fresh from the showroom here at Swiss watch exposed Swiss watch Expo calm this
morning Creed what are we talking about the Tag Heuer of Monaco and the rich
racing tradition and history of these watches
I love the Tag Heuer Monaco for me I mean you might not know much about the
history of this watch there was a consortium of three
different Swiss watch companies that got together and in secret developed the
world's first automatic winding mechanical chronograph watch they
launched it March 3rd 1969 to the shock of the rest of the watch world and the
Poyer Monaco at the time as it was called was one of the very first ones to
use that movement absolutely and one of the things we've talked about in the
past is why Breitling in Tag Heuer go together it's because Breitling and the
way that they made their chronograph movements with the dual button pushers
was something that tag absolutely needed because they had moved from the pocket
watch now to their wristwatch so that was a big combination between Breitling
and tag warriors so the three companies were Breitling lawyer and Buuren which I
never hear anything about anymore I guess they don't exist maybe in the
market don't ask me I haven't heard about it now interestingly I have seen
one of their watches at a place where I formerly worked which was very
interesting yeah it's hard to get him worked on though so the reason that
we're talking about the Monaco today is because I have a strong appeal for the
racing great rich racing history of all things tack so the tag began with what
was called the micro graph in the early days which was kind of the world's first
timing device used within the race car scene starting in the 19-teens all the
way up to the 1930s when we got the auto Biya now these are all heuer watches
because higher watchman's tag actually merged with them in the 80s if I
remember right as though in the 1980s once there was a
shift in ownership okay for the Hoyer family had kind of moved along to the
side some changes happened within so techniques avant-garde was the tag
moniker that popped up after Hoyer and as I understand it from those who work
with tag this was a name that they developed because Hoyer was something
that was difficult to pronounce in so many different languages interesting yes
it was hard to recognize now I find that a little bit odd because it had been
around for so long but that's what they stand by and techniques avant-garde is a
lift up for all of the exorbitant technologies that go into their
chronographs because they are the leading the vanguard of the watch the
technical watches - that's interesting if this watch really jumps out at me I
love this blue dial Monaco this is the man if you ever watched Breaking Bad
this is the one that Walter White wore on the watch once he had made a lot of
bloom if this is the one that he bought and I've actually had people come in and
say I need the Walter White watch so maybe there's a new nickname coming as
we've seen a lot of nicknames in the Rolex world well so actually the blue
was the very first color that was used from 1969 actually blue and gray were
the two colors that were available Steve McQueen wore the original blue color in
the LeMans movie and that was course in 1971 and the great color which is I've
actually chosen the Gulf Edition which is the newest version of their
sponsorship team it does have the original gray combined with the orange
now these are limited edition models so you can only find them in certain areas
we haven't had this one that Gulf livery is just so good-looking it reminds me of
the the Ford GT team in the 1960s that beat Ferrari at their own game and yeah
it's just got a lot of interesting racing heritage behind it absolutely and
they come in a lot of different what I call flavors so you have the original
black as well now what people don't realize is is that there were 200 models
produced back in the 1970s well leave it was in 1974 they had a PVD model and if
you can find were those PVD models it's war
an absolute fortune there's only two hundred that exist in the world
according to tag yeah so one of the other things that changed over the years
- were the pushers okay the pushers used to be a round series and now they're
sort of a rectangular series the other thing that people don't realize is and
this is a great one because we actually have it here this is an acrylic crystal
on this watch now they've moved the sapphire crystals for today's
technologies but the original was in fact the acrylic crystal now what was
important about this watch more than anything given the fact that it was a
chronograph no other watch had been made in rectangular form and was
water-resistant with the with this kind of crystalline this was actually the
world's first water-resistant rectangular crystal never produced and I
see this one is a smaller scale and it doesn't have the exhibition case back
that the more current one with the sapphire crystal and the exhibition bag
has there's an interesting point because a lot of people don't realize that the
original models were a little bit different shaped in the case the new
ones have a more rectangular shape the old ones I'm sorry that was a more
square shape the old ones were more of a rectangular shape it's very minor but it
is there you do have to have them sort of side by side to see that that's an
interesting look the other thing one of the other things about the Monaco the
differences in the movements they did have a manual light and they did have an
ETA movement now what's interesting is the ETA movement the crown was on the
left is on the left side of the launch this Aleta movement is on the right side
of the lodge so in the original forms they were made with the crown on the
right side of the watch which would mean it would be on this side like a left
handed watch that's right but the chrono pushers were still on the right that's
correct interesting yeah so I was like no so the crown was on the left the
pushers are on the right if you're looking at the face of the law right
yeah yeah so the Selena movement is sort of a more
rare piece too and a lot of people have a hard time finding them now the tag
makes them they're just in limited quantities so it sounds like if someone
just wanted to focus on collecting within this one series they could make a
lifetime of collecting just from all the 200 models made in the 70s absolutely
and just to be sort of a side note the bracelet is something that was hyper
rare too so a lot of folks look for the bracelet but today's watches don't have
that bracelet they only had the straps okay now let's move on for just a second
because the rich racing history of the Monaco comes from the original Italia
okay which was the original pocket watch and then subsequently was the
chronograph worn on the wrist now when Steve McQueen was playing the
part in the movie the original racecar driver for the fellow he was playing was
an alt a via it was Steve McQueen that made the choice to wear the newest
update of this Monaco the Monaco of course named after the Monaco Race the
Formula One series and if you are a huge Formula one fan and there are so many
that I am surprised in the world that know who Ayrton Senna is the Arizona
watch we have one it's in PVD black as well as original kind of throwback to
the the ought a via brand although this is a Carrera
so the Carrera sort of has that ought a via look the throwback look but it's in
fact a Carrera and also one of the other things about this watch is that it does
have the rubber tread like the racecar tread that's really interesting yeah and
then it's got the Ayrton Senna s branding on the back cool so tag heuer
is an exclusive provider of Arizona watches and they go like crazy this is
the only one that we have currently that I'm aware of
well yeah one of the other watches that I'm actually wearing which is a favorite
it's also a rare limited-edition piece it's the open skeleton with the Arabic
numeral stop watch sort of style numbers around the dial of the watch it is a
deployment clasp it does have the crystal case back so that you can see
the Tag Heuer oh one internal movement this is a tag heuer 100% designed and
engineered movement so that's different from all the other piece that's
interesting I love the skeleton dials we're even because we're used to seeing
a lot of exhibition case banks where you can see that side of the movement but
it's unusual to be able to see the topside of the movement the skeleton
dials give you a nice little window to be able to see all of that craftsmanship
that you're appreciating about your watch absolutely and for people who like
a more dressy watch there are the diamond studded ones available too and I
thought we'd bring that out because we actually do have them this is sort of a
unisex model I've seen the fellows wear these this one has the grand eight at
the top as well but I've also seen ladies wear them it's a little bit
bigger for almost ladies to wear but you know ladies where larger watches these
days I could definitely see my wife wearing that yeah
there's also smaller versions there's courts versions in addition to all of
these two so Monaco spans the gamut if you want a Monaco as you said earlier
it's like a low in candy you can have as much as you want awesome enjoy it all
right well fresh from the showroom Swiss watch Expo