TAG Heuer watches at the Watch Week

Intro

When a brand has a long-established relationship with Grand Prix racing, its new timepieces are often highly sought-after, and each new product will take the headlines if 2025 marks the official return to Formula One. Mr Heuer’s watches defined Formula One’s history in the golden age and will foster the most technologically advanced series ever as we approach the new 2026 rules.

As expected, the product novelties include the Carrera, the standard collection or its Porsche-collab counterpart. Still, a new TAG Heuer Formula 1 Chronograph stands out upon the brand’s return as the official timekeeper after recently partnering with the most winning team: the Oracle Red Bull Racing team.

The new TAG Heuer Formula One Chronograph

Here is not the most complicated and luxurious watch unveiled at Watch Week, but the renovated collection sets new standards and sets itself apart from everything we have seen in the past in style, materials, and price point. Suppose you’re searching for a sports chronograph in titanium. In that case, the Swiss brand has launched a new design, taking the tonneau-shaped case to new and more contemporary heights, being as light as ever before, with the Chrono buttons seamlessly integrated into the case body.

They provide a sleek profile and reinvent the three-register chronograph with a rotated V layout, making it a contemporary take on the late eighties to early nineties titanium sports watches.

I refer, for instance, to some models from the legendary IWC x Porsche Design collection. Although the style is always subjective, it is, in my opinion, well-proportioned. Sporty yet simple, it works well with different colour and material combinations. A 44 mm large and 14.5 mm thick case houses the calibre 16, a TAG Heuer customization of a 7750 and a long-standing mechanical movement in the brand’s catalogue.

Not as refined as a Heuer 02, it is a tried-and-tested movement that helps make the price point more aggressive than its “in-house” counterpart. Please don’t get scared by the specs: the case shape, materials, and rubber strap make it a stand-out, comfortable timepiece. The new Formula 1 Chronograph is a sports watch with a flat case back and a rubber strap so soft it wraps around your wrist, making the case slender as it tapers from top to bottom.

The Oracle Red Bull Racing option

It was designed as a Formula One paddock watch, and I am sure we will spot many in the Red Bull team, to whom TAG Heuer dedicated the most attractive variant so far. The colour palette and Red Bull logo work well with the blue strap and the matching blue “checkered flag” dial. It is the only model to house a bezel’s carbon inlay (with a tachymetric scale), like on a Carrera Extreme Tourbillon Senna. The new Formula 1 Chronograph is a perfect base for customization, and I am sure the brand will release new limited editions moving forward.

The Oracle Red Bull Racing option highlights what makes the core collection’s design attractive, like the semi-suspended indexes, the thick rings around the registers, and the raised outermost one. The co-branding also adopts a Red Bull red to highlight the brake disc-like bezel’s side design and the strap’s blue. Alongside the Red Bull edition, TAG Heuer provides a standard model in titanium and three options with a DLC (Diamond Like Carbon) treated case and contrasting black or red straps, with three different dial combination options. The new Formula 1 Chronograph starts at €4,650 and goes up to €5,350 for the Oracle Red Bull Racing model.

Carrera Chronosprint x Porsche Rallye

The Chronosprint Porsche debuts a new edition. Building on the successful TAG Heuer and Porsche partnership, whose outcome was the TH 20-08 calibre, the collection now comes as a new iteration of the 2023 model, paying tribute to the legendary Porsche 911 “147” debuting at the 1965 Monte Carlo Rally. The dial’s layout has not changed: a continuous running seconds counter at six is paired with a chrono hour counter at nine.

As always, the sector between 50 and 55 seconds is a nod to 911 owners’ recommended speed within urban areas, while the red sector in the counter at nine is kind of a virtual “rev limiter” to tell the driver to avoid revving the engine over 6,800 rpm, as marked by the 6,8 hours marker, to avoid any damage to the engine.

The new variant of the Chronosprint

What makes this model technically slightly different from its previous sibling is the red zone on the main dial, whose scale stops at 8.4 as many seconds as are needed to elapse once the chronograph is triggered, in keeping with the zero-to-one-hundred-kilometres-per-hour time reached by the 911 “147.” Set this variation apart, the new limited edition model shares the original Chronosprint platform with a black background and the 42 mm large, 14.9 mm thick case boasting the signature domed glass and dial carrying the “PORSCHE” inscription.

The package works better than in the past and turns out as a two-edition collection: a 911-piece limited edition model in steel and a super-limited 11-piece 18-karat yellow gold one. Each timepiece comes with a collector-ready lacquered box in red-painted wood, a scale model and a replacement rally strap with a folding or gold pin buckle, respectively. The TAG Heuer Carrera Chronosprint x Porsche Rallye in steel retails for €10,050, and the yellow gold version for €24,200 instead.

Carrera Chronograph and Tourbillon Chronograph with smoked purple dial

Chronograph and tourbillon need no introduction: sporting 39 mm and 42 mm case sizes, respectively (and measuring 13.9 mm and 14.3 mm in thickness), they relaunched the Carrera collection on their sixtieth anniversary. They introduced a new vintage-inspired design with domed glass and a matching domed dial’s outer part. Now, the dial has a new brushed smoky purple livery to add character to a well-designed and much-appreciated chronograph.

The Chrono Tourbillon is addictive; the smoky shade highlights mechanical complications like never before, and the combo is sophisticated. Among the technical specs, I can’t avoid reminding you that the TH 20-09 calibre boasts a 65-hour power reserve when fully wound. Whether as a standard collection or a Porsche edition, TAG Heuer’s catalogue of mechanical movements is technically stunning. The chronograph has a price list of €6,550; the tourbillon chrono costs €34,400 instead.

(Photo credit: TAG Heuer)

Giovanni Maria Di Biase @Horbiter®