Sunday, September 27, 2015

Some Borrowed Time with TAG Heuer

Okay Pals and Gals, sometimes you get to slip behind the "velvet rope" and get a slow dance with a "super-model".


This past week TAG Heuer sent over what their PR office described as a prototype of a new version of their Monaco chronograph.

You may well note that this watch is not currently on the TAG Heuer website, but I got an "out of town preview" so without further delay, fasten your seat belts and start your engines!

This Monaco measures 39 mm and is powered by TAG Heuer's Calibre 11.  This is a self-winding (automatic) chronograph movement offering hours, minutes, seconds and date.  The main second chronograph counter is centrally mounted.  The sub dial at 9 o'clock is a 30 minute counter, the sub dial at 3 o'clock offers the "running" seconds.


The fit of the watch is quite good. In all honesty, anything larger than 39 mm is a bit of overkill unless you have a wrist of "Ahnohld" proportions.  The specific measurements are 39 mm x 39 mm.  The case is fine brushed and polished stainless steel with the bezel being fine-brushed.  Sapphire crystals front and back.  It is warranted to be water resistant to 100 meters.  No, I did not test rating ; )


The crown is on the left-hand side with the pushers on the right. I will be honest that this is not my "ideal" set-up and I was not sure how the feeling of the crown on the left side would feel. In fact it was not noticeable at all.

The pushers are clean, tactile and they functioned flawlessly.

As I mentioned, the movement is Calibre 11.  



The time keeping was first rate, the counters accurate and re-set perfectly.

The strap and clasp combination were very well thought out.  The strap is black calf leather that is perforated in deference to the "racing motif" of the watch.  It was comfortable and the underside was smooth and extremely well finished.


 The clasp is PERFECT.  One of my pet peeves about deployment clasps is that they NEVER work well and are SELDOM at all comfortable.  Not so with the TAG Heuer clasp!  It is smooth, comfortable and secure.


It is important to bear in mind, this is a prototype, so the final product will maybe look a little different - I suspect that Calibre 11 will appear on the dial of the production models.  It is due out in the next month (October is my understanding), so will see when the official press release comes out.

I do think that this will be a good model for TAG Heuer, it keeps to the traditional look and feel and it offers the Calibre 11 movement.  All good things.  The price and FINAL details are yet to be confirmed, so stay tuned.  But for now, you get a bit of an idea.

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