The 50th anniversary celebrations of the TAG Heuer Monaco are drawing to close, with its last hurrah being a super-cool blacked out Monaco.
The first of the five anniversary-edition Monacos was revealed back in May 2019. The first watch acknowledged the period of 1969-1979 and was unveiled at the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix, the very place the watch takes its name from.
Following that was the second limited edition, celebrating the period from 1979 to 1989, presented in June in Le Mans, France.
The third edition of the new Monaco watch, inspired by the 1990s, made its debut in New York in July and the fourth was shown off in Japan in September, celebrating 1999-2009. Finally the fifth watch has been shown off, completing the brand’s globetrotting for the year.
The ‘1969 to 1979’
Read more about the piece here.
The ‘1979 to 1989’
Read more about this piece here.
The ‘1989 to 1999’
The ‘1999 to 2009’
Read more about this piece here.
The 2009-2019 watch was unveiled in Shanghai, China in the presence of brand ambassadors Cara Delevingne and Li Yifeng; Stéphane Bianchi. The international unveilings of the reissues is an homage to the original reveal of the Monaco back in 1969, where it was revealed simultaneously in both New York City and Geneva in Switzerland.
Celebrating the modern age, the final Monaco offers a twist on the classic, going for sandblasting, matte blacks and pops of bright red. In a time where matt black is as cool as can be, this watch is a welcomed piece.
Similar to the previous Monaco unveiled, this final piece has a “charcoal sunburst” dial finished in matte. The case is sandblasted to give a more urban feel and allow the highly-polished chronograph pushers to pop. A darker colour of red has been used for the accents, providing a pleasant contrast to the dark dial.
The watch uses the same calibre 11 movement as the other anniversary pieces, standing as a modernised version of the head-turning movement from 1969. In case you didn’t know, the Monaco was born out of a collaborative effort between Hamilton, Breitling, and Heuer in a super cool mission simply called Project 99. The team worked in secret trying to create the world’s first automatic chronograph.
They missed the mark, with Zenith releasing the El Primero first, though the Monaco was still the first waterproof and square automatic chronograph in history. TAG Heuer decided to use an updated version of this historic movement in its Monacos ever since. Super watch nerds however will note this is the first of the anniversary Monacos to have a white on black date window rather than black on white.
The new ‘2009-1019’ next to the blue version
As with all the anniversary models, this watch is limited to just 169 pieces, which can be seen on the case back engraving, along with the year of the watch. The Monaco is presented on the usual sporty leather strap, along with the left-handed crown and a US $6,550 price tag.
The chequered history of the TAG Heuer Monaco
