SHOP TAG HEUER Watches

With a rich heritage and history dating back to 1860 Tag Heuer is one of the oldest watch brands in the world.

In 1860, Edouard Heuer opened his first workshop in Switzerland on his family farm where he created pocket watches. Then soon after in 1864 the company moved to Brugg where they continued to make watches under the name Edouard Heuer & Compagnie. The workshop was soon moved, in 1867 to its third location in Bienne where it would stay for well over the next 100 years.

Heuer would go on to change and innovate watch making creating many important innovations throughout his lifetime. In 1869 Heuer created the first keyless winding system and introduced the crown, that we all know and use today, onto his watches.

In the 1880s Heuer recognised that many sporting competitions had began to expand and needed a accurate chronograph to record the time of these. The company responded to this and began to create chronographs in large quantities and soon became a status symbol for enthusiasts of horse and greyhound racing.

1887 Edouard invented the first oscillating pinion, something that is still used today in many Chronographs. This oscillating pinion allows the chronograph to start and stop instantly with the use of a push button.

In the 1900s as cars and plane travel began to take off, Heuer once again identified a gap in the market and created his ‘Time of Trip’ a precision chronograph that was fixed to the dash of the car or plane. It showed the time of the day and also allowed the driver to start and stop another dial that would record the time of the trip.

1914 saw the rise of the wristwatch and Heuer took their pocket watches and evolved them to be used on the wrist. Soon in 1916 sports demanded that timing was more accurate, Charles-Auguste Heuer (son of Edouard), had continued in his fathers footsteps and leading the company. He led a project that took the stopwatches from 1/5 second to being able to show displays of 1/50 of a second on the Mikrograph and even 1/100 of a second on the Semikrograph. Making Heuer's stopwatches so reliable and the leading choice to be used for sporting events including the 1920 Olympic Games.

Into the 1930s and Heuer introduced more watches aimed at racing and sports people. Timers designed for groups and types of people such as the aviation and automotor industry. Timers such as the Autavia, was introduced. It was a 12 hour stopwatch that went into the dashboard. Racers and pilots, gentlemen and sportsmen selected this to best suit their needs, combining the dials with a second dial with the time on.

In 1935 Heuer introduced a two register chronograph into their collection. It was aimed at pilots and was called the Flieger. The Flieger had a rotating bezel, enabling time to be marked (target time), and the early models had a single pusher that controlled the start and stop sequence of the chronograph. Later a second pusher was added to enable stop and start sequence without having to reset the chronograph.

Soon after in 1942 Heuer introduced a three register chronograph, with the third recorder providing timing for up to 12 hours. This soon got enhanced and the movement was soon used for triple calendar chronographs (showing the day, date and month) as well as moon phase chronographs. At the end of the 1940s the chronograph had changed and was being used for sports, travelers and other watch enthusiasts. Some watches were able to track the tide, moon, speed over a measured distance or even another time zone.

At the end of the 1950s, Jack Heuer took over Ed. Heuer & Co. S.A. as the forth generation leader, and under his lead they discontinued sales of the traditional wrist watch to concentrate on making chronographs, stopwatches and dashboard timing instruments. Jack took the Heuer brand into all forms of motor sports, amateur to the Ferrari Formula One team. Throughout the next few decades the Heuer brand went through lots innovation and became the tool for adventures and sports, such as motor racing, yachting and football. A Heuer wrist watch became the first swiss made watch into space.

From 1969 to the 1980s Heuer watch designs changed from being the monotone colours of the 1960s into the bright and vibrant colours of the 1970s. Heuer introduced many new watch models including the Autavia, Carrera and Monaco. The Monaco model was in the spot light straight away with its fun coloured dials and modern square waterproof case. It quickly became a popular favourite. Heuer continued to innovate and furthered enhancements to their track timers, being used by the Ferrari Racing Team, pioneering the chronographs in this field. Heuer began to create other watches in fun interesting and forward thinking designs including the Manhattan, a 6 sided cased watch. Heuer continued to refine their designs and soon had a catalogue of beautiful designs. At the end of the 1970 Heuer introduced a collection of dive watches, offering rugged models with black, orange, luminous, olive or pewter dials from 28-42mm cases. These watches were made with either an automatic or quartz movement.

In 1985 the Heuer Company were purchased by the TAG Group, and the name was changed to the brand we all know today Tag Heuer. From within the 1980s Tag Heuer began making watches for the 21^st century, with many models still being made in todays Tag Heuer catalog. Models include Series 2000 Divers watch and the Formula One.

Moving forward in to the 1990s, Tag began to reconnect to their classic roots and redevelop the brands classic chronograph designs, re-launching the Carrera and the Monaco. In 1999, LMVH bought Tag Heuer and brought Jack Heuer back into the business as the companies Honorary Chairman.

Continuing into the 2000s, Tag Heuer would develop new movements and constructions to their watches including into the Monaco V4, with its tribute to a racing engine. Tag also introduced the Aquaracer line as a tribute to Heuer first generation of Dive watches. Looking towards the future as well as the past in 2015 Tag Heuer Release the first Swiss luxury smartwatch.

2019 marked the 50^th Anniversary of the Tag Monaco watch and offered a series of 5 limited edition versions.

Tag Heuer continue to innovate and follow the times, we look forward to seeing what the future will hold for them and how they continue to mix the new with the old.