Tag Heuer Watches

More about Tag Heuer Watches

Edouard Heuer founded this storied watchmaking company in 1860. In 1869, Heuer patented the first crown-winding mechanism for pocket watches. Twenty years later, during the Universal Exhibition in Paris, the Heuer company won a silver medal for its collection of pocket chronographs. Heuer introduced its first wrist chronograph in 1914. The crown was at the twelve position, as these first wrist chronographs were adapted from the more common pocket chronographs. In 1916, Heuer introduced the Micrograph, the first stopwatch accurate to 1/100th of a second. In 1933, the company introduced the Autavia, a dashboard timer used for automobiles and aviation. In the early 1950s, Heuer produced watches for the American retailer Abercrombie & Fitch. In 1958, Heuer introduced a new line of timepieces, designed to be mounted on the dashboard of an automobile, airplane or boat. Heuer continued to manufacture these into the 1980s. From the 1950s through the 1970s, Heuers were popular watches among automobile racers, both professionals and amateurs. Heuer acquired the Leonidas brand in the early 1960s, with the combined company marketing watches under the Heuer-Leonidas name. One of the designs that Heuer acquired from Leonidas was the Bundeswehr chronograph, used by the German air force. These watches feature a flyback mechanism, so that when the chronograph is reset to zero, it immediately begins running again, to time the next segment or event. In 1969, Heuer, in partnership with Breitling and Hamilton introduced the first automatic chronographs. Heuer's first automatic chronographs were the Autavia, Carrera and Monaco. These were powered by the Cal 11 and Cal 12 movements (12-hour chronograph); Cal 14 movement (12-hour chronograph and additional hand for GMT / second time-zone); and the Cal 15 movement (30-minute chronograph). Unusually, the winding crown was on the left, with the pushers for the chronograph on the right. The earliest of Heuer's Cal 11 chronographs (from 1969) were named Chrono-Matic.In the early 1980s, Heuer introduced a series of chronographs powered by the Lemania 5100 movement. These chronographs have the minute hand for the chronograph on the center pinion rather than on a smaller register, greatly improving legibility. TAG Heuer was formed in 1985 when TAG (Techniques d'Avant Garde), manufacturers of high-tech items such as ceramic turbochargers for Formula 1 cars, acquired Heuer. Together they modernized the production line and became one of the biggest names in Swiss watch manufacturing. Since 1999, TAG Heuer has been owned by the LVMH group.

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