Welcome back to the Gentleman's Gazette. In today's video, we're going to be looking
at something of an anomaly in the world of watches today, TAG Heuer.
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As you probably know, the world of luxury watches has quite a few heavy hitters; Patek Philippe,
Audemars Piguet, Omega, and of course, Rolex. We're certainly not the first people to group
these watches together, and we're probably not going to be the last. The point is,
there's a common thread with how watch fans and collectors view these brands.
They always group them together, but TAG Heuer, on the other hand,
is often seen as an anomaly; is it a luxury brand or is it an overpriced novelty? So,
as always we'll do what we always do and start with TAG Heuer's company history. And remember,
if you're not interested in the history you can always skip ahead a few chapters
by picking below. Preston will tell you it's no fun when there's no table of contents,
so we've included that for you. The company was founded as Heuer AG in 1860 in Switzerland by
Edward Heuer. Many people don't actually know what TAG Heuer stands for, and the "TAG" stands for
Techniques D'avant Garde, which gives us the name TAG Heuer,
but more on that later. Twelve years into forming the company, Heuer created his first chronograph
movement in 1882, and 1887 saw him create the "oscillating pinion." The "oscillating pinion"
is a form of horizontal clutch that greatly improves the engagement of the chronograph,
and it's still used by Major watchmakers of mechanical chronographs to this day. By the way,
if you want to learn more about chronographs, you can consult our post on that topic. A few
years later in 1911, Heuer got the patent for the first Time of Trip
chronograph on the dashboard of a car. Now, this was a type of chronograph
that was designed mostly for cars and for airplanes. It would show the time of day,
as well as the duration of the trip. If you needed to make any adjustments to the watch that can be
done through a vertically aligned crown. Now, this is a useful feature to have when you have
passengers in your car who always seem to ask the question, "Are we there yet are we there yet?"
[Scene from Shrek] - Are we there yet? - No!
- Are we there yet? - No we are not!
- Are we there yet?! - No!
With a penchant for chronographs, Heuer introduced his first wristwatch chronograph in 1914. Just
like the Time of Trip chronograph in the car, the crown was aligned vertically, as most men's
wrist watches at this time were adaptations of pocket watches. Taking on his father's Legacy,
Charles Heuer added the micro chronograph in 1916. This chronograph was accurate to 1/100th
of a second, and in the future, Heuer even added one that was accurate to 1/50th of a second with a
split second function. This was very useful when you were timing two individuals like at a race,
which makes sense because these Innovations were used heavily in the 1920 Olympics. In 1933,
Heuer turned his attention back to automotives, as he introduced the "Autavia." This is a dashboard
timer, which the name comes from combining "automotive" and "aviation." The Autavia
had a dashboard companion also, which was a clock that could run for eight days without being wound.
During World War II, Heuer produced watches for the Luftwaffe, and these watches were also known
as "Flieger" or pilot's chronographs. In the post-war 1940s, Heuer expanded their chronograph
offerings to have ones with multiple sub-dials. Some of these offerings were full calendar
options, and they came in various assortments of steel and in gold. In the early 1950s,
Heuer actually created a line of watches for American clothier Abercrombie and Fitch, which
is very different than the Abercrombie and Fitch of today. I'm still wondering how Abercrombie
asks for a "collab" back in those days. The Seafarer or the "Auto-Graph" models were the
ones that were specifically made for Abercrombie and Fitch. The Seafarers had special dials with
colors of green and blue, which were really exciting and interesting to youthful customers
of that time. The "Auto-Graph" was made in 1953 and 54, and featured a tachymeter on the bezel,
which was useful for people in automotive sports. Heuer chronographs boomed in popularity from the
1950s to the 1970s, as they were a favorite by automotive professionals and automotive amateurs.
Before we take it to the track, we need to take a quick pit stop - thanks Preston - and take these
watches to space? Yes, Heuer was actually the first watch in space as it was worn on the wrist
of American astronaut John Glenn as he piloted the Mercury-Atlas 6 spacecraft. This was the first US
crew to ever orbit the earth, and the Heuer was worn on Glenn's wrist as a wrist mounted pocket
watch. And for the sake of avoiding confusion, this was not the first watch on the moon. That
title belongs to the Omega Speedmaster. In 1963, Heuer introduced what could be considered one
of its most popular chronographs - the Carrera. This piece in particular was designed by Edouard
Heuer's great-grandson Jack Heuer. The Carrera watch was named after the Carrera Panamerican
race, and it was a very simple watch with applied markers and simple sub-dials. In the 1960s,
the Carreras were available with a variety of elegant dials, including all white, all black,
white registers on a black dial, and black registers on a white dial. A three registered
triple calendar version of the Carrera was introduced in 1968, but it was in 1969 that
Heuer found an ambassador, none other than the king of cool himself, Steve McQueen. The watch
that McQueen wore in question was the Monaco. The Monaco featured a bold Square case and had
either a blue or a gray dial. And this watch featured prominently alongside McQueen's Heuer
patch on his racing suit in the movie "Le Mans." Steve McQueen wanted to wear a Heuer in order to
pay homage to his hero of racing, Jo Siffert, who was an ambassador for TAG Heuer. The fresh, edgy,
and bold design of the Monaco brought worldwide attention to Heuer, and why not? The king of
cool himself was wearing it. Due to this surge of popularity and attention, Heuer flooded the market
with more chronograph models, such as the Daytona, the Montreal, the Silverstone, the Calculator, the
Manza, and many more. One thing Heuer's history shows us is that they're very keen on Innovation
as they've been doing this since the 1860s. Following the introduction of the Monaco in 69,
Heuer introduced the Chronosplit in 1975. This was a digital chronograph with dual LCD and LED
displays. A few years later in 1977, Heuer decides to get rid of all the busyness of the 70s and go
back to very simple designs, which makes sense as the following year featured "rugged dive watches."
What? So, perhaps, in order to capitalize on the market created by Rolex and the Submariner,
TAG Heuer introduced some of their own dive watches. It started off as just a few,
but over the following years, it ballooned into many models. 1986 saw the introduction of the
Formula One line, which featured bright cases made of plastic and quartz movements, which really
focused on fun being the main priority. So, the next logical step was to refine things again. Man,
these guys need to make up their mind. So, only a year after the introduction of the Formula One
line, TAG Heuer decided to release a line of very formal watches that could be worn with a tuxedo
or a suit, and I wonder where they got that idea from. The watch in question featured a combination
of gold and silvertones, and an Art-Nouveau style bracelet. But regardless of what anyone says,
you really shouldn't be wearing a dive watch or a sports watch with a tuxedo. So, if TAG Heuer needs
a guide on dress watch etiquette, we have a guide for that. And, although it's not uncommon for
wristwatch companies to go back and look at their roots, 1996 was the year that they relaunched
their Monaco and their Carrera line. Now, the dawn of readily available smart technology in the early
2000s panicked watchmakers. How would they remain relevant in an era of smart technology? After all,
you can get the time from looking at your phone. So always being on the move, TAG Heuer introduced
their first smartwatch in 2015 called the TAG Heuer Connected. This watch runs on the Android
Wear operating system, which is used by many smartwatch brands. It also offers its own app,
which you can use to customize the face of your TAG Heuer smartwatch. You can have a GMT function,
or a chronograph, or many others. The app also has some features that call back to original
Swiss watchmaking, such as an alarm, a timer, and a stopwatch. In March of 2017, TAG Heuer decided
to up their smartwatch game by introducing the TAG Heuer Connected Modular 45. This actually allows
you to switch between connected and mechanical modules. And, this watch later became the official
watch of the Kingsman series, replacing the Bremont ones in previous movies. Personally,
when it comes to being a Kingsman's agent, I would choose the rose gold Bremont. It's much
more elegant, and it's not a smartwatch. But hey, to each their own. And at this point, you might
have noticed a little bit of inconsistency in TAG Heuer's name. So, is it TAG Heuer? Is it TAG,
or is it Heuer? As companies grow, they are rarely consistently owned by one family, and TAG is no
exception. In the early 60s, Heuer acquired the watch brand Leonidas, and started to make
watches under the "Heuer-Leonidas" name. One of the designs that Heuer acquired from the Leonidas
brand is actually the "Bundeswehr" chronograph. This was originally used by the German air force,
and it was a departure from the slim and elegant chronographs that Heuer had produced. For its
first 125 years, the TAG Heuer brand was simply known as Heuer, but in 1985, the manufacturing
company TAG and the British business owner who owned that company acquired Heuer, so
TAG became part of the name. TAG, by the way, were manufacturers of high-end parts for sports cars,
such as ceramic turbochargers. And if you consider Heuer's racing history, it actually makes sense
that TAG merged with Heuer. Company ownership again changed in 1999, as Heuer was acquired by
LVMH. So, when you look at TAG Heuer's history, it's very clear that this company has a passion
for innovation. But also, innovation merely for innovation's sake is not always a good thing.
Take the introduction of Heuer's dive watches in 1978. I mean, it's very clear that they're trying
to capitalize on the market that Rolex created. I mean, look at them, they're nearly one to one
identical. Even the modern TAG Heuer watches are heavily inspired off of the Omega Seamaster. And
TAG Heuer can offer these at cheaper prices than their higher-end competitors. So, while
we're big fans of affordable alternatives, this could also have a damaging effect for a brand,
because after all, consumers will look at the two watches and just say, "Am I buying a cheaper
price knockoff?" Another issue that TAG Heuer has today perhaps started with their Formula
One watches in the 1980s, which is to say, they're trying to be everything for everyone. After all,
sticking a claim for every part of the market doesn't necessarily mean that you'll be good in
every part of the market. This is like casting a super wide net, and trying to catch the best fish,
rather than casting a very small net and focusing on the fish that you want to catch;
as much as Rolex has a very small line of dress watches, which are really liked by
fans of Rolex dress watches. So, TAG Heuer has a long and celebrated history of chronographs,
and they make really good ones. So, the argument can be made, "Why didn't they just focus on that?
Or did the world need another luxury brand to make another plastic watch?" Ultimately, this
'jack of all trades' attitude has landed TAG Heuer in a space where they're a 'jack of all trades and
a master of none.' Customers expect a brand to be consistent in what they offer you. After all,
look at Apple. They've been consistent to their core audience for years. It's just made somewhat
forgettable by their uncertainty of who they want to be. So, whether you're a huge fan of TAG Heuer,
or you're just being introduced to them in this video, there's no denying they have an impressive
company history. So, what are your thoughts on TAG Heuer? Leave us some comments down below.
In today's video, I'm wearing an outfit that looks good in the summertime hot months. It consists of
this brighter blue micro-houndstooth jacket, which is a lighter weight wool. I've paired it with a
white shirt with a button-down collar to keep the outfit on the more casual end of the spectrum,
and a pair of cream higher waisted linen trousers. On my feet are a pair of my Carmina
String tie loafers. This tie loafer mixed with not wearing any socks and the button-down collar
shirt keep the outfit on the more casual end of the spectrum. My tie is one of our yellow madder
silk ties. I really like this because it adds a nice pop of color to a summertime outfit. And my
pocket square is our white pocket square with the navy X-stitch. To check out my tie, or my pocket
square, or any other Fort Belvedere accessories, you can click the link to the shop below.
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