PARIS — Irrespective of how winding the Formulation 1 monitor will get in Monaco, Tag Heuer gained’t be lacking a flip.
The Swiss watchmaker has been named the title companion of the Might 25 race that can now be formally often known as Formulation 1 Tag Heuer Grand Prix de Monaco, marking the primary time it has been related to a model.
The watchmaker’s title will probably be writ massive, with a particular emblem created for the event, with visibility together with trackside signage throughout city.
And naturally, it is going to already be current on the paddocks’ clocks — formed just like the model’s square-shaped Monaco design — from the opening race in Melbourne in March.
Tag Heuer returned as official timekeeper for the elite motorsport on Jan. 1 as a part of a world 10-year partnership with father or mother group LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton that additionally contains Louis Vuitton and Champagne home Moët & Chandon.
Michel Boeri, president of the Vehicle Membership de Monaco, mentioned the group’s “admiration and respect for Tag Heuer is reiterated” via this new settlement, a continuation of a “fantastic relationship” of almost 15 years.
“Because the watch synonymous with motorsport and the best drivers within the historical past of Formulation 1, it’s only pure that the Vehicle Membership de Monaco would select to be indelibly related with Tag Heuer,” he continued.
Chief government officer Antoine Pin deemed Monaco the watchmaker’s “religious house,” a metropolis that embodied the model’s spirit of competitors, quest for efficiency and pushing one’s limits when it comes to psychological resilience in addition to bodily prowess.
Steve McQueen and Ayrton Senna, sporting Tag Heuer timepieces.
Courtesy of Tag Heuer
“We’re the model that represents the very notion of chronography,” he mentioned. “The Carrera [watch], the Monaco [watch] have been born chronographs as a result of efficiency and its measure are what has carried the home.”
Besides, that is one for the books, he mentioned.
“Being the title companion in Monaco is a supply of delight as a result of it’s important to be acknowledged by many to get this title,” he informed WWD solely. “That is acknowledgement of the legitimacy of the home from our friends, from all spheres — political, sports activities and luxurious — so we may be happy with it. Now we should rise to the problem and be worthy of the belief we got.”
A key level will probably be balancing the glamorous nature of the “most symbolic race of Formulation 1” with the rising recognition of the game.
Formulation 1 drew 6 million race attendees and a cumulative TV viewers of 1.5 billion final 12 months, as reported. The typical viewers per race is round 70 million, however some could high the 100 million mark, whereas the social media tally of the competitors has handed 60 million followers throughout all its platforms.
Youthful viewership can be surging, fueled by the Netflix collection “Drive to Survive” and “Senna.”
“This pushes us to be extra inventive, extra exacting in execution to make sure that the better quantity can share on this distinctive second,” the manager continued, though he demurred on particulars of activations across the racing weekend. “It’s a virtuous circle the place the extra you give, the extra you need to share.”
Plus the Formulation 1 weekend gained’t be the one spotlight in Monaco for Tag Heuer. The watchmaker will proceed its affiliation with the Grand Prix de Monaco Historique, devoted to classic cars, with the 2026 race.
It’s going to additionally turn into the companion of the Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique, a rallying occasion devoted to vehicles that took half in prior races between 1911 and 1983, as a part of its ongoing multiyear take care of the Vehicle Membership de Monaco.
Serving as official timekeeper of Formulation 1 for a second time can be recognition of Tag Heuer’s longstanding affiliation with aggressive motorsports.
“We’re inseparably linked to the self-discipline,” mentioned heritage director Nicholas Biebuyck. “At first of the twentieth century, it was precision chronographs that will outline who gained and who misplaced — one of many market leaders was Heuer.”
The watchmaker returned as timekeeper on Jan. 1.
Courtesy of Tag Heuer
The onset of its golden period within the Sixties underneath then-CEO Jack Heuer’s tenure coincided with the start of Formulation 1. The watchmaker grew to become the primary luxurious model to have its emblem on a race automotive in 1969 and sponsor a group in 1971. The Swiss watchmaker served as the game’s official timekeeper from 1992 to 2003.
Over the many years, it partnered with outstanding racing groups Scuderai Ferrarai, McLaren and, most just lately, Oracle Purple Bull Racing. Tag Heuer linked with the group in 2016 and prolonged the contract for a “important” period of time in 2023, although phrases weren’t disclosed.
And with 239 wins, 613 podiums, 11 World Constructors’ Championships and 15 World Drivers’ Championships via its associations with groups over the course of 75 years, Tag Heuer is nothing lower than “essentially the most profitable model in Formulation 1, second solely to Ferrari,” based on Biebuyck.
To not point out that “mainly, each main driver within the sport had an official connection to Tag Heuer in some unspecified time in the future of their profession,” he added, reeling off names that included Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.
Past the racetracks, 2025 will probably be about exploring Tag Heuer’s “pure territory of expression” in precision engineering, cutting-edge expertise and avant-garde supplies afresh for the CEO.
With watch traces named Formulation 1 and Monaco, there’s a raft of novelties to come back all year long, together with throughout Might’s race weekend.
The model began the 12 months with a brand new case design and particulars reflecting the aerodynamic traces of the vehicles for its Formulation 1 Chronograph assortment at January’s LVMH Watch Week. Different evolutions on this household are anticipated to drop at Watches & Wonders in Geneva in April.
The watch honest will probably be “the crystallization of our model imaginative and prescient and narrative,” for Pin. “Will probably be a second that reveals a really coherent course in time whereas permitting us to elucidate this paradox of [a watch as] a machine that creates emotion.”