A Short History of a Premium Watch - TAG Heuer

You may have thought that TAG Heuer was a manufacturer of watches. Of course they do make watches but they also produce fashion accessories eyewear and mobile phones.

This article will focus on their long history of making watches tracing their roots back to 1860 in St Imier Switzerland by the Heuer Watchmaking Company. They are now headquartered and manufacture in La Chaux-de- Fonds, Switzerland. Here patented their first chronograph in 1862 and in 1867 patented an oscillating pinion still being used in mechanical chronograph watches

It wasn’t until 1914 Heuer produced their first wrist chronograph patterned after the pocket watch chronograph. Shortly thereafter they introduced the “Multigraph” with

1/100-second accuracy and the “Semikrograph", a stopwatch that offered 1/50 of a

second timing, as well as a split-second function (which allows the user to

determine the interval between two contestants or events).

In the mid 1940;s Heuer expanded the chronograph line to both two and three

register models including a full functional calendar with three registers

(day/date/month)

In the 1950;s Heuer produced two watch lines (the Seafarer and the Auto-Graph.)

for Abercrombie-Fitch the American retailer. The Sea fairer had three registers

colored blue, green and yellow to track the tides and the phases of the moon.

During the 50’s and 60’s Heuer was the major producer (by volume of sales) of

stopwatches and timers and became popular in auto racing among drivers and

crewmembers. In 1962 Heuer was the first watchmaker in Space being worn by

John Glenn in the Mercury Atlas 6 spacecraft.

In the mid-1960s, Heuer partnered with Breitling and Hamilton (and in competition

with Seiko and Zenith) to introduce an automatic chronograph. Resulting from this

secret competition were Heuer's first automatic chronographs named the Ataxia,

Carrera and Monaco.

In1975 Heuer produced its first Analog and LED/LCD split screens.

AG Heuer was acquired in 1985 by TAG (Techniques d'Avant Garde),

manufacturers of high-tech items such as ceramic turbochargers for Formula One

cars, In 1999. TAG Heuer accepted a bid from LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton

S.A. for controlling interest.

In 2011 TAG Heuer introduced the Mikrogirder with 1/1000 second accuracy

TAG Heuer's current lines include Formula One, Aquaracer, Link, Carrera, Monaco,

Connected, and Grand Carrera

- BTQualityWatches.com