On November 24th, the weekend before Thanksgiving, the Las Vegas strip comes alive with the Formula One World Championship. Street circuits have a different vibe to them than the purpose-built racetracks. Especially in Vegas, the parties and excitement are next level. High rollers are comped with luxury suites, as they watch the drivers navigate the myriads of casinos at high speed on the notoriously traffic jammed streets of the Vegas strip. Enter TAG Heuer, with a pink Monaco chronograph in a DLC-coated titanium case. In my opinion, it is a perfect symbolic watch for Vegas night street racing – delivering the big wrist presence energy.
Last month Formula One and LVMH signed a ten-year partnership deal worth a billion dollars. TAG Heuer, owned by LVMH, is already a sponsor of the Red Bull Racing team and the Monaco GP. With Rolex now no longer a sponsor, TAG Heuer could possibly become the face of Formula One beginning next season. You can already see the presence of LVMH’s core luxury brands at the races, with bottles of Moët on the podium and monogrammed Louis Vuitton trophy cases.
Having established that LVMH has beaucoup bucks, let’s move on to discussing the Monaco chronograph. If you remove the pink elements from this Monaco, it is a serious and technical piece. But the pink makes it more fun and commands the spotlight. I may as well be describing the Formula One drivers.
TAG Heuer has a similar watch in their current catalog with blue and yellow accents, and the specs will be familiar to anyone with this variant. The Monaco case size is 39mm, featuring grade-2 sandblasted titanium with a black DLC coating. The lug-to-lug is a compact 47.4mm, but the case height is a noticeable 15.2mm. Luckily, black DLC has a slimming effect. I think TAG took a slightly restrained approach with the combination of black DLC and pink for wider appeal. If they wanted to go all out, a perfect choice would have been a forged black carbon case with pink accents. Of course, the price would correspond with the suggested boldness.
I like the skeletonized dial for a more technical feel. The purists will prefer the original Monaco dial as seen on drivers and in the movies. But the skeletonized dial gives the watch an edge, making it more contemporary and in line with how technical Formula One cars and team operations have become. Even with the skeletonization, all the essential elements are kept intact. Both the 30-minute and 12-hour chronograph counters are clearly visible. So is the luminous date at 6 o’clock. The black small seconds at 6 o’clock appears to get lost with the black sandblasted dial in the background. But I can understand the designer’s dilemma with all the chronograph hands in pink, so the small seconds had to be in a different color.
The Monaco chronograph is powered by a TH20-00 automatic movement. I would like to take a short detour to explain the brief history of this movement, and to credit the person responsible for creating the most recent TH20-00 caliber.
The TH20-00 caliber is derived from the Heuer 02 caliber, which itself evolved from the Caliber CH80. The lineage continues back to the Caliber 1887 and traces its foundational roots to a significantly modified version of the Seiko TC78 (6S37) column wheel chronograph movement. In 2014, the Caliber CH80 was introduced as TAG Heuer’s in-house movement, leading to debates over the definition of “in-house” within the industry. Eventually, in 2016, Jean-Calude Biver introduced the Heuer 02 caliber, which was essentially the CH80 minus the baggage.
The Heuer 02 caliber is characterized by a fully integrated design with both a column wheel and a vertical clutch mechanism, with a power reserve of up to 80 hours facilitated by a single barrel equipped with an extended mainspring. The configuration of the Heuer 02 allows for a classic 3-6-9 sub-dial layout, which reflects the traditional aesthetics of vintage Heuer chronographs.
Carole Forestier-Kasapi, a brilliant personality in the watchmaking industry, joined TAG Heuer in 2020. Despite her significant contributions, she often receives less recognition compared to her male peers. Notably, Forestier-Kasapi was instrumental in designing the innovative Ulysse Nardin Freak watch. While Ludwig Oechslin rightfully receives accolades for the watch, it is important to also acknowledge Forestier-Kasapi’s pivotal role. Prior to her tenure at TAG Heuer, she dedicated fifteen years to Cartier, where she was responsible for designing movements.
Forestier-Kasapi and her team of engineers took the Heuer 02 and rebuilt the movement. Previously the unidirectional rotor was noisy, but now the high quality of the new gear train and the bearing reduces that noise considerably. The primary objective of these modifications was to enhance the efficiency of the movement and extend the warranty period from two years to five years. The newly redesigned movement, designated as TH20-00, was initially introduced in the TAG Heuer Carrera models, launched to mark the 60th anniversary of the brand in 2023.
The Pink Monaco’s sapphire caseback reveals the column wheel and the oscillating weight, highlighted with an eye-catching pink accent. The chronograph is accompanied with a black strap that is a blend of leather and rubber, which combines style with practicality. I would have preferred pink stitching on the strap to match the pink accents of the watch.
One imagines that Formula One enthusiasts and watch enthusiasts will be noticing a significantly increased presence of TAG Heuer in the near future, and that this watch is just the beginning.
The retail price of the new Monaco is $11,250. TAG Heuer
