TAG Heuer Automatic Watches Collection, Replica TAG Heuer Automatic Watch

TAG Heuer Carrera Heritage Calibre 16 (CAS2110BA0730)

I bought one about a year ago and am still wearing it; so I ordered in both colors. Watch is easy to read, comfortable and usually reliable. The stem sometimes pulls out then it doesn't run. But, just reset and it goes again. Great product for the money.

---- [Rating: 5 / 5 stars]

Review by Arden M, From Argentina Ciudad De Buenos Aires

TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre 16 (CV2050BD0789)

nice TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre 16 (CV2050BD0789), nice seller, A+++

---- [Rating: 5 / 5 stars]

Review by dennis wohltman, From United Kingdom Wimbledon, London

Tag Heuer Formula 1 Anthracite Dial Steel and Ceramic Chronograph Men's Watch CAU2011.BA0873

very satisfied

---- [Rating: 5 / 5 stars]

Review by ateeq baig, From Sweden Vaxholm

While Patrick Dempsey, wearing his TAG Heuer timepiece on his wrist, took the second place in the GTE-Am category, the Nissan GT-R LM NISMO, which made its race debut at the Le Mans 24 Hours this weekend had set a target of getting one of it's three cars to the finish of the 24-hour race.
Mission accomplished for NIssan: Nissan GT-R LM NISMO completed the Le Mans 24 Hours on its race debut; the three new Le Mans challengers run for 10, 23 and 24 hours and Nissan power took 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 in LM P2 class.

Jenson Button arrived with fiance Jessica Michibata in the brand new McLaren 650S. The sleek new McLaren had just flown into Australia from the Geneva motor show.

In keeping with Jenson's philanthropic endeavors TAG Heuer proudly donated $100 on behalf of every guest / guest couple who attended the event to the , raising $10,000 to the cycling event dedicated to the fight against cancer. In addition to this donation Jenson kindly donated back the Specialized bike gifted to him by TAG Heuer Australia. Jenson's bike will be auctioned off with the help of Mark Beretta on Network Seven's SUNRISE to raise even more money for this great cause.

High profile celebrity guests attended the star-studded event including home-grown Hollywood hero and friend of the brand Guy Pearce, The Bachelor's Tim Robards, Olympic snowboarder Torah Bright, Olympic freestyle skier Lydia Lassila, media personalities Catriona Rowntree and Erika Heynatz, Nadia Bartel, and MKR contestants Helena & Vicki and many more.

Talented DJ duo Milly Gattegno and Shuhana Lye from The Faders were electric. The Faders have played with some of music's biggest names such as Rita Ora and N*E*R*D.

Melbourne is a special place for Jenson Button, it is there that he kick started his Formula One racing career at the 2000 Australian Grand Prix and then went on to win the Australian title three times - 2009, 2010 and 2012. 

Jack Heuer is retiring. Again. If everything had gone according to plan - the last but one plan, that is - he'd be putting his feet up by now, indulging in his passion for skiing for as long as his body allowed, and looking back on a life in watchmaking that began in the 1950s.

But that was last year's plan. During the world tour he undertook to mark his 80th birthday, Heuer said openly that 2012 would be his last year of service to the company founded by his great-grandfather in 1860.
And then someone pointed out that this year is the 50th anniversary of the Heuer Carrera - one of the great watches of the 20th century and an icon dreamed up by Jack Heuer himself - and convinced him to stay on for another year. Just one more year.
'November 18 is my last day,' he says with a smile that acknowledges the irony but suggests this time he really means it. 'On the 19th, I'll be 81. I do get tired and I enjoy taking it easy.'

Heuer is in London as part of a series of events celebrating 50 years of the Carrera ('my last time here'). His duties include presenting Motor Sport Hall of Fame inductee and former Ferrari driver Niki Lauda with an award, dining among 'friends' in the Tate Modern's private dining room, and talking to a few journalists - lucky people like me.
At each occasion he has a surprising amount of energy for a man of his age. Tracking him at these events over two days, I'm inspired by his vigour and enthusiasm for talking about his product - but then Heuer always was a passionate and pioneering marketeer with a savvy that bordered on genius.

A family fight and a brilliant idea
His watchmaking story begins in 1959. A qualified electrical engineer with a masters in production and management, he'd been offered a job with a young consultancy firm in the US city of Boston. But his father, keen to make sure his adventurous son had at least tasted life in the watch industry, persuaded him to delay taking up the position for a year to work for the family company.

Aware of his son's appetite to go to the States (Heuer was also trilingual), Heuer's father sent him to New York to open up a US subsidiary. The first few years were tough and the company failed to turn a profit. Then in 1962, two things happened that changed everything.

'We had a family fight in 1962,' says Heuer. 'My uncle had no successors and he no longer wanted to invest in the American sub. He wanted to sell the company, and I said if he sold the company I would leave as I had this other job offer, but that if I stayed I would want the majority. So I flew back from New York (to Switzerland) and my father gave me some shares and I bought some shares from my uncle. A week later and aged just 30, I returned to New York as majority stakeholder.'

That same year, Jack Heuer was at the 12 Hours of Sebring and got talking with Mexican driver Pedro Rodriguez, who told him about a brutal five-day road race called the Carrera Panamericana. The race had run for just five years between 1950-1954 and in that time had claimed 27 lives, earning itself a reputation as the most dangerous race in the world.
The name resonated with Heuer. 'When I came back from Sebring I registered the name,' Heuer recalls. 'We in the family would always give names to products, which was unusual in the watch industry. My father was very good at names - he created the Seafarer, TwinTime, Autavia, Ringmaster and so on. So I continued in the tradition and registered Carrera Heuer purely for watch applications.' Porsche, which won the last Carrera Panamericana, registered it for car applications, he reminds me.

Making good use of tension
Next came the design. 'In those days, chronographs had overcrowded dials with tachymetres and old-fashioned looks, and I took away all that rubbish,' he says. 'I was helped by a guy who invented the tension ring. Crystals were plastic back then, and they became porous and would leak after a certain time. The ring pushed the plastic against the case and improved water-tightness.
'The ring was empty, so I said that's a beautiful occasion, we can use that ring and put something on there - so I put the fifth divisions. We were the first company to use the ring not just as a tension ring, but as a division ring, which allowed the dial to be very clean. That was the innovative part for me. It caught on and everybody copied it.'
 

The watch was a success and gave Heuer a much needed in with retail jewellers in the US (previously, it's business had been reliant on selling stop-watches to engineering companies - to the tune of 300,000 to 400,000 pieces a year). But what really catapulted the brand to its lofty status, and ensured the longevity of watches like the Carrera, was the tie to motor racing and to Ferrari during one of its most successful periods, the 1970s.

'We were the first non-automotive sponsor who had a logo on a race car,' says Heuer. 'Before it was only tyres and spark plugs and so on, and suddenly Ferrari had a big Heuer logo on the front. And then millions of toy cars had a Heuer logo. We would print thousands of stickers so people could put them on their cars to show they were part of it. As a marketing coup that was unique and I'm proud of that because nobody in the watch industry had done it before.'
Heuer became the motor sport watch brand, and pieces like the Carrera, Autavia and Monaco became the watches of choice for racing drivers - potent associations with tangible sales benefits.

50 years on - and still popular
Despite all this, Jack Heuer laughs when asked if he ever imagined the Carrera would still be here, 50 years on. 'Never, ever!' he exclaims, leaning back in his chair. Is the Carrera therefore his finest achievement? 'Well - I don't think so,' he says after a short pause, folding his arms, one of which carries last year's Jack Heuer 80th birthday Carrera, the other this year's 50th anniversary piece, which he helped design. 'I don't look at it that way, no. I don't deny that I'm very proud that a product I created 50 years ago is still popular, but the highlight of my career was being innovative in marketing.'
These landmarks, as well as the chronicled lows of being 'cheated' of his own company will be discussed in much greater detail in his forthcoming biography, which is due out in the autumn. It'll be a gripping read, and, if everything goes according to plan, the last we hear from Jack Heuer as he heads into official retirement. Well, probably. There's always next year.

For TAG Heuer, the 2013 edition of Baselworld proved to be pivotal for memorable reasons. It marked the last time Jean-Christophe Babin was at the helm of a brand he helped catapult into a higher echelon of the watchmaking scene since his arrival in 2000 - before moving on to assume a new role as Bvlgari CEO and naming Stephane Linder as his successor. And then there were two spectacular watches among the elite 'Talking Pieces' unveiled at the world's biggest watch trade fair. Those two timepieces were proudly introduced by Jean-Christophe Babin in a crowded press conference that turned out to be highly symbolic, because both the Carrera MikroPendulumS Concept Watch and the Carrera MikroPendulum chronograph embody the technological route the brand has taken in the last decade under his guidance, especially since the launch of the first Concept Watch: the Monaco V4, in 2004. The charismatic Jean-Christophe always underlined that every TAG Heuer Concept Watch was launched with a view to subsequent regular production and one of the fundamental steps in achieving this purpose was the hiring of Guy Semon, the man who not only proved to be a problem-solver but also a visionary who dared to venture outside the conventional boundaries of traditional watchmaking. Avant-Garde Haute Horlogerie Workshop As TAG Heuer vice-president and head of the Research and Development department, Guy Semon has garnered a succession of accolades and world premieres. He solved the riddle posed by the transmission belts of the Monaco V4 and turned it into a commercial timepiece, leading an atelier of Avant-Garde Haute Horlogerie into the domains of magnetic fields and ultra-high frequency in search of ever more precise and reliable solutions. The line-up is impressive, especially since 2010: the Pendulum, the Mikrograph, the Mikrotimer Flying 1000, the Mikrogirder, the MikrotourbillonS - all timepieces among this century's biggest breakthroughs in watchmaking. At Baselworld 2013, a double slam was added to the honour roll with the conceptualization of the first-ever double magnetic tourbillon and the commercialization of the first ever magnet-driven 1/100th of a second chronograph. The 25-person atelier has successfully proved that it could master ultra-high frequency. With the two flagship models introduced at Baselworld 2103, it has also displayed its ability to solve problems associated with magnetism that most considered to be insurmountable, especially the issue of sensitivity to temperature differences that affect performance. Guy Semon's team experimented with new magnetic atoms, metal alloys as well as carefully dimensioned and machined geometries in order to come up with an invisible, magnet-driven spiral that moves the balance wheel at a low amplitude and high frequency that ensure perfect accuracy and stability. The revolutionary magnetic oscillator's performance comes close to matching traditional hairsprings of the highest quality; besides, it is much easier to manufacture and is impervious to shock, gravity and geometric deformations.  A platform of technological innovations "This year's Concept Watch is inspired by last year's MikrotourbillonS that had a COSC-certified 4 Hz tourbillon to regulate the watch and a 50 Hz tourbillon for the chronograph function measuring 1/100ths of a second, the fastest and most precise in the world", states Guy Semon. "Now imagine you rotate the movement 90 degrees in order to have the crown and pushers on top just like the Mikrogirder and both regulating systems - two tourbillons - on the lower side of the dial. But these two tourbillons are distinctive because they showcase the first hairspring-free regulating organs and are the first magnetic tourbillons in the world, with the one for the watch operating at 12 Hz and the other for the chronograph at 50 Hertz. There's more: the case is made of a new chrome/cobalt alloy that is harder than grade 5 titanium, besides boasting a beautiful color and being bio-compatible - it is indeed a really precious metal since it's precious to the human being".  Besides putting the Monaco V4 on the market (more than 300 have been sold worldwide), Guy Semon was given a mission when he came aboard TAG Heuer from the aeronautic industry: "To create new chronographs. We perfected a new architecture - a dual-chain architecture, separating the chronograph from the watch and freeing it in order to use the frequency we want in accordance with the fraction of a second we are attempting to measure. There were already mechanical chronographs in the market measuring 1/10ths of a second; so I opted for 1/100ths of a second and the Mikrograph was ; followed by 1/1000ths  of a second with the Mikrotimer at 200 Hz; and subsequently by 5/10,000ths with the Mikrogirder based on oscillating beams. Then we thought of combining the most incredible watchmaking complication, the tourbillon, with our high-frequency mastery - and the MikrotourbillonS was born last year. This year we came up with the MikroPendulumS and the MikroPendulum".  Same case size, different architecture The Carrera MikroPendulumS has a 45 mm bullhead chrome-cobalt case complete with titanium crown and push-buttons. It is teamed with a hand-sewn anthracite hi-tech soft touch integrated alligator strap. The magnetic tourbillons are visible from the front with solid pink gold bridges. All in all, 454 components and 75 jewels that include a 71-piece tourbillon for the watch operating at 86,400 vibrations per hour (12 Hz: three tourbillon rotations every minute) with a 24-hour power reserve and a tourbillon for the 1/100th of a second chronograph boasting 360,000 vibrations per hour (50 Hz: 12 tourbillon rotations every minute) with a 60-minute power reserve. The TAG Heuer Carrera MikroPendulumS is a TAG Heuer Carrera MikrotourbillonS with two magnetic Pendulums replacing the hairsprings, one for telling time and one for timekeeping.  The Carrera MikroPendulum has a 45mm titanium case with the Pendulum visible on the left side of the dial. Made of 371 components, it comprises a dual-chain platform with one balance wheel functioning at 28,800 vibrations per hour (4 Hz) for the watch with a 42-hour power reserve and a hairspring-free pendulum system working at 360,000 vibrations per hour (50 Hz) with a 90-minute power reserve for the chronograph. The crown rewinds the chronograph, whereas the watch is run on a classic COSC-certified automatic movement powered by an oscillating weight. Guy Semon has confided that he has several dozens of projects in his drawer. After seeing the mastery achieved in the fields of high frequency and magnetism, we are naturally eager to see which is the next path TAG Heuer will follow - from now on with Stephane Linder, considered to be 'a product guy', as the brand's CEO.

San Diego, Nov 17, 2011 - TAG Heuer and Oracle Racing held a joint press conference today to announce a partnership that will see the Oracle Racing crew outfitted with TAG Heuer Watches and Eyewear during the 34th America's Cup, the world's most important sailing events.

The press conference coincided with the America's Cup World Series preparatory regatta in San Diego. Sixty international journalists attended the event, along with TAG Heuer President and CEO Jean-Christophe Babin, Oracle Racing CEO and afterguard Sir Russell Coutts and the team's skipper and helmsman Jimmy Spithill. At the 33rd America's Cup Match in Valencia, Spain in February, 2010, Coutts and Spithill led their Oracle Racing team to a convincing 2-0 victory over the Swiss defender, Alinghi — thus returning the oldest trophy in international sports back to the United States for the first time in 18 years.

"We're proud to be back on board with Oracle Racing," said Jean-Christophe Babin. TAG Heuer partnered with the Oracle Racing team in their 2003 bid to win the America's Cup.

"Oracle is the best team in sailing," said Babin. "It is the yachting equivalent of our motor racing partners Vodafone McLaren Mercedes in Formula One and Audi Sport for the World Endurance Championship and Le Mans 24 Hours. Joining the TAG Heuer prestigious team of ambassadors, Jimmy Spithill and Russell Coutts are cut from the same cloth as our driving legends Alain Prost, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Sebastien Ogier. We all share the same values: a quest for perfection, a passion for innovation, avant-garde technology and design, and a love for speed and performance."

"Having such a prestigious world-renowned brand, famous for its involvement with top-level sporting events and personalities, join our team is not just great news for Oracle Racing but for the America's Cup as well," said Coutts.

"Master Of Seas": TAG Heuer's commitment to waterspouts runs deep

From its first water-resistant patent in 1895 to the newest line of Aquaracers.

TAG Heuer's competitive sailing launches include the Yacht Timer stopwatch (1930), the Solunar (1949), a tide-reading watch with a lunar dial; the Seafarer (1950), the world's first chronographs with tide and regatta indicators; the Navia (1955), a boat dashboard clock; the Aquastar Regatta (1965); and the automatic Skipper sailing chronograph (1972).

In 1980 the brand launched the 1000, a series of regatta and diving watches. This was followed in 1982 by the 2000 Collection, a series of professional diving watches that is the predecessor of today's famous Aquaracer line. In the 80's, it co-launched the Spirotechnique line with Jacques-Yves Cousteau's diving company. The Aquaracer, however, launched in 2002, is the line that established the brand's prowess on and in the water. Among the many standout editions in the Aquaracer series is the revolutionary Aquaracer Calibre S (2005), the first analog regatta chronograph to display both time and chronograph using central hour, minute and second hands, and the Aquaracer 500M Calibre 5 (2009), a diving chronograph with automatic helium valve that is water resistant to 500 meters.

On the water, TAG Heuer's record is unrivalled. In 1967, it was the Official Timekeeper of Intrepid, the America's Cup winner. In 1983, it launched the Formule TAG, one of the first kevlar and carbon fiber catamarans. Helmed by sailing legend Mike Birch, it set the world record for the longest distance covered in 24 hours, logging up 524 miles during one lap of the Quebec - Saint-Malo race in 1984. In 1993, "Le TAG Heuer", the world's biggest monohull, was skippered by the French mariner Tituan Lamazou during the Jules Verne Trophy. In 1995, the TAG Heuer Challenge (NZL59) skippered by Chris Dickson, reached the Vuitton Cup semifinals. In 2002, TAG Heuer and Oracle BMW Racing Team were narrowly outpaced by Alinghi in the 31st America's Cup. In 2005, the brand hosted the "Trophee TAG Heuer Aquaracer" in St-Tropez, France, and became official chronograph, timekeeper and sunglasses partner of the China Team Challenge, the first Chinese team to vie for a challenger spot in the America's Cup.

America's Cup: The most prestigious events in international sailing

TAG Heuer will be present at all stages of Oracle Racing's defense of the 34th America's Cup, starting with the remaining matches in the new America's Cup World Series, which will be run in various world venues in 2012, and 2013. TAG Heuer will assist with the Louis Vuitton Cup, the America's Cup challenger selection series, and, finally, the America's Cup Match, which will see Oracle Racing pitted against a single challenger. Both the Louis Vuitton Cup and the America's Cup Match final will be held in San Francisco in 2013.

TAG Heuer & Team USA

At the San Diego press conference, Russell Coutts, Jimmy Spithill and Jean-Christopher Babin were wearing a special Team USA edition of the Aquaracer 500M Chronograph. The first chronograph in the Aquaracer 500M line, it has the same professional safety features, wide-diameter case (44mm) and stylish strap in black rubber, but its black dial is engraved with the Team USA shield. Its robust, functional design and features address very specific demands: great visibility, extreme reliance and easy handling when sailing. Power and strength for ultimate performance, the Aquaracer 500M Chronograph is a perfect match for Russell and Jimmy — it has the same DNA.

The other members of the Oracle Racing team wore Aquaracer models with a special digital countdown function and TAG Heuer Eyewear from the Racer Collection. The Racer is ideal for high seas — its curved, wrap-around shape enhances comfort and ergonomics, and the frame and temples in very light composite material provide optimum lightness. The Oracle Racing Racer edition is equipped with Watersports lenses, a blue polarized, hydrophobic and oleophobic lens with 5 layers of anti-reflection, for utmost precision and protection.

America's Cup: A test of prowess for TAG Heuer & Oracle Racing

"This is going to be a great adventure, both in human and technological terms," said TAG Heuer's President and CEO Jean-Christophe Babin. "Oracle Racing and TAG Heuer are two of most historic brands in this prestigious event, which represents the pinnacle of ocean-going performance. Our designers and engineers are working together to make this the best-equipped crew ever. And we're setting our sights high: we want to break every record ever set, both for man and machine."

Sybase Match Play Championship - Gladstone, New Jersey, USA, May 19 22 2011 - Best players of the ladies golfing world competed for 4 days over 6 matches.

TAG Heuer Ambassador Suzann Pettersen wins her seventh LPGA Tour victory and reaches 2nd position in world rankings and LPGA Money List.
Suzann associated TAG Heuer to her victory by proudly sporting her TAG Heuer Grand Carrera while holding her trophy.
Congratulations Suzann - The TAG Heuer family is with you !

On Thursday, August 19, 2010, TAG Heuer, the luxury Swiss watch brand celebrated its 150th anniversary and paid tribute to its pioneering spirit at an exclusive "Odyssey of Pioneers" private cocktail party and timepiece exhibition at The Temple House on Miami Beach.

At this exciting event, guests enjoyed libations and hors d'oeuvres while mingling among executives and celebrity guests including: Jean-Christophe Babin (President & CEO of TAG Heuer), Philippe Alluard (President of LVMH Watch & Jewelry Division, Latin America and the Caribbean), Olivia Newton John (Actress & four-time Grammy Award-Winning Artist), Jeffrey Donovan (Actor, USA's "Burn Notice"), and Jon Secada (Grammy Award-Winning artist and songwriter) among others.

Guests also previewed an exhibition of key historical and current TAG Heuer products that underscore the brand's passion for revolutionizing timekeeping.

Following Miami, the TAG Heuer Tesla Roadster will stop in New York, London and end in Paris. At the Odyssey's completion, the car will have crossed three continents.

TAG Heuer, the well-known luxury watch brand belonging to LVMH Moet Hennessy - Louis Vuitton, the global leader in luxury brands, has chosen ICAgency, a market leader in luxury digital marketing, to sustainably increase its Internet presence. The strategy deployed encompasses not only Google, Yahoo! and MSN, but also search engines such as Baidu and Yandex, market leaders in the high-growth markets of China and Russia, respectively.
Buyers of luxury goods are increasingly using the Internet to evaluate their purchases, a growing trend that is confirmed year after year by the WorldWatchReport, a market study published by IC-Agency that analyzes dozens of millions of client searches for luxury watch brands on the Internet.
TAG Heuer, a company at the cutting edge of innovation, is fully aware of this trend and has decided to reinforce its visibility in the international search engines so as to make its products more widely available and to increase brand awareness.
"Our objective is to escort our customers throughout their online experience - an experience that generally starts with a search using a search engine such as, for example, Google. This is a strategic means of access for a brand such as TAG Heuer and we want to take advantage of it in the best way possible", says Frederic Layani, International Internet & CRM Manager for TAG Heuer.
The strategic search engine optimization assignment taken on by IC-Agency covers more than 10 markets and is not restricted to the Google, Yahoo! and MSN trio. As Marc-Olivier Peyer, Senior Innovation Specialist at IC-Agency says, "Our objective is also to achieve strategic positioning in China and Russia through Baidu and Yandex, two search engines that generate more traffic than Google in those high-growth, and increasingly online, watch markets."
The implemented strategy is based on an in-depth analysis of search intentions associated with the TAG Heuer brand. This approach enables the evolution of interest in the flagship models and TAG Heuer brand ambassadors—Leonardo Di Caprio, Lewis Hamilton and Maria Sharapova—to be measured.
IC-Agency has exceptional proficiency in understanding the online behaviors of "highnet- worth individuals" and is once again strengthening its position as a key player in luxury digital marketing.
"IC-Agency's b international expertise in emerging markets, as well as their understanding of the complex world of luxury professions, particularly watchmaking, reinforced our decision to work with them", concludes Frederic Layani.

About IC-Agency

About TAG Heuer

Tribune des Arts - n°332 - June 2005

TAG Heuer is without doubt the most innovative watch manufactory at the moment: At the last two Basel Exhibitions, its CEO Jean-Christophe Babin debuted technical innovations which, on both occasions, left both visitors and rivals stunned.

Achievements possible only with highly qualified in-house watchmakers, ingenious designers and an array of high-tech machines. Otherwise, it is inconceivable that such innovations could be kept secret for the three years it took to develop them. Especially since, after their public launch, the first prototypes were then completely revised and improved.

The famous "V4" movement, which revolutionised the 2004 Basel Exhibition with its belt-drive transmission systems and its four "V" shaped barrels, is, for example, in the process of being reworked to deal with all the problems encountered during tests to assess the reliability of the concept: belt drives were added, systems simplified. As resistance, reliability and precision are among the chief qualities of TAG Heuer, the brand cannot afford to place on the market models or mechanisms that have not undergone full testing. Especially since it deals generally in sports watches which are often subjected to enormous shocks, stresses, temperature variations, along with the ravages of sand, salt water or even perspiration.

No assembly-line work

In his workshops at La Chaux-de-Fonds and Cornol in Jura, at the company's headquarters in Marin or in subsidiaries throughout the world, Jean-Christophe Babin has developed an internal communications system which allows each of his 1,000 employees to get to know and respect one another. To the extent that ideas are shared regularly and each member of staff is able to give advice and thus constantly improve not only the movements or aesthetics of the watches but also the efficiency of the after-sales service or even the quality of the bracelets. Moreover, at TAG Heuer there is no such thing as assembly-line work: the watches are even assembled by small teams of four multitasking people (each able to replace his or her colleague) who are wholly responsible for the end product, thereby achieving greater efficiency whilst avoiding repetitive work.

Tested to death

Quality and reliability are indeed the watchwords at TAG Heuer; a visit to the brand's different test laboratories is enough to be convinced of this. One of them tests each watch before it leaves the manufactury: precision, power reserve, air and water tightness. The other, dominated by mysterious machines, is nicknamed the "torture chamber". This is where new models and random samples are abused, even tortured to death. The watches undergo tremendous stress, they are subjected to acids, salt water, sweat, extreme temperatures and pressures, their bracelets are twisted and stretched in every direction, whether made of metal or leather.

"It's thanks to these laboratories that our return rate is far lower than 1%," explains Jean-Christophe Babin. "We cannot allow our reputation for leading edge technology and unfailing reliability to lapse. Especially since our customers, who are for the most part sports men and women, often expose our watches to extreme conditions."