What is TAG Heuer made of?

9 minutes read
“Even in gold and set with diamonds, a TAG Heuer model symbolizes performance as much as prestige!” Jean- Christophe Babin, CEO of TAG Heuer, likes to make provocative statements.

INTERVIEW with JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BABIN, PReSIDENT and CEO of Tag Heuer

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Jean-Christophe Babin.

«What is TAG Heuer made of?»

"Since its creation in 1860 by Edouard Heuer in Saint- Imier, TAG Heuer has asserted itself as the reference in prestigious sports watches and chronographs. Whether as Official Timekeeper for the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp, or 83 years later as Official Timekeeper for the Formula 1 World Championship; its selection by the International Olympic Committee and seventy years later by the FIA confirms its unique know-how and its perfect mastery of precision to within thousandths of a second."
This constancy and this obsession with perfection now enable TAG Heuer to hold fourth rank in the international luxury watch market. An important status for brand devotees who interpret this position as a guarantee of enduring success and perceive our models as exceptional and timeless watches. Timelessness is an essential characteristic of prestigious watch brands. It is the capacity to draw on our roots in propelling ourselves forward, while respecting those roots. "Brands become eternal by a combination of these two factors. Twenty years ago, we were perhaps the fortieth worldwide brand and tomorrow, we will perhaps become the third, while retaining our corporate philosophy geared towards prestige and performance and our obsession with quality and innovation", explains Jean-Christophe Babin.

THREE DARING AND TIMELESS PRODUCT LINES

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Link Calibre 36.
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The new Carrera (2002).
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Ladies 2000 gold.

THREE DARING AND TIMELESS PRODUCT LINES

Prestige and performance are also conveyed through our three product lines.
First of all, our "Professional Sports Watches" represent the core of the brand and express its sporting heritage in a contemporary manner, combining sporting functions with daring yet timeless designs. Conceived in the early 1980s by Jack Heuer, great-grandson of the founder Edouard Heuer and still Honorary Chairman of TAG Heuer, the "2000 series" provides unique characteristics for prestige sports and particularly for diving. For the new Aquagraph model we are launching in Basel this year, our watchmakers have made a radical innovation in developing the TAG Heuer automatic Caliber 60 movement through close cooperation between professional divers and our watchmakers. Moreover, we have equipped this model with three features that are unique on the market: pushbuttons that are operational at a depth of 500 meters; a major patented innovation in the form of a revolutionary self-locking unidirectional bezel; and an automatic helium vent for decompression chambers. These innovations and patents make the 2000 Aquagraph a new benchmark in the prestigious and precision oriented world of diving.
The "Link" series introduced in 1987 and characterized by its S-shaped bracelet focuses on style and elegance, while also endowed with the same performances as a timekeeper in the "2000 series". This year, its design has been fine-tuned to confirm it even more strongly as the symbol of prestige sports watches. This is the model that Tiger Woods wears proudly on a daily basis and in our new advertising campaign. The third line, "Kirium", designed by Jörg Hysek and developed with David Coulthard, features a contemporary, minimalist design along with extremely avant-garde components such as titanium cases, carbon dials or digital and analog movements inspired by the famous TAG Heuer Microsplit Manhattan launched in 1975.
Alongside the "Professional Sports Watches", TAG Heuer has a line of "Legendary Classics" made up of the brand's most prestigious and sporting icons created in the 1930s, 60s and 70s, such as the famous Monaco worn by Steve McQueen, which retains its daring, contemporary design. This is also true of the "Monza" created in the 1930s and distinguished by a cushion-shaped case symbolic of this period. This model was endowed last year with a remarkable chronometer-certified automatic column-wheel chronograph movement, Caliber 36, which measures time to the nearest 1/10th of a second and makes this a truly unique model merging legends and sports with high-end watchmaking. Another timeless icon, the famous "Carrera", was redesigned in 2002 with the help of Jack Heuer, who invented it in 1964. "We have fitted it with an automatic chronograph movement, Caliber 17, and redesigned the case and dial while

FASTER THAN THE MARKET

Having decided to develop the brand faster than the market, Jean-Christophe Babin, his watchmakers and his team of designers headed by Ross Lovegrove, are working simultaneously in several directions.
Innovation. "We constantly offer watches with new functions, new movements and new designs, while bearing in mind their functional and aesthetic roles."
Quality. "We accompany our consumers over the years, partly by modernizing our lines, and also by guaranteeing them total reliability and the possibility of repairing their watches at any time, to the point of keeping 5 million spare parts from former models in our customer care service centers."
Legitimacy. "We are building on a strong history of 143 years of innovations and on our watchmaking knowhow to develop new products which in turn enrich the history of horology to which TAG Heuer has made significant contributions since 1860."
Communication. "From Fangio to Tiger Woods, we have always steered the same course, that of prestige, performance and passion, now expressed through the "What are you made of?" advertising campaign.”

THE DREAM OF TOP SPORTS PERSONALITIES

TAG Heuer ambassadors, such as Marion Jones, Tiger Woods or David Coulthard, are all involved in the creation of new models. "We choose top-flight sports personalities and we ask them to imagine a dream watch but which they can't yet find on the market. Their dream is then "spelled out" in technical and aesthetic terms by our watchmakers and designers who translate these specifications into a unique and timeless watch: that is how things went for the Kirium Ti5 developed with McLaren-Mercedes, the F1 Micrograph developed with David Coulthard, and the Link Caliber 36 developed with Nick Dougherty, and more recently, Tiger Woods. These champions are extremely demanding and the watches they dream of and lead us to design are particularly tailored for sport. Prestige sports enthusiasts naturally covet three models, inspired by sport and for sport", explains Jean-Christophe Babin.

TIGER WOODS AND GOLF AS A NEW SOURCE OF SPORTING INSPIRATION FOR TAG HEUER

TAG Heuer_334750_4The latest member of the team of TAG Heuer ambassadors is world no. 1 golfer Tiger Woods. Why Tiger Woods?
Because Tiger Woods and TAG Heuer are leaders in their respective professions and share several core values. Beyond the realm of golf, Tiger Woods is one of the greatest sports champions of all time. Through his style and his results, he is the perfect illustration of the key increasing its water-resistance to 50 meters, thanks to a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal. The new Carrera thus boasts all the qualities of a contemporary high-end automatic chronograph, while losing nothing of the original spirit of this mythical watch worn by most Formula 1 racing-drivers in the 1970s", explains Jean- Christophe Babin.
These products are not mere replicas, but genuine reinterpretations of the brand's emblematic products. Indeed, great brands are built on icons; they are a reflection of history and a proof of timelessness.
Finally, our "Feminine Series". In conjunction with Roberto Ventrella, we have developed a TAG Heuer watch that pays tribute to women of character and is exclusively dedicated to them: "Alter Ego". Alter Ego is the expression of the strength and beauty of the woman for whom it was designed; this strength and beauty are conveyed through the subtle association of a bracelet with resolutely taut lines which blends seamlessly into a curving, round and very sensual case distinguished by its famous windingcrown positioned at 4 o'clock. Nonetheless, it remains water-resistant to 100 meters, as one would expect from a sports watch.
In parallel, we offer ladies versions of the "Link" and "2000" lines, with extremely creative interpretations featuring dials and bracelets that may be adorned in mother-of-pearl and diamonds to pay tribute to the nobility and grace of sport and of femininity. The 2000 automatic with its pale blue guilloché dial worn by Marion Jones and Inès Sastre is a perfect illustration of this approach.

TAG Heuer values. He is the embodiment of performance, integrity and the competitive spirit. These assets make him the ideal ambassador for TAG Heuer and a marvelous source of inspiration for the brand's master-watchmakers who find themselves confronted with new challenges!

"The priority in 2003 is to focus on our partnership with Tiger Woods and to cooperate with him in developing a watch dedicated to golf and to its specific characteristics in terms of time measurement and performance."
Tiger Woods and golf in general are thus becoming the second pillar of TAG Heuer's sporting inspiration, alongside Formula 1 motor-racing, for which the brand has been Official Timekeeper since 1992, after making its debut in the sport with Swiss driver Jo Siffert in 1969 and continuing in the 1970s with the Scuderia Ferrari and its legendary drivers such as Niki Lauda, Clay Regazzoni or Gilles Villeneuve. TAG Heuer was also Official Timekeeper for the World Alpine Skiing Championships at St. Moritz in 2003, as well as one of the major protagonists in the famous Louis Vuitton Cup, having supplied the official chronograph to the Oracle-BMW crew who were finalists in this prestigious competition alongside the Swiss challenge, Alinghi.

For TAG Heuer, sport is a genuine source of inspiration from which we draw our ideas and our watchmaking innovations. It defines the brand territory and contributes to the uniqueness and prestige of our models.

A SELECTIVE AND EXCLUSIVE DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY

Prestige and performance are two constant factors that are also clearly apparent in terms of distribution. "We had more than 8,000 retailers worldwide in 1999 compared with only 5,600 in 2003, despite opening new markets such as China, India and Russia, and while continuing to achieve steady growth in turnover. We want both a high-quality environment and a total commitment to TAG Heuer", emphasises Jean-Christophe Babin. "In parallel, TAG Heuer is continuing to assert itself through a network of some fifteen exclusive boutiques intended to reinforce the brand values and style in strategic cities on five continents (London, Sydney, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, New York, Tokyo, Beijing, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangkok, Dubai...). The brand also has a traveling boutique located in the Paddock Clubs of Formula 1 Grand Prix racing circuits, which visits fifteen countries each year for three days at a time, offering a range of exclusive products to a select clientele.

INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTIAN WEISSBACH

TAG Heuer President / China TAG Heuer enters the Chinese market (July 2002)China's newly acquired membership in the WTO and the growth in its economy have created an increasingly favorable climate for the consumption of luxury goods products. The watch market is developing fast; consumers long accustomed to traditional brands are now seeking diversity and have become more demanding.
TAG Heuer thus decided to launch into this promising market in July 2002. As the world's premier prestigious sports brand, TAG Heuer will be able to capitalize on the steadily increasing value of sport in China. Shanghai will be opening its Formula 1 racing track to competition as of 2004 and Beijing is already preparing to host the Olympic Games in 2008.

 

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Opening of the TAG Heuer boutique in Beijing (October 2002).

The distribution network will be highly selective and will focus on the major cities: a first franchise boutique was opened in Beijing in October 2002 in the Wang Fu Xing pedestrian street and the presence of TAG Heuer in these points of sale will need to be very visible. Corners are already installed in more than 50% of points of sale opened thus far.

TAG Heuer has decided to make China a priority market and communication investments will be on a par with these ambitions. TAG Heuer already has a number of key assets in addition to the specific field of its rich sporting heritage, including the support of local celebrities such as Zhang Ziyi who starred in the Oscar-winning film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", and more recently in "The Hero".
TAG Heuer has also invested in customer care centers with a central service center in Beijing.

Tribune des Arts - Numéro spécial TAG Heuer - avril 2003

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