For some, the Red Devils are the Belgian National football team. In fact, at the time of writing, just over a week after the 2018 FIFA World Cup final, if you type Red Devils into Google, you will be taken straight to Google’s own World Cup page with the results of the Belgian team. For hundreds of millions of fans worldwide, however, the Red Devils are Manchester United. The team is currently on its pre-season tour of the United States and TAG Heuer, which is about to start its third season as official timekeeper of the Red Devils, chose the occasion to present two new models in the club’s colours.
The colour red naturally features on both models and dominates the Carrera Heuer 01 chronograph thanks to a perforated red rubber strap, red chapter ring and red SuperLuminova inserts on the hands. The team’s crest is printed on the background of the small seconds counter at 9 o’clock (in red) and the team name in capital letters replaces the “Tachymeter” that usually precedes the graduated scale of the same name around the bezel. The red devil appears more prominently on the sapphire crystal case back, where he is seen as part of the team crest beneath a ship (the ship was taken from the city of Manchester’s coat of arms, which dates back to 1842, while the red devil was not added to the crest until 1970).
The Formula 1 model incorporates the touches of red in a subtler way. On this chronograph, the tachymeter scale keeps its usual appellation and has bold black numerals. The strap is also black and the dial background is the same anthracite colour as the Carrera Heuer 01 model. But the applied hour markers and hands are all polished, facetted and rhodium plated with red SuperLuminova inserts. An oversized 12 dominates the upper half of the dial, with the team crest printed on the small seconds counter at 6 o’clock. Since the Formula 1 is powered by a quartz movement, there is no sapphire crystal case back. The club crest has therefore been elegantly embossed on to the solid stainless-steel case back, which also helps to ensure water resistance of 200 metres.
Whether on the pre-season tour in the USA, at the first home game against Leicester on 10th August, or on the team’s own MUTV channel, these two new watches will no doubt quickly gain exposure to fans of the multi-billion-dollar brand that is Manchester United. It’s just as well that they are not limited editions.
