TAG HEUER

The company we now know as TAG Heuer traces its history to 1860 and its founder Edouard Heuer; “TAG” would be added to the family business’s name in 1985, when the Techniques d’Avant Garde (TAG) Group obtained a majority share. Many, albeit not all, of the firm’s most influential and memorable watches were born in the pre-TAG era, the brainchildren of founding family scion and former CEO Jack Heuer, who ramped up the brand’s involvement in motorsports and race timing. Foremost among these are the Carrera, launched in 1964 and named after a treacherous road race; and the Monaco, inspired by the Monaco Grand Prix and famously worn by Steve McQueen in the 1971 auto-racing movie Le Mans. TAG Heuer has also dabbled in aviation-style watches, with the Autavia, and driving watches, with the Aquaracer. While mechanical watches, many of them chronographs, remain at the core of TAG Heuer’s identity, the “Avant Garde” aspect has not been forgotten: TAG Heuer was one of the first traditional Swiss watchmakers to enter the smartwatch arena, launching its multi-purpose and versatile TAG Heuer Connected Watch in 2015 and offering updated and optimized versions of it in the subsequent years..

Founded: 1860

Headquarters: La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland

Ownership: LVMH Group

Notable models: Carrera, Monaco, Aquaracer, Autavia

Did you know: TAG Heuer was one of the few watch brands outside of Rolex, Omega, and Seiko to be worn in a James Bond movie: Timothy Dalton wore a quartz-powered TAG Heuer Night Diver model in 1987’s “The Living Daylights.”