TAG HEUER

TAG Heuer S.A., a combination of Techniques d'Avant Garde and the surname Heuer, designs, manufactures and markets luxury TAG Heuer-branded watches, chronographs and fashion accessories and markets Swissluxury TAG Heuer-branded eyewear and mobile phones manufactured under license by other companies. TAG Heuer traces its roots to the 1860 foundation of Uhrenmanufaktur Heuer AG by Edouard Heuer in St-Imier, Switzerland. The company was purchased by TAG Group (Holdings) S.A. in 1985 and the Heuer brand became TAG Heuer. In 1999, TAG Group sold TAG Heuer to French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy • Louis Vuitton.

Notable wearers and brand endorsers of TAG watches include Barack Obama, Lewis Hamilton, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tiger Woods, Brad Pitt, Shah Rukh Khan, Ben Blowers, Chris King and Tristan Revell.

TAG Heuer is based in Neuchâtel, Switzerland and is led by President and CEO John-Christophe Babin. Jack Heuer, the great grandson of the founder, is the Honorary Chairman. TAG Heuer maintains a watchmaking workshop in Cornol, Switzerland and a watchmaking factory in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. The TAG Heuer slogan is "Swiss Avant-Garde Since 1860".

TAG Heuer traces its roots to 1860 when Edouard Heuer founded Uhrenmanufaktur Heuer AG (English: Heuer Watchmaking Inc.) in St-Imier, Switzerland.

Edouard Heuer patented his first chronograph in 1882 and in 1887 patented an 'oscillating pinion' still used by major watchmakers of mechanical chronographs

In 1911, Heuer received a patent for the "Time of Trip", the first dashboard chronograph. Designed for use in automobiles and aircraft, two large hands mounted from the center pinion indicate the time of day, as on a traditional clock. A small pair of hands, mounted at the top of the dial (12 o'clock position) indicates the duration of the trip (up to 12 hours). A top-mounted crown allows the user to set the time; a button mounted in that crown operates the start / stop / reset functions of the "duration of trip" counter.

In the early 1950s, Heuer produced watches for the American retailer Abercrombie & Fitch. The "Seafarer" and "Auto-Graph" were unique chronographs produced by Heuer to be sold by Abercrombie & Fitch. The "Seafarers" had special dials—with blue, green and yellow patterns—that showed the high and low tides.

Commencing in the mid-1960s, Heuer was part of a partnership (with Breitling and Hamilton) that sought to introduce the world's first automatic chronograph. Seiko (a Japanese watch manufacturer) and Zenith (a Swiss watch manufacturer) were also seeking to be the first to offer these chronographs. These projects were conducted in secret, as none of the competitors wanted the other companies to be aware of their efforts. Most agree that the Heuer-Breitling venture was first to introduce their new line of automatic chronographs to the world wide market, with Heuer-Breitling-Hamilton holding lavish press conferences in Geneva and New York, on 3 March 1969, to show their new lines of chronographs.

In 1975, Heuer introduced the Chronosplit, a digital chronograph with dual LED and LCD displays. Later versions featured two LCD displays.

TAG Heuer's current lines include Formula One, Aquaracer, Link, Carrera, Monaco and Grand Carrera.

TAG Heuer, in keeping with its image as a luxury brand with an innovative spirit, has long standing links with the world of sport and Hollywood. TAG Heuer has been the official timekeeper of the three Summer Olympic Games of the 1920s, the Skiing World Championships, the Formula One World Championships and has developed a watch for the McLaren F1 team. The brand has also had a long list of sports and Hollywood ambassadors.

Some of the more recently announced models include the Monaco V4 (the movement of which is driven by belts rather than gears); the Carrera Calibre 360 (the first mechanical wrist chronograph to measure and display time to 1/100 of a second) and the Monaco 69 (with both a digital chronograph accurate to a millisecond and a traditional mechanical movement, with a hinged mechanism allowing wearers to flip the watch between its two separate dials).

London-based Christoph Behling has been the lead designer for TAG Heuer since 2004. The collaboration has resulted in some of the brand's most celebrated pieces including the world's fastest chronograph, the Mikrogirder 1/2000th, launched in 2012.