TAG Heuer: #BASELWORLD2014
2004-2014: Celebration of the V4’s 10th Anniversary
FROM THE WORLD’S FIRST WATCH DRIVEN BY BELTS
TO
THE WORLD’S FIRST TOURBILLON DRIVEN BY BELTS
A decade on, TAG Heuer’s breakthrough V4 technology continues to astound
BASELWORLD 2004
A STAR IS BORN…
In 2004, TAG Heuer changed the course of watchmaking by unveiling the MONACO V4 Concept Watch, the world’s first watch with belt drives, linear mass and ball bearings.
The V4 name derived from the V-shaped main plate on which the movement’s four barrels are mounted: the 2-by-2 belt series on ball bearings are angled at +/-13 degrees, and look like the cylinders in a Formula One motor-racing engine.
The concept watch’s patented belt-driven transmission and linear mass represented nothing short of a complete rewriting of the fundamental principles of mechanical watchmaking. Housed inside another revolution, the audacious, square-faced Monaco seen on Steve McQueen wrist in the 1971 race-film classic Le Mans, it won Best Design at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, Germany’s Red Dot Design Award, Wallpaper Magazine’s “Watch of the Year” and Popular Science’s “Best of What’s New”.
It also re-established TAG Heuer as the world leader of advanced mechanical movement design.
FIVE YEARS LATER
THE CONCEPT BECOMES REALITY…
In 2009, against all expectations, TAG Heuer stunned the watchmaking world by unveiling what many industry insiders said would never see the light of day: a fully commercialized production model of the MONACO V4. The breakthrough came as a result of five years of intensive research by TAG Heuer’s Haute Horlogerie engineers to overcome the last stumbling blocks—most important being the successful development of ultra-thin and ultra-resistant transmission belts.
A true work of art, the MONACO V4 was the most avant-garde watch industrialized to date, housing the first new complication in a commercially realized timepiece since the first automatic chronograph movement, Calibre 11 Chronomatic, was issued by Heuer in 1969.
Several limited editions will follow — in rose gold, titanium, platinum and ceramic, each more breathtaking than the last, until…
BASELWORLD 2014
WHEN AVANT-GARDE HAUTE HORLOGERIE MEETS TRADITION
Building on its top-secret development of transmission belts no thicker than a single hair, TAG Heuer takes its avant-garde creation to the next level—juxtaposing its patented belt technology with one of the most emblematic complication of watchmaking—the tourbillon.
The result—the fully patented MONACO V4 TOURBILLON—breaks with all accepted watchmaking codes and conventions.
By far the most intricate and iconic complication of Haute Horlogerie, a tourbillon is a mechanical system for regulating the speedat which a watch beats. Traditionally, it overcomes the effects of gravity by placing the balance wheel and escapement inside a rotating cage.
The MONACO V4 TOURBILLON complicates this complication further, by using, in a world first, a micro-belt to drive the tourbillon. Thanks to the belt driving the tourbillon, there is no backlash on the tourbillon. The major advantage is the absolute fluidity of its rotation. The avant-garde timepiece is equipped with an automatic linear rewinding system, and the mass is guided by a linear railroad instead of a traditional rotating system. The four notched micro-thin (0.07mm) transmission belts, the design and engineering of which remain one of the best-kept secrets in watchmaking, create a very efficient shock absorbing system. In another first, the barrels are held and rotated on ball bearings.
Entirely hand-crafted and assembled in TAG Heuer’s Haute Horlogerie workshop in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. Its exclusive materials include space-grade black titanium for the case.
Only by taking risks, by challenging and transcending traditions, can such achievements be realized. Uniquely combining belts and tourbillon technology, the patented MONACO V4 TOURBILLON proves once again TAG Heuer’s continued tenure at the forefront of Haute Horlogerie design and technology.
About TAG HEUER ( @TAGHeuer )
Founded in Saint-Imier in 1860 by Edouard Heuer, TAG Heuer has marked the history of luxury watchmaking, especially in the fields of chronographs and ultimate precision. A legend in prestige Swiss watchmaking and one of its most innovative brands, TAG Heuer has built on its active commitment in the sports world to create the most accurate timing instruments and wrist timepieces in the world. In 2012, thanks to the lessons learned through these achievements, TAG Heuer won the world’s most coveted watchmaking award, the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix «Aiguille d’Or». TAG Heuer is unrelenting in its quest for innovation, excellence, performance and prestige. This ambition is reflected in its sponsorships with F1 Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team and its World Champion Jenson Button, the Automobile Club of Monaco for the prestigious Monaco Grand Prix, and the new FIA Formula E Championship, the world’s top competition for electrically powered racing cars. TAG Heuer is also a partner of Oracle Team USA, 2013 champion of sailing’s most prestigious trophy, the 34th America’s Cup. The brand also partners with actress Cameron Diaz, actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Shah Rukh Khan and Chen Dao Ming, and WTA tennis champion Maria Sharapova, sharing with them the same values: human achievement and true innovation.
TAG Heuer is the number one industrial manufacturer of 100% in-house Swiss chronograph movements: after the Calibre 1887, an automatic chronograph movement with an oscillating pinion based on a Heuer invention in 1887, TAG Heuer continues to develop upstream and launches the Calibre CH 80, produced in a new facility, its forth one in Switzerland. In addition, its Haute Horlogerie Workshop produces the Monaco V4, a movement driven by belts, the Carrera Mikrograph, able to measure and display with a central hand the 1/100th of a second, the Carrera Mikrotimer, accurate to the 1/1000th of a second and the Carrera Mikrogirder, precise to the 5/10’000th of a second. Engineers and watchmakers also challenged movement regulation, replacing the usual escapement by micro-blades or magnets. This exceptional level of watchmaking excellence has earned the company membership in the most exclusive circle of the Swiss watchmaking elite, the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH).
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