CARTE BLANCHE FOR STREETWEAR

When TAG Heuer calls in an influencer in contemporary pop fashion, the vintage spirit blends with a touch of originality for an overall result that is beautifully simple.

What do Nike, Louis Vuitton, Beats and Starbucks have in common? All these brands have worked with the man hiding behind the company Fragment, Hiroshi Fujiwara. This is a creative artist with more than one string to his bow. He is a famous musician and renowned for his designs in streetwear fashion. At this year’s end, the Japanese designer, through his company, has helped to create a limited edition Carrera Heuer 02 for TAG Heuer. Like his previous artistic contributions, the model combines the sophistication of luxury goods and the cool inspiration of pop culture. A dive into the brand’s rich past has unearthed some of the style specifics of models from the 1960s. On the jet black dial, a 1/5 of a second scale surrounds the chronograph counters and the sub-second dial. The discreet, uncluttered and very clear layout is joined by two slender hour and minute hands coated in beige Super-LumiNova®. Hiroshi Fujiwara has also opted for two original straps, one leather cuff strap and one black and grey NATO strap, enhancing the watches’ personality.

The TAG Heuer Carrera Heuer 02 by Fragment Hiroshi Fujiwara comes in just 500 pieces. The number is engraved on the sapphire caseback. The watches are only available in the brand’s boutiques and website.

Price: 7,900 CHF tagheuer.com

By Dan Diaconu

TO THE MEMORY OF A CHAMPION

Ayrton Senna, a legendary figure in Formula 1 racing, was constantly seeking perfection during his career. Just like TAG Heuer with these two new models!

1991.A face and a slogan symbolising the TAG Heuer spirit appeared in magazines and on billboards. A photograph of Ayrton Senna, then at his peak, along with the potent phrase Don’t crack under pressure. The Brazilian driver symbolised top-level car racing and is still a reference today, years after his tragic death on the Imola racetrack. To pay him a new homage, the brand has released the chronograph Carrera Heuer 02 Tourbillon Special Editions Ayrton Senna.

Price: 5,750 EUR (chronograph) – 19,100 EUR (tourbillon) tagheuer.com

By Dan Diaconu

PRIMARY COLOUR

This collaboration between the Swiss retailer and the watchmaking brand plays the modern and exclusive card since it is only on sale from the Bucherer website.

The Bucherer Blue Editions collection consists of 18 exclusive timepieces co-produced with 12 major Swiss watchmakers. All the models are focused on a single main colour, blue. Among them, the TAG Heuer Formula 1 stands out, with all the time features boasting a sports-chic design on a magnificent sunburst dial. To guarantee readability in all lighting conditions, the hour and minute hands, as well as the large hand-applied hour markers and numerals, are coated in lume. A sub-dial at 3 o’clock displays the date. This superb layout is encircled by a revolving, unidirectional bezel made of aluminium with a 60-minute scale. Two easily interchangeable straps, one made of steel and the other made of blue rubber, help to match all clothing styles.

Price: 1,990 CHF tagheuer.com

By Dan Diaconu

FOR ALL THE SUPPORTERS

TAG Heuer has launched two special Manchester United watches for the players and fans of the Beautiful Game to wear all through the 2018-2019 English Premier League season.

The new football season sees the stars returning to the stadiums, but also the launch of official watches for the legendary clubs. TAG Heuer, the official timekeepers at Manchester United for the past three seasons, has unveiled the new Carrera Heuer 01 in the colours of the prestigious English club. Like the shirt worn by Paul Pogba or Romelu Lukaku, the timepiece naturally comes in a bright red colour. The same colour can be found on the hands, on the internal bezel and on the perforated rubber strap. The skeletoned dial of the chronograph is dressed in grey and houses figures coated in white Super-LumiNova®, providing optimum readability of the time data in all lighting conditions. The date counter is at 3.30, while the chronograph totalisers at 12 and 6 o’clock are used to read short time intervals with the central second hand. The seconds hand dial is at 9 o’clock and features the Mancunians’ Red Devil logo. The logo and devil can also be found traced on the sapphire caseback.

And to really make your mark on the pitches of everyday life, TAG Heuer has also launched a Formula 1 chronograph driven by a quartz movement, again in the colours of the Red Devils, coached by the charismatic Jose Mourinho.

Price: 1,400 EUR (Formula 1) – 5,200 EUR (Carrera Heuer 01) tagheuer.com

By Dan Diaconu

MAKING ITS MARK

A collection based not on a particular model but on a kind of material: this is the idea behind models made from carbon in a very contemporary style.

Following a collaboration with Bamford, a company specialised in made-to-measure casing for timepieces, TAG Heuer launched the Monaco watch made from highly attractive carbon. The brand decided to take the idea further and has unveiled three versions of the Aquaracer with a 41mm-wide case machined in titanium and with black PVD coating. The aim? To design a new collection made from a single material: carbon! To guarantee a striking first impression, the black and grey patterns from the printed carbon dial are set off with touches of pink gold, yellow and blue. The combinations provide the timepieces with an urban identity, without taking away their characteristic features as diver’s watches. The watches are watertight down to 300m, come with a screwed titanium back, a unidirectional revolving bezel made of carbon and steel, and optimal display of the time information.

The models come with a nylon strap with black, yellow or blue topstitching, and a folding clasp with an extension for diving. They will be exclusively available in TAG Heuer stores and from the brand’s website.

Price: 3,650 EUR (yellow and blue) – 3,700 EUR (pink gold) tagheuer.com

By Dan Diaconu

ENGLISH TIME

TAG Heuer, the new watchmaking partner for the famous carmaker dear to James Bond, has released two sports-oriented watches with an elegant design. Start them up!

TAG Heuer is now the official partner and official watch for Aston Martin Racing, and has brought out the first timepieces devoted to the alliance. Both models naturally have all the technical assets of the Swiss brand’s sports watches and can be customised with the help of aesthetic details taken from the world of the famous UK brand. The first is based on the chronograph Carrera Calibre Heuer 01 with the addition of luxury features from the car-racing world. The skeletonised dial features “hexagon“ patterns recalling the imposing radiator grill on the latest version of the Vantage sports car. At the top, the two companies’ logos sit side by side. The 45mm-wide case has been redesigned for the occasion and is encircled with a tachymetric bezel made of black ceramic. The lug design also takes inspiration from the curves of a sports car. All the time features are “driven” by an automatic movement.

The two Aston Martin special editions are worn with a matt leather strap with special patterns, ideal for showing off your English style!

Price: 5,900 EUR (Carrera) – 1,400 EUR (Formula 1) tagheuer.com

By Dan Diaconu

SPORTING PARTNERSHIP 

The Aquaracer by TAG Heuer, an essential player in the world of sports watches, welcomes four new women’s models to the collection, all featuring an automatic movement.

First launched in 2003, the Aquaracer is now a firm fixture in the world of contemporary sports watches and is celebrating its 15^th anniversary this year. TAG Heuer has seized on this occasion to release four new women’s versions of a watch cut out for action on land and sea. The new models have a similar look to the other members of the Aquaracer family, particularly the angular revolving bezel made up of 12 segments set off by six polished rectangular lugs and a 60-minute diving scale.

The steel case is 32mm wide and features a crown and screwed back. The back is decorated with a deep-sea diver’s mask, an engraving to highlight the seafaring character of the Aquaracer and the fact that it is watertight down to 300m. This metal setting contains the calibre 9, a self-winding mechanical movement running at 28,800 vibrations an hour and providing a power reserve of about 40 hours. This reliable mechanism powers the hour, minute and central seconds, as well as the date.

The dial is made of black or white mother-of-pearl and is encircled by a slender minute track and criss-crossed by horizontal lines, like a marinière shirt, with silver, luminous stick-shaped hands turning above the rhodium or diamond hour markers, depending on the version chosen. The second hand has a phosphorescent red tip, recalling the shape of a harpoon. At 3 o’clock, the date is displayed in black against a white background and the counter is crowned by a magnifying glass for easier reading.

Rounding off the dynamic identity of the Aquaracer, TAG Heuer has supplied it with a strap made up of three rows of steel links and a folding clasp with two safety buttons.

Price: 1,900 CHF (mother-of-pearl dial) – 2’450 CHF (mother-of-pearl and diamond dial) tagheuer.com

By Sharmila Bertin

COLOUR AND STYLE

With interchangeable straps in dynamic colours, the Formula 1 Lady can be transformed in an instant. The easy-to-use system adopted by TAG Heuer makes you feel like you have a variety of watches in one and at a very nice price.

Why make do with just one watch when interchangeable straps can give you the feeling you have several? The piece of leather used to attach a timepiece to your wrist was long been neglected and seen as secondary, but has come to the forefront in recent years. Thanks to this trend, you can now change the strap yourself, but you needed to have special tools and to be quite meticulous (a second of clumsiness and you could scratch the watch case), and above all make do with quite a limited range, since few brands provide extra straps (and often in traditional and quite dull colours). With the new Formula 1 Lady, which was rejuvenated earlier this year, TAG Heuer has opted for the principle of interchangeability with a simple system requiring no particular tools except your own hands!

The steel case of the Formula 1 Lady is available in 32 and 35mm-wide versions and features the aesthetic signatures of the collection: lugs merged with the body to form a barrel-like shape, side supports to protect the crown and the bezel and a lightly notched case to highlight the sports feel. Here the bezel is set with 36 brilliant-cut diamonds with interspersed polished-steel trapeze-shaped elements to highlight the gems. The effect also brings out the iridescent reflections of the white mother-of-pearl dial. At the centre of the opaline disc, silvered dauphine-style hands display the hours, minutes and seconds around a chapter ring with honed, metallic hour markers, a sub-plate and discreet minute track. The date is shown in a counter at 3 o’clock.

When you turn the watch over, you see a small lever on each part of the strap, near the watch case. When you press it, the pin is released, freeing the leather strap to be replaced. You need to press four times in all. The range of colours currently on offer by TAG Heuer is wide enough (green almond, jean blue or turquoise, orangery red, fuchsia or raspberry pink, beige and taupe) to find one – or many – straps to suit you!

Price from 2,000 CHF  tagheuer.com

By Sharmila Bertin

BUILT FOR ENDURANCE

50 years after the Ford GT’s win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in the colours of the giant oil company, TAG Heuer has unveiled a special edition of the chronograph, the Formula 1 Gulf.

Especially since the Carrera chronograph was launched by Jack Heuer in 1963, TAG Heuer has been closely linked to car racing. The love of sport and speed can be seen in Formula 1, a collection first released in 1986, and continuing today with the Formula 1 Gulf Special Edition. Half a century after the Ford GT’s victory at the 24 hours of Le Mans, in the colours of Gulf Oil, the international oil company founded in 1901 and very active in automobile sponsorship, the watchmakers have released a robust, reliable and accurate quartz chronograph in homage to the historic event on 29 September 1968.

The Formula 1 Gulf Special Edition model has an undeniable visual attraction. Even someone who is not a car-racing fanatic will instantly recognise the sponsor’s signature, the two sky blue and orange stripes running down the left-hand side of the dark blue dial. The oceanic tone is repeated on the notched aluminium bezel with the tachymeter – an indispensable element during a race. Another vital tool at sports events, and especially in car racing, is the chronograph split-time measurement. This feature is expressed by an orange lacquer-coated second hand in the centre. Two totalisers, with silvered and azured discs for easy reading, round off the time-measurement tools with the tenths of a second at 6 o’clock and the minutes at 9 o’clock. A third counter at 3 o’clock displays the running seconds, while the “traditional” hours and minutes are counted down by two central dauphine-style hands. The date is shown in a window at 4 o’clock.

To wear this watch with a 43mm-wide steel case, TAG Heuer has supplied a blue leather strap matching the dial and the bezel, with a finely grained appearance reminiscent of the race tarmac.

Price: 1,550 CHF tagheuer.com

By Sharmila Bertin

PRACTICAL SPORTS-STYLE

The brand has released a fashionable version of its Carrera model that will attract both sports-oriented city-dwellers and globetrotters with its second time zone.

For 55 years, Carrera has been measuring split-time measurements using a high accuracy mechanism. This year, at the official presentation of the new Heuer 2 calibre at Baselworld, TAG Heuer unveiled a new version of its legendary watch to attract a generation that jumps on a plane just as easily as their elders got on a train. Its strong point? A combination of practical daily complications. So alongside the chronograph function of the original model, the Carrera Chronograph GMT also displays a second time zone. This is the first model since 1963 to have this feature, with a 24-hour GMT scale located on a bi-coloured black and blue ceramic bezel. A lacquered red hand with a triangular tip coated with white Super-LumiNova® points towards the figures around the disc. For greater ease of use, the hand can be adjusted using the crown.

To reinforce the sports look of this timepiece, the 45mm-wide steel case is rounded off by a choice of straps made of steel or rubber.

Price: 5,400 CHF (rubber) – 5,950 CHF (steel) tagheuer.com

By Dan Diaconu