TAG Heuer’s “Mastering Speed for 150 Years” Formula One Party perfectly evokes the brand’s motor racing heritage

TAG Heuer created a fascinating world of racing at its Formula One Party on the eve of the Formula One main race at one of Shanghai’s landmarks of fashion, the Red Town, accurately recreating the feeling of the speed, passion, and cutting-edge fashion of the Formula One. TAG Heuer global ambassador Lewis Hamilton joined celebrities Elva Hsiao, Guangjie Li, Bei Pei, and a hundred or so special guests to enjoy the exhilaration of this evening’s festivities.

“Mastering Speed for 150 Years” comes from the deep relationship that TAG Heuer has forged with the world of automobile racing, having provided the most advanced and most accurate timing racing equipment for the past century and a half while also discovering and supporting drivers for top racing teams. The constant progress in the art of racing over the years has inspired TAG Heuer to make innovations in watch making and constantly challenge the limits of timekeeping precision. In China, TAG Heuer has invited young people who are passionate about racing and precison to “Race Against Time” with them, providing a taste of the speed and passion of racing and getting the whole city excited about the art of timekeeping.

For racing fans that enjoyed the Formula One qualifying races during the day, the world of racing created by TAG Heuer later that night at the Formula One Party was definitely a thrilling conclusion to the day. The passion for speed filled Shanghai’s Red Town as the roar of engines reverberated in the night air, and the giant racecar instrument panel at the entrance and the racetrack warning marks on the street recreated the atmosphere the Formula One track, making you feel like a Formula One racecar might zoom past at any minute. When you entered the party, there were giant portraits of famous drivers bringing TAG Heuer’s racing legend to life in full color detail. Legendary drivers Steve McQueen, Lewis Hamilton, and Jenson Button were there to testify to the cutting-edge performance of TAG Heuer. In the center of the dance floor, 2 racing simulators were set up for guests to enjoy the excitement of racing in famous tracks around the world.

The special guests in attendance that night included executives from TAG Heuer as well as television, film, and music superstars from around the world such as Elva Hsiao, Guangjie Li, and Bei Pei. On the red carpet, Guangjie Li wore a debonair jacket matched with cool dark sunglasses, which gave him the look of a gentleman racecar driver. Meanwhile, Bei Pei dressed extravagantly as the quintessential modern girl. When Elva Hsiao appeared on the red carpet, she became the center of attention.  Accompanied by the exciting beats of the well-known DJ Devin Luciun, the guests enjoyed the specially prepared cocktails on the dance floor and immersed themselves in a night overflowing with excitement.

The high point of this event was undoubtedly the appearance of Formula One world champion driver Lewis Hamilton, whose arrival immediately sent waves of excitement through the crowd. Especially lucky were the fans who got a chance to interact with him during the racing simulator, which turned out to be the climax of the night. The carefully designed computer game platform allowed people to view TAG Heuer’s exclusive Formula One racecar simulation game on the big screen. The realistic racetrack scene allowed the guests to experience the thrilling speed of a Formula One racecar as if they were really there. No one at the party could keep their eyes off the simulated race as Lewis Hamilton used his flawless racing skills to attract everyone. It was amazing how smoothly he used the brakes, took the turns, and drifted. It was apparent to everyone that TAG Heuer really knows how to discover and cultivate racing talent. TAG Heuer discovered Lewis Hamilton on the racetrack in the UK back in 2003 and immediately invited him to join the TAG Heuer Renault formula car racing team. After that, Lewis Hamilton’s racing career took off like a rocket, as he soon became an unbeatable driver. Whenever he stood on the winner’s podium after a Formula One race, you could see a TAG Heuer watch on his wrist which always accompanied him in his victories.

Taking a look back at the past, TAG Heuer’s close cooperation with top drivers can be traced back to the very beginning of the Formula One championship era. In 1969, TAG Heuer became the first watch brand to get involved in sponsoring drivers by working together with Jo Siffert, a relationship that has become the stuff of legend. After that, many more drivers became ambassadors for TAG Heuer such as legendary drivers Jacky Ickx, David Coulthard, and Jenson Button. Famous Formula One world champions such as Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Fernando Alonso, and Mika Häkkinen also closely worked with TAG Heuer over the years.

The Formula One championship is a world-class event that perfectly displays the combination of intelligence, passion, and vitality and represents the peak of technology and the courage to constantly challenge limits. This perfectly fits with the avant-garde innovation and pioneering spirit” that TAG Heuer has always endeavored to follow.

Source: Tag Heuer Press Release

TAG HEUER AND AUTOMOBILE CLUB DE MONACO SIGN PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT

 As part of its 2011 “Mastering Speed” commemoration of its most famous source of inspiration — a century and a half of professional motorsports — TAG Heuer is proud to announce a new partnership with the Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM).

 The agreement makes TAG Heuer the Official Watch and Chronograph, Eyewear and Timing Partner of the ACM and its events. For 2011, these include some of the most prestigious and glamorous moments in motor sports: the F1 Grand Prix of Monaco, the Monte Carlo Rally, the Monte Carlo Historic Rally, the Monaco Rally of Alternative Energies and the Monaco Kart Cup.

 “Partnering with the Automobile Club de Monaco in this important year is a great honour,” said Jean-Christophe Babin, CEO of TAG Heuer. “We look forward to working side by side with the ACM in their pits and paddocks, and helping to promote their legendary races throughout the TAG Heuer world.”

 

“We wanted to work with a prestigious watch brand that is a reference in international motorsports,” said Michel Boéri, President of ACM. “TAG Heuer was the obvious choice. We are already linked with them through the Monaco, the iconic watch worn by Steve McQueen, and we share the same values of prestige and performance. With its unrivalled roster of F1 champion ambassadors, and its heritage of watches and chronographs inspired by 150 years of automobile racing, TAG Heuer symbolizes the best in racing.”

 “TAG Heuer has now established itself as the key watch brand of the most important tracks and events in motorsports,” said Jean-Christophe Babin. “Through our partnerships with the ACM at Monaco, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes in F1, Audi Sport for Le Mans and Endurance racing, and our longstanding role as Official Watch of the mythical Indy 500, TAG Heuer is precisely where it wants to be — in the pole position.”

 TAG Heuer kicks off its 2011 “Mastering Speed” celebrations with a special exhibition of historic racecars and TAG Heuer timepieces in the Halle Sécheron in Geneva from January 17-20. The event also marks the premiere unveiling of the Swiss watch brand’s newest breakthrough creation, the Heuer CARRERA MIKROGRAPH 1/100th Second Chronograph, the first integrated mechanical timepiece with 1/100th of a second display by a central hand.

 The “Mastering Speed” exhibition showcases 10 cars that have made an indelible mark in the motor racing history of TAG Heuer and in international motorsport in general. These include those driven by the brand’s racing ambassadors, including F1 great Juan Manuel Fangio’s Mercedes W196, Clay Regazzoni’s Ferrari F1 312 B3, the World Champions McLarens F1 cars of Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen and Lewis Hamilton, and the Audi R15+ TDI winner of Le Mans 24 Hours. Also in the show are iconic TAG Heuer timepieces and chronographs directly inspired by motor racing. These include the Formula 1 series, created in homage to TAG Heuer’s long association with F1 racing, as well as the indomitable timepieces named after the most famous driving competitions in motorsports: the Monaco, the Silverstone, the Carrera, and the Monza.

 The “Mastering Speed” exhibition will tour other cities in 2011 as part of TAG Heuer’s ambitious “150 Years of Motor Racing” celebrations.

Source: Tag Heuer Press Release

2010 Tag Heuer Tesla Roadster

Pioneering luxury Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer and electric carmaker Tesla Motors have teamed up in a worldwide partnership as the iconic Swiss brand celebrates its 150th anniversary.

On display at the Geneva Motor Show is the 2010 TAG Heuer Tesla Roadster. This one-of-a-kind collector’s car includes a unique interior by Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen, incorporating TAG Heuer avant-garde design elements and a specially designed center console due to host TAG Heuer’s cutting edge concept watch, to be revealed in Basel on March 18.

This car also features a TAG Heuer Meridiist mobile phone as well as a one-fifth second Heuer Limited Edition Stopwatch. This Swiss-made timepiece with mechanical movement pays tribute to the 1860 founding of the company and evoques the mythic revival of the brand’s vintage stopwatches.

The car’s exterior color scheme is Foucault Field Gray, embodying the innovative spirit of both companies. The design was inspired by the new TAG Heuer concept watch, a technical milestone in mechanical movements, which brings technologically advanced art to life through motion.

The 2010 TAG Heuer Tesla Roadster will remain at the Tesla booth during the public show days, March 4-14 at the Palexpo-Geneva conference center. The car will then be driven to Baselworld, the world’s largest watch exhibition, for a special event March 18.

Relentless focus on technological innovation

Since its founding in an artisan’s workshop in the Swiss Jura, TAG Heuer has become one of the world’s best-known luxury brands — maker of avant-garde watches, eyewear and premium mobile phones for refined consumers around the globe.

TAG Heuer, a star brand from the luxury group and worldwide leader Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH), also has deep roots in the automotive sector. Company founder Edouard Heuer received in 1911 the patent for The Time of Trip, the first car dashboard chronograph, followed in 1933 by the Autavia — the first dashboard timekeeper for both automobiles and aviation. The benchmark in cutting-edge chronographs and timekeeping technology since 1860, TAG Heuer is the watch brand that can claim the longest and strongest association with motor sports and dream cars. Both watches and chronographs are inspired and driven by motor sports, from Formula One to GT cars.

“TAG Heuer has a rich history and expertise with the world’s most prestigious racing teams — but this is the first ever partnership we’ve forged with an electric sports car company,” said Jean-Christophe Babin, President and CEO of TAG Heuer. “We believe that high-performance drivers are increasingly searching for products that are efficient, socially responsible and stylish. TAG Heuer and Tesla are two of the few companies arleady achieving these ideals today.”

Tesla Motors began developing an electric sports car in 2004 and remains the only automaker selling highway-capable electric cars. The Tesla Roadster accelerates faster than nearly any other supercar yet is twice as energy efficient as a Toyota Prius — the only car that delivers supercar performance guilt-free, with zero tailpipe emissions and a carbon footprint dramatically lower than any comparable sports car.

Based in California’s Silicon Valley, Tesla has delivered more than 1,000 cars to consumers in 21 countries. Advertising Age magazine recently named Tesla one of America’s “hottest brands.” The Tesla Roadster is quickly becoming the must-have car among Hollywood celebrities, European royalty and socially responsible trendsetters worldwide.

“Engineers at both TAG Heuer and Tesla understand intuitively that technology — whether worn on your wrist or driven on the road — can help us live better while we tread more lightly on this planet,” said Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

The CEOs of TAG Heuer and Tesla, along with celebrity customers of both companies, will launch their next collaboration in style on March 18 at a party during Baselworld 2010. This nine-month project, commemorating TAG Heuer’s 150th anniversary, will have worldwide reach and will raise awareness of technological innovation to consumers on three continents.

About TAG Heuer

TAG Heuer, which is proudly celebrating 150 years of Swiss watchmaking, has pioneered any major milestones in high-end watchmaking, particularly in the field of chronographs and ultimate precision. TAG Heuer is the first watchmaker to master luxury chronographs with an unsurpassed precision of 1/10th, 1/100th and 1/1,000th of a second. From the Olympic Games in the 1920s to its role as official timekeeper for the legendary Indy 500 race, with accuracy at 1/10,000th of a second, TAG Heuer, in a constant quest for innovation, excellence, performance and prestige, continues to aim ever higher. This is reflected in its quarter-century partnership with F1 team Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, its 7-year partnership with 2008 Formula 1 World Champion, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, and his new teammate, 2009 Formula 1 World Champion Jenson Button.

The newest addition to the TAG Heuer legacy is the Calibre 1887, an in-house, Swiss manufactured, integrated column-wheel chronograph movement that pays tribute to the original Heuer oscillating pinion of 1887, one of the brand’s first patents and a major benchmark in modern watchmaking.

About Tesla Motors

Tesla is the world’s only automaker selling highway-capable electric vehicles. Tesla sells cars online and operates showrooms and galleries in London, Munich, Monaco, California’s Silicon Valley and Los Angeles, Colorado, New York, Seattle, Chicago and South Florida. Tesla has delivered more than 1,000 cars to customers in at least 21 countries worldwide.

The Tesla Roadster accelerates faster than nearly any car in its price class and is twice as energy efficient as leading hybrids. It is the only highway-capable electric vehicle for sale in Europe or North America. The Roadster does not need regular oil changes or exhaust system work. Roadsters have no spark plugs, pistons, hoses, belts or clutches to replace. Tesla recommends a standard service and diagnostic inspection once a year – and Tesla can perform this service at customers’ homes or offices.

(Source: Tesla Motors Press Release)

B.R.M. ’s R50-TN Performs Like a Fined Tuned Supercar

 

The French call it Reserve de Marche. The power reserve indicator is to the mechanical watch what the fuel gauge is to the gasoline engine. Indeed, one glance at B.R.M’s stunning new timepiece, the R50-TN, should be enough to convince anyone that luxury watches and motorsports might just have a whole lot more in common than we thought. We’ve been following for some time the first steps in America of a new and exciting brand, Bernard Richards Manufacture. Featuring radical engineering and bold designs, the French timepieces have brought a breath of fresh air on a market otherwise dominated by overwhelmingly conservative Swiss competitors. The B.R.M models have always paid a heavy tribute to the world of motorsports, but the R50-T Reserve de Marche goes further by incarnating the true essence of a high performance wristwatch. Behind the raw beauty emanating from the exposed movement, a masterpiece of craftsmanship shaped like a motorcycle engine, with the cylinder on the left, lies more than just a few revolutionary innovations.

 

First and foremost, let’s come back to the Reserve de Marche. This crucial feature measures and displays the tension left in the mainspring of a watch – and therefore the amount of autonomy remaining — at any given time. While an automatic timepiece needs at least 30% of its mainspring to be wound in order to run properly, it requires to be worn between 10 and 15 hours per day to reach a full wind. A lot of people tend to think that just shaking the watch a few times is enough to give it a jump start, and realize only later that automatic watches are actually designed to be worn most of the day and be put to rest only at night, just like the rest of us. Instead of being discretely tucked on the side, the Reserve de Marche is located at 6 o’clock on the R50-T. The smaller needle indicates the amount of power reserve left, with a maximum charge of 48 hours. The whole design brings competition to mind and is clearly reminiscent of motorcycle instrumentation. And, cruel or not in these times of inflated gas prices and deepening energy shortages, what the Reserve de Marche really tells us is how much time and energy we REALLY have left.

 

Everything about the B.R.M. R50-TN seems to bring us back to the universe of finely tuned race engines. This stunning achievement, released in late 2007 by the French manufacturer after two years of work, features the most ground-breaking design built around B.R.M.’s patented Isolastic System. The first French-made movement in three decades is mounted on fiber glass or carbon fiber triangles maintained by springs to minimize any vibration inside the case. The rotor is made of aluminum and a rare, hard and heavy metal called tantalum. Every screw has been replaced with a bolt, as if to underline the dramatic engine-like mechanism, enclosed in a 50 millimeter case made of extra hard titanium grade 2. The R50-TN Reserve de Marche was designed by a small team of passionate engineers with a serious weakness for motorsports in general, and sports motorcycles in particular. No wonder B.R.M. was recently asked to craft 10 unique timepieces to match the mind-blowing Ecosse Heretic Titanium Series, perhaps today’s rarest and most coveted street bike.

 

There have been hundreds of variations on the theme of the wristwatch as an accessory, or even a tribute, to a high-performance vehicle, car or motorcycle manufacturer, from Ferrari to Lamborghini, Porsche and Ducati to name just a few. Most of these watches  look great and succeed in exploiting the aesthetics associated with a brand’s logo and image. But the B.R.M. R50-TN Reserve de Marche is the real thing. You don’t need anyone’s seal of approval when you obviously embody the spirit of racing on your own, inside and out. In comparison with Swiss giants usually associated with motorsports such as Longines or Tag-Heuer, B.R.M. is a small manufacturer with genuine personal ties to the racing community. The word is out and many professional drivers, such as Henri Pescarolo, former Le Mans winner and current team owner, have already been seen, in action, wearing one of B.R.M.’s newest models. Then there are the regular people, like me and you. Well, without ever leaving your wrist, the R50-TN will make you feel as if you were riding your dream motorcycle into clockwork ecstasy.

 

Perhaps more than any other B.R.M. model, the R50-T Reserve de Marche echoes the Spartan features of a racing engine. Bare essentials are the key of high performance. You don’t need veneer panels, GPS and precious metals when your goal is to top the time sheets and to be the first to cross the checkered flag. You need high-tech materials and outstanding engineering, superior skills and absolute dedication. Let’s face it, there is something incredibly sexy and dangerous about keeping an engine entirely exposed, especially when this engine is rotating so close to your skin. Motorcycle comparisons aside, when equipped with bright red hands, the B.R.M. R50-TN reminds us of the classic Ferrari 360 Modena and its back window with the Italian V8 in full view. Something beautiful happens when raw power meets elegance. After making a name for itself in the past few years with gorgeous wristwatches, such as the V12-44, B.R.M. has stepped up to the next level with the R50-TN. The new timepiece has been a success in North America so far and was spotted several times at the Concours d’Elegance, last August, in Pebble Beach. As it opens a new chapter for the French manufacturer, the R50-TN foreshadows the Bi-Rotor, another masterpiece of Isolastic technology, and rumor has it that B.R.M. is about to unveil its first Tourbillon. The French is back. Keep an eye on the Reserve de Marche.

 Story by Mikael Jehanno