TAG Heuer is teaming up with the Porsche Club of America to celebrate the club’s 55th anniversary by offering a 55-piece limited edition Monaco, a watch strongly associated with sports cars and automobile racing. In preparing to shoot Le Mans, Steve McQueen’s primary inspiration was his friend Jo Siffert, the Swiss racing legend who in 1969 became the first driver ever sponsored by a watch brand: Heuer. McQueen insisted on wearing Heuer’s then newly-released Monaco in the film. Today the Monaco is one of the most recognizable watches in the world.

Celebrating 55 years of the PCA, executive director Vu T.H. Nguyen and Georg Bartkowiak, member of the Porsche Club of Germany and CEO of luxury watch brand Grieb & Benzinger, undertook this project. The watch features a special dial with red and black rally stripes and the racing number “55,” as well as the PCA`s logo engraved on the back. The black leather strap with racing holes and red stitching is unique to this piece and not available at retail. The watch, priced at $5500, is only available through the PCA. Orders can be placed now at www.PCA-TAG.com. Deliveries are projected for September.

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To mark its 150th anniversary, TAG Heuer will re-issue the Silverstone Chronograph in February 2010 as a limited edition piece. Originally introduced in 1974, the Silverstone is instantly recognizable by its cushion cut-shaped case. Named for the famous racing circuit in England, the Silverstone followed the Monaco, incorporating TAG’s patented technical breakthroughs that made waterproof square and barrel-shaped cases possible.

For the Silverstone, TAG Heuer’s design team softened the Monaco’s angles. Both the original Monaco and Silverstone housed the Chronomatic Caliber 11, the first self-winding automatic chronograph with micro-rotor. Before the Caliber 11, chronographs were hand-wound and watchmakers placed the crown at 3 o’clock for easy access. Caliber 11 freed TAG Heuer’s designers from this constraint, and Jack Heuer decided to place the crown of the Monaco and Silverstone at 9 o’clock. The reborn Silverstone is powered by an updated version of the Caliber 11 with Dubois-Depraz module.

Available with a rich blue or brown dial on a matching, perforated alligator strap, the Silverstone is available in a limited worldwide quantity of 1,500 pieces per color. It will retail for about $6,500.

In 2004, TAG Heuer created the revolutionary Monaco V4 Concept Watch. Inspired by the brand’s motor racing heritage (the watch’s name comes from the racing-engine-like V-formation of the movement’s four barrels), the V4 uses ball bearings and is belt-driven – a totally new type of watch movement. The Monaco V4 is the first mechanical watch movement to replace traditional pinions with driving belts. The pinions of the traditional mechanical movement have been replaced with a relay of five driving belts whose tension is controlled by turnbuckles.

A unique linear automatic winding system is used to reload energy. The oscillating weight which generally supplies the energy for an automatic watch has been replaced by a linear oscillating weight. In the Monaco V4 this is a 12g tungsten ingot that moves up and down on a track between the four spring barrels. The system of teeth on the long side of the weight engages a toothed wheel and translates the linear movement into a rotating movement.

The movement’s energy is provided by four barrels in 2-by-2 series and linked to a differential with a V-shaped bridge. Each barrel delivers 4 N.mm of energy. The barrels are mounted in a V-shape (at 15° in respect to the dial). The barrels are held directly onto the bottom plate, allowing the movement to be visible from below. It is this unique design component that gives the Monaco V4 its automobile-sounding name.

TAG Heuer has donated Monaco V4 No. 1 from a limited series of 150 pieces to be offered on September 24 at the Only Watch auction conducted by Patrizzi & Co. during the Monaco Yacht Show. The auction enjoys the high patronage of HSH Prince Albert II, and all proceeds of the sale go to support research into Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

Technical details
TAG Heuer Monaco V4 No.1
Only Watch 2009

Transmission: 5 notched belts (smallest 0.25 x 0.07mm, largest 0.20 x 0.5 mm)

Energy: 4 barrels delivering 4 N.mm of energy

Automatic winding system: Linear oscillating weight: 12g tungsten ingot

Movement features: 28,800 vibrations per hour, small second at 4.30

Watch features: Platinum case, beveled sapphire glass, alligator strap with folding buckle

TAG Heuer has launched a new comprehensive customer service website. The intuitively-designed site provides owners with a variety of important information about their timepiece, including care and use issues such as winding, cleaning, and use in water. The site also contains warranty and service information, describing in detail the operations that are performed when a watch is sent in for service.

Owners can use the site to locate local authorized agents or to arrange to send their watch directly to TAG Heuer for service. The site also presents information about care and restoration of vintage watches, a glossary, and TAG Heuer trivia. You can visit the site at www.tagheuer.com/customerservice.

Antiquorum’s June 11 auction in New York will include timepieces associated with American icons including Steve McQueen, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Frank Sinatra, and others, well as collector pieces including a Patek Philippe Ref. 1436 dating to 1941, a mid-1990s Patek Ref. 3970, and an A. Lange & Söhne Tourbillon “Pour le Mérite” produced in 1996.

Steve McQueen fans will have opportunities to bid on 2 wristwatches associated with the actor: the TAG Heuer Monaco worn during the filming of Le Mans, and a Rolex Submariner Ref. 5512 given by Steve McQueen to his good friend Jimmy Brucker. McQueen’s Von Dutch motorcycle is also included in the sale. The TAG Heuer and Rolex timepieces are estimated at $10,000 to $20,000, while the Von Dutch is estimated at $80,000 to $120,000.

Previews will be held June 5 at Hours Minutes Seconds at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, and at Antiquorum’s Madison Avenue headquarters in Manhattan June 7-11. For further information about this sale, visit Antiquorum.com.

You may click the images below to view larger versions. Additional images are available at Antiquorum.com.

FDR’s Movado…

Rolex 5512 given by Steve McQueen…

TAG Heuer Monaco worn in Le Mans…

At Baselworld 2009 TAG Heuer unveiled the Aquaracer 500. The numeric designation reflects guaranteed water resistance to 500 meters. The 43mm watch features an automatic helium release valve and a sapphire crystal and case back in a case that took 4 years to develop. A cyclops lens magnifies the date at 3, and luminescent markers on the numbers and hands improve legibility in low or no light. Steel models feature a steel and rubber bezel. Buckles feature a push-button clasp and diver’s extension. Bracelets offer half-links providing a wider range of adjustment. An ETA automatic caliber 2836-2 ticks below the dial.

Available with black dial on rubber strap, silver dial with steel bracelet or rubber strap, or blue dial with steel bracelet at $2450. For a step up, chose the steel model with a solid 18 karat 5N rose gold bezel, with 18 grams of gold, at $3650. A quartz version is also available, priced at $1950. All models are available now.