Tag Heuer Watches History

TAG Heuer is one of the leading watch manufacturers in the world and the fourth most important watch vendor in the wristwatch market. Its company motto "Swiss Avant-Garde Since 1860" characterizes the company's spirit, which is the fascination with excellence in design and advanced technology. Progress, precision and innovation always were the expression of the very core of TAG Heuer's philosophy.
It was in 1860, when Edouard Heuer established his first workshop in St. Imier, Switzerland. It gave birth to the world's reference of the most reliable and prestigious sports watches. In 1869, Heuer invented and patented the first stem-winding system. In 1911, Heuer launched his first dashboard chronograph developed for automobiles called "Time of Trip". Five years later, Heuer patented Micrograph, the world's first wristwatch with chronometer function, capable of measuring 1/100th of a second. In 1920, for the first time, the company officially time-kept the Olympic Games competitions.
In 1933, Heuer introduced the Autavia, the dashboard timer used for automobiles and airplanes. Afterwards, the Monte Carlo and the Master-Time were launched. In the 1950-70s, Heuer timepieces were utterly popular in auto sport.
The Autavia chronograph was launched in 1962. Two years later, after Juan Manuel Fangio's triumph during the "Carrera Panamericana Mexico" races, Jack Heuer launched Carrera chronograph watch paying tribute to this excellent race car driver from Argentina. Due to its exceptional success, the Carrera chrono converted into the company's icon.
Again, in 1966, the Heuer company confirmed its status of pioneer in time measuring by manufacturing the world's first chronograph, capable to measure the 1/1000th of a second.
In 1971, the Heuer Monaco watch became highly famous after Steve McQueen wore it in a movie "Le Mans". That line was called "Steve McQueen Monaco Edition".
The TAG Group Holdings SA bought the Heuer company and became TAG Heuer in 1985. The acronym TAG stands for Techniques d'Avant Garde.
In 1992, TAG Heuer turned into the official timekeeper of Formula 1 races, that rose its status even more. The year 1999 brought important changes: the TAG Heuer company was purchased by the LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy S.A.), a leading luxury goods company.
TAG Heuer opened its first shop in New York in 2002. Two years later, TAG Heuer introduced its revolutionary Monaco V4 with a belt-driven movement, and a newly patented world's first chronometer, capable of measuring the 1/10,000th of a second.
At the same time, TAG Heuer introduced to the world its completely new haute couture collection, including the fine Diamond Fiction wristwatch, which has approximately 900 diamonds. It shows time by lighting an LED from behind of thousands of tiny diamonds. With that superb collection TAG Heuer attested to its ability of the luxury-oriented first class company.

To promote its watches TAG Heuer employed several brand ambassadors, among them: Tiger Woods, Brad Pitt, Maria Sharapova, Lewis Hamilton and others.