrera 1964 limited edition (Ref. CV2117), known as the Jack Heuer 40th anniversary Carrera. The 40th anniversary Carrera was announced at Baselworld in 2005 to mark the 40th anniversary of the first Heuer Carrera, which was released in 1964.
Named after the famous “Le Carrera Panamericana Rally” that was held from 1950-54, the Carrera (Spanish for “Race”) was the first Heuer model with its own model name.
The 40th anniversary watch was available as a limited edition of 1964 watches and was engraved on the back with ‘Carrera 1964 – 2004, 40 years of legend’ and the signature of Jack Heuer. The watch came with a black 20mm leather rally-style strap on a deployment clasp.
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The TAG Heuer Targa Florio was released in 2001 and marketed as tribute to the famous Italian road race, despite actually drawing its inspiration from the Heuer Flieger (German for “Pilot”) watches of the 1930s.
The early 2000s were a renaissance period for lovers of the TAG Heuer re-edition series, with TAG releasing a steady stream of watches that drew their looks from the old Heuer catalogue.
The Targa Florio was one of three new re-edition watches announced as part of the classics series. The highest profile of these 2001 releases was the blue TAG Heuer Monaco in the Steve McQueen colours- up until that point, the Monaco that had been available from the late 1990s had only been available in black and silver. Alongside the new blue Monaco was the Calibre 36 version of the TAG Heuer Monza (the El Primero movement) and the Targa Florio.
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TAG Heuer and the McLaren F1 team have had a long association, not just through common ownership (TAG formerly owning both TAG Heuer and 50% of what was called McLaren International; Ron Dennis of McLaren owning part of TAG Heuer), but also through TAG Heuer’s sponsorship of the McLaren F1 team.
In the mid-late 1990s McLaren was undergoing a period of change- it had split from engine partner Honda in 1993 and from long-time sponsor Marlboro at the end of 1996.
At the start of the 1997 season McLaren was in the second year of a new partnership with Mercedes-Benz and for the first time since the 1970s needed to come up with a new colour scheme to replace the iconic white with red flags of Marlboro.
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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
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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:
- Limited Edition of 3000 watches- 1500 in blue and 1500 in metallic brown
- Price: USD6500 (est)
- Alligator strap- no bracelet
- Calibre 11 movement (same as the movement in the 40th anniversary Monaco)
- Heuer branded crown and dial
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Cheers Arno
