News
Available in the Shop: TAG Heuer’s Top Racing Chronos
TAG Heuer Monaco: The Birth of an Icon
The story of the Heuer Monaco began in 1969 with the introduction of a square cased watch, which was water-resistant to 100 meters. Powered by Calibre 11, another great name from the 20th-century history of watchmaking, the Monaco with its peculiar shape and aura was all set to become an icon in the world of sports watches.
Technically, it was not short of revolutionary. A monocoque caseback embedded the movement and had four notches on the outsides at 12 and six o’clock. The top-case held a square glass with a rubber seal underneath. The two pieces clicked in place and made the unusual construction waterproof. Heuer called the new Monaco in their period advertising materials with a Swiss sense for understatement simply: “Avant-garde. Le seul cronographe automatique carre du monde!” (Translation: “Avant-garde! The only square, automatic chronograph in the world!”) Aligned to the name and very promising was the second tagline: “Monaco — partout a sa place: aussi bien au volant d’une voiture de course formule 1 qu’a la soiree de gala du Casino!” (Translation: “Monaco — has a place both at the wheel of a Formula 1 race car and a gala evening at the casino!”)
Mc Queen’s Monaco
The utterly striking case was eye-catching and big at 40mm by 40mm. The so-called Steve McQueen version from 1970 revealed a stunning blue dial. Depending on light conditions and angle the blue could change from indigo to steel or from sapphire to midnight in a glimpse of a second.
The present example of the Monaco in our shop is from 2018 and just like Steve McQueen’s original Monaco blue dial 1133B seen in the movie Le Mans, this one also has a blue dial, same horizontal indexes, a crown positioned at 9 o’clock and a similar racing strap. Powered by automatic calibre 11, the watch comes with its original set of box and papers along with a two-year warranty from Watchfinder.
The Autavia GMTs
Throughout its life, there were basically two styles of Autavia – the models from 1962 to 1969 used traditional round cases and were powered by manual-wind movements, while the models from 1969 used C-shaped cases, to house both the new automatic movements and the manual-wind versions. There were close to 25 – offered by Heuer from 1962 to 1969.
Around 1968, Heuer introduced its first Autavia GMT chronograph, which resided in a screw-back case. In addition to the standard hour and minute hands, there is a GMT hand that makes one revolution in 24 hours. This GMT hand may not be set independently of the primary hands, but the bezel is rotated to the appropriate plus/minus position and the time in a second time zone is determined by reading the GMT hand’s position on the bezel. The movement is the Valjoux 724, a modified version of the Valjoux 72.
The compressor-cased GMT Autavias followed the same basic evolution as the standard models, with the hands going from plain polished steel to more colourful hands, with red inserts and tips. The bright white registers grew from being smaller, in the earlier executions, to becoming larger, in the later ones.
Autavias Over the Years
The first execution compressor model was the only early Autavia to feature a true “panda” dial design – a silver dial with either two or three black registers. These dials are thought to have been an early test for the American market (circa 1968), and it appears that these models never went into production. These silver-dialled versions of the two and three register Autavias are housed in the same cases as the standard models.
The original 1962 Autavia was offered in a choice of two- or three-register models, both of them manual-winding chronographs with black and white dials in round stainless-steel cases. By the end of its run, however, the Autavia had been produced with a dazzling array of dials, cases, hands, movements, bezels and bracelets.
The second generation of Autavias was introduced in 1968 and it was characterised by new lugs with square edges as well as a larger bezel. These models were powered by the Valjoux 7730/7732 movements
The third generation of the Autavia followed in 1969. The model was powered by the famous Calibre 11 housed in an entirely new C-shaped case. One thing that would not change, however, was the position of the Autavia as the chronograph of motorsport, as the Autavia would become even more popular among racers and their teams.
The Autavia – It’s All About the Bezel
• Minutes – Marked from 0 to 60 around the bezel, align the triangle with the minute hand at the start of an event, and the bezel shows the elapsed time. Numerals show the count every 10 minutes.
• Hours – Marked from 1 to 12, the hour bezel can be used to count the elapsed hours or it can be pre-set so that the hour hand will show the time in a second time zone.
• Minutes/Hours – Used on the later Autavias from 1969, this bezel is marked for both minutes and hours.
• Tachymeter – The tachymeter converts the elapsed time (in seconds) over a measured distance (one mile or one kilometer) to the speed for that distance. Cover one mile in exactly 40 seconds, and the bezel shows the speed of 90 miles per hour.
• Decimal Minutes – Rather than indicating the seconds, the decimal minutes bezel divides the minute into 100 units, making it easier to add and subtract different combinations.
• GMT – Heuer’s approach to the GMT indication was to mark the bezel for all 24 hours, with a separate hand making one rotation per day. This hand may not be set independently of the watch’s main hands, but by rotating the bezel, the user is able to select a second time zone, with the time in that location being shown by reading the GMT hand on the GMT bezel.
• Decompression – The seemingly random numbers on the bezel indicate the “bottom time” that will be safe for the diver, at specific depths. Align the arrow with the minute hand at the start of the dive, and when the minute hand reaches your depth, it’s time to return to the surface.
To learn more about these iconic watches, click here and here for comprehensive stories.