Just In Time For The Monaco Grand Prix, It’s The TAG Heuer Monaco Speed 12

F1 season’s in full swing and while every race has its own character, winning at Monaco is, as Charles LeClerc once said, something special. The circuit, said Lewis Hamilton, presents its own unique challenges:

“As long as you win Monaco, that’s the one. In my ten years of Formula One, I’ve only won here once. This is my second time. Every year, it feels like this is your Achilles heel. You almost have it and then you don’t. It’s such a hard race to win.”

The Monaco watch may have achieved pop culture status when Steve McQueen wore one in the 1971 film Le Mans, but it’s the intricacy of the circuit that inspired what was, in 1969, a major technical milestone – the movement was the Caliber 11, one of a group of three of the first automatic chronograph movements, all launched the same year (the other two were from Seiko, and Zenith). Not only was the automatic chronograph a major breakthrough, the square case required advanced gaskets to make it water resistant, since the gaskets had to be the same shape as the case.

With the Monaco Grand Prix being held this weekend, TAG Heuer has introduced a new, complicated, and surprisingly, non-chronograph version of the watch, which was produced in collaboration with Louis Vuitton Manufacture Fabrique du Temps. Fabrique du Temps is where Louis Vuitton’s Spin Time complication was developed – the Spin Time uses rotating cubes as hour markers, with each “time cube” rotating to bring the correct numeral into view (the complication also lends itself to variations like a Spin Time World Time complication).  Here, the complication has been adapted to a racing motif.

As with other Spin Time watches, there’s no hour hand, and just a single minute hand. The time cubes have been modified to look like cylinder heads, and the overall motif, says TAG Heuer, is meant to be reminiscent of 12 cylinder engines. If you’re an F1 fan, of course you’ll know that F1 banned V12 engines in 2000, and that the last time one was actually used was in 1995, but you could argue that in 1969 there were at least a couple of V12s in Grand Prix racing (one of them from Ferrari, no less) so at least the Speed 12 has history on its side.

By the numbers, in size and shape at least, it’s still instantly recognized as a Monaco: 40mm, in Grade 5 titanium, with a titanium crown, and 30M water resistance; grade 5 titanium’s used for the strap as well. Although announced just ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix, it won’t be available until December – but if you pick yours up in time, you’ll be able to wear it to the last race of the season, in Abu Dhabi.

The TAG Heuer Monaco Speed 12: case, crown, and buckle in grade 5 titanium; 30M water resistant. Movement, caliber TH84-00 developed at La Fabrique du Temps, based on the Spin Time complication; openworked dial with rotating hour “pistons” with rhodium plating. US price at launch, $87,000; limited to 50 pieces world wide.

The 1916 Company is proud to be an authorized retailer for TAG Heuer watches; contact us for pricing and availability.