TAG Heuer and Porsche together!

Text: Britta Rossander

TAG Heuer's creative director, Guy Bove, and his team have created yet another fantastic watch: Tag Heuer Carrera Porsche Chronograph Special Edition Calibre Heuer 02 Automatic. Now they have done it together with Porsche. The companies have to a large extent a shared history. Two histories full of innovation from the entrepreneurship of two visionary families. It is the hunt for precision and performance that has been and is their guiding principle. So now Tag Heuer and Porsche are making common cause in earnest.

Frédric Arnault, 26 years old and CEO of Tag Heuer, pointed out at the digital press briefing on the 4th of February that as companies they share both history and values. And Detlev von Platen from Porsche said:

– I am more than happy that we are now taking the next step towards a strategic partnership.

Porsche

Both companies were founded by strong entrepreneurs. For example Heuer was behind the first factory-made chronograph in 1889 and Porsche behind an electric wheel hub motor in 1900. Ferdinand Porsche's son, Ferdinand Anton Ernst ”Ferry”, came into the business in 1931. And in 1948 he named the company with the family name.

Within a few years Porsche would be associated with success all over the world – including a win in the Carrera Panamericana race in 1954. After that their most powerful engine was given the name ”Carrera”.  

Jack Heuer

Edouard Heuer's grandson, Jack, created the first Heuer Carrera chronograph in 1963. So it came about that Heuer's watch and Porsche's engine united them.  When I had lunch with Jack in La-Chaud-de-Fonds a few years ago he told the story about F1. Here comes a clip from that conversation:

– I have actually been in Stockholm once, it was  when I was 15 years old (1949). We drove and had to have a pilot through Hamburg because the city was so bombed out after the war.

During the stay in Stockholm the Heuer family had dinner at Operakällaren and the host was Heuer's distributor in Sweden, who was showing good results for the sales of Heuer watches even then.

How did it come about that you led Heuer into timekeeping for cars in the F1 circus?

– Through the fact that I was well acquainted with the Swiss brewer Blancpain (same name as the watch brand but not the same family) who stayed in St Tropez during the summers. He sponsored Formula 1 and the driver Joe Seiffert, he thought that we should go in too.

– Via Blacpain I met the members of the Automobile Club in Monte Carlo, our brand opened the doors wide. We made the best chronographs and who was it that wore them – well, the racing drivers. In these contexts I also met your Prince Bertil, he was acquainted with Blacpain. They had the same big interest in cars and lived not far from each other. I once gave your motor prince a watch that I think he wore quite diligently.

Racing icons

– I met Joe Siffert for the first time together with Blacpain on a putting green in Freiburg in 1968. He was a great talent and a hero in Switzerland.

You do make watches after all, why can't you go in and sponsor Siffert too, said Blacpain.

– Ok, I said to Joe: you get a chronograph and I get our logo on the nose of your car. And so it was.

– We had after all more or less all the drivers visiting the factory in Bienne but Siffert was the one who was there most often there. He came from poor circumstances and had learned the fine art of ”hustling”. One day Clay Regazzoni told Siffert that they were going to Longines to look at watches. Why on earth in all peace go to them – it is to Heuer you should go said Siffert and so they did.

Heuer and F1

He also got to buy watches at cost price, then he then sold them on to drivers and mechanics in all the teams, which resulted in more or less everyone within F1 wearing Heuer watches.

– Siffert was after all a ladies' man and a real gentleman. When he died in 1971 I wanted to stop with the collaboration – it was so empty after him. But four months after his passing Gilles Liard published a book about Siffert's life with a picture on the cover where he has our logo on his overall and that set the ball rolling again.

– Ronnie Peterson I met several times and he was really a nice guy, and much better than many of the other drivers. He never drove Ferrari in F1 unfortunately, which means that he never got an engraved gold watch from us. Imagine what an honour it would have been for us if he had had one and we could have been able to show it off in our museum.

Jack left the company as early as 1982 to work within technology for medical needs – it became almost 20 years.

– When LVMH bought Tag Heuer, a humble CEO, Jean Christophe Babin (nowadays CEO at Bvlgari) got in touch with me, listened to what input I had for new models and asked if I wanted to come back. I said yes and I have never regretted it.

In 2019 Porsche created its own Formula E team with TAG Heuer as title and timing partner and thereby marked, with a proper push off, a long-term collaboration.

Tag Heuer Carrera Porsche Chronograph

Tag Heuer Carrera Porsche Chronograph Special Edition is drawn by Guy Bove and team. Guy, with a background at IWC, Chopard, and Breitling + a few special assignments for independent brands – is an outstandingly skilled designer of watches and is counted among the very best.

The Porsche colours red, black and grey recur throughout the watch and through the sapphire crystal of the case back you can see the black rotor which has the shape of a steering wheel in a Porsche Carrera S. The dial has been given an asphalt-like surface.

The tachymeter scale is in black ceramica, the movement is the Caliber Heuer 02 with an 80-hour power reserve and the case is in polished steel (44 mm), the water resistance is 100 m and there are bracelets in both steel and leather – the latter with stitching à la the stitching inside a Porsche.

The distribution will be very slimmed down. In Sweden it is to Krons in Stockholm or Klockmaster Hansson in Gothenburg that you should go for ”touch and feel”.