TAG Heuer - With Lewis Hamilton and Alain Prost
On June 24th, a date chosen to echo the famous 24 Hours at Le Mans race, 350 journalists, celebrities and a veritable who's who of les people assembled in Paris to fete the MONACO LS, the latest launch in TAG Heuer's 40th Anniversary Celebrations of the iconic MONACO line of racing-inspired sports watches and chronographs.
The exclusive party was held just off the Champs Elysees in the Michelin-starred Maison Blanche restaurant on the glamorous Avenue Montaigne. Among the revelers were 2008 Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton, French VIPs Alain Prost, Jacques Lafitte, Catalina Denis…, and TAG Heuer's victorious partners on the Le Mans Peugeot team, who placed one-two in this year's running of the world's most important endurance race.
Also present — in a special virtual incarnation ¬— was Steve McQueen, the screen legend who first brought the Monaco watch to international prominence in his cult classic 1970 race film Le Mans.
The MONACO partygoers in Paris were treated to the first full screening of Steve McQueen and Lewis Hamilton: The Duel, a virtual cinema showdown in which McQueen and fellow TAG Heuer Ambassador Hamilton battle it out on the treacherous turns of the fabled Le Mans circuit.
The Legend and the Virtuoso on the same track… 40 years apart!
In the effects-rich film, McQueen drives a Porsche Gulf 917, as he did in Le Mans, and wears the same Monaco, the blue-dialed, square-shaped icon that changed forever the face of Swiss watchmaking. Hamilton drives the single-seat McLaren in which he won the F1 World Drivers' Championship. On his wrist - the Monaco LS Chronograph Calibre 12, the Monaco's radically redesigned and seriously supercharged descendent.
Many in attendance had seen a teaser version of the cinematic race in late March at BaselWorld 2009. At the Maison Blanche bash, however, they were finally given a chance to see Lewis Hamilton win the epic duel.
"Steve McQueen the Legend has passed the mantle to Lewis Hamilton the Virtuoso," said TAG Heuer President and CEO Jean-Christophe Babin. "And the original Monaco has morphed into the incredible Monaco LS, the new cult status symbol of the racing circuit. What a race, what a party, and what a watch!"
"I'm particularly proud to have been chosen by TAG Heuer to carry on this fabulous legend," said Lewis Hamilton, a TAG Heuer Ambassador since his F3 days in 2003. "And also of my acting! Who knows, maybe my next role will be alongside Leonardo DiCaprio."
The other star of the night was the Monaco LS Chronograph Calibre 12. An audacious piece of cutting-edge architecture equipped with a powerful TAG Heuer Dubois Depraz 2008 movement, the Monaco LS has a sporty black dial and an imposing 40.5mm case in polished and fine-brushed steel. The current second is displayed in a linear second window at 3 o'clock, chronograph minutes at 9, chronograph hours at 6 and the date in an angled window with black disk at 12. The luminescent indexes are hand-applied and faceted, and the luminescent minute and hour hands are faceted, polished and fine-brushed. The rhodium second hand is adorned with a striking touch of red. Bracelet options are an elegant black alligator strap with folding buckle and safety pushbuttons or a steel bracelet with folding buckle and a unique new TAG Heuer-patented micro-adjustment cutting wheel. Water resistant to 100 metres, with anti-reflective double-sided treatment on the curved sapphire scratch-resistant crystal glass to ensure the best readability, this is a glamorous new addition to the prestigious Monaco fleet.
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