With the 2011 Singapore Formula 1 Grand Prix only a few weeks away, TAG Heuer have shown their latest Limited Edition watches to mark the event.
Beginning with the first Singapore GP back in 2008, each year has seen a different model used as the basis for the Singapore Grand Prix Edition- and this year it’s a Carrera Heritage.
Once again the Singapore Edition wears a combination of black and green on both the dial and leather strap, and also like last year there is a 2011 Lady’s Singapore Edition.
Lets take a …

Very little is truly new in the world of Swiss watches. Take the Calibre S movement introduced in 2007, which combined the reliability of a quartz movement with a mechanical chronograph module of an automatic Calibre. Innovative? Sure, but we’ve been here before, as TH itself had a similar movement in the Calibre 185 used in the 1980s. The titanium case of today’s watches? Again, a technology first used almost 30 years ago.
I was reminded of this recently when I was looking at the first Formula 1 series from 1986. …

While the headline of TAG Heuer’s pre-Basel releases was the Carrera Mikrograph and the Carrera MP4-12C, there was also plenty of news regarding other watches planned for 2011. In fact, the clear message that I was left with was that there will be more new models launched this year that perhaps ever before. What we’ve seen so far is only the tip of the iceberg for 2011.
Yes, there will be a new concept watch shown at Basel in March- no hints on what that might be yet- but there is …

In 1999 TAG Heuer released this special “Heuer” Monaco to commemorate the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix. The watch is a limited edition of 120, although only 110 were available to the public, as numbers 111-120 were given to Ron Dennis of McLaren. Why? Well, as I’ve pointed out before, Ron Dennis was not just the boss of the TAG Heuer-sponsored McLaren F1 team, but was also a major shareholder in TAG Heuer itself. So no surprise that Ron kept a handful of these to hand out to sponsors, models …

While the internet offers collectors and prospective buyers a great way of researching and finding watches, there is still nothing like looking through a nice printed catalogue to get you in the buying mood. In looking through one of these catalogues, it was interesting to see the mix of new technologies and materials that TAG Heuer offer- mechanical quartz, titanium and carbon fibre.

But while you might think that these technologies are spread throughout the 2010 catalogue (Calibre S, Grand Carrera Titanium and Day-Date Carrera Carbon fibre), it was actually a 1983 catalogue and a single watch that had all of these features- the Heuer Titanium series.

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 …

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 …

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 being a shareholder in 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 long-time engine partner Honda in 1993 and lost the Marlboro sponsorship deal at the end of 1996. So 1997 was a new chapter for …

Video from the launch of the TAG Heuer Silverstone re-edition held at McLaren’s Technical Centre

The launch of the new Heuer Silverstone Limited Edition to celebrate TAG Heuer’s 150th anniversary

For better or for worse, watch ambassadors have become an indispensable part of the marketing landscape these days. Some of them have a genuine affinity with the brand they’re representing, some see their watch deal as just another in their portfolio of celebrity endorsements.
While the ambassador concept doesn’t do a lot for me, I have to confess that a big part of the reason that I started getting interested in TAG Heuer was because it was the watch worn by my favourite sportsman: Ayrton Senna.
Senna was the perfect ambassador for …