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TAG Heuer - Le Mans 24 hours
For the 24H du Mans, on 13 & 14 June 2015, TAG Heuer will be in attendance at the most legendary of endurance motor races on the track with Team Nissan Nismo and their LMP1 hybrid race car, on the wrist of Patrick Dempsey with his Dempsey Racing team in the GTE-Am class, but also with the two "Friends of the Brand", Chinese driver Ho-Pin Tung and Indian driver Karun Chandhock, both competing in the LMP2 class.
Ever since the 1970s with Ferrari, and of course with Steve McQueen and his Monaco watch for the cult Le Mans film, the history of TAG Heuer has been intimately entwined with that of the circuit almost every year.
For 2015, TAG Heuer is partnering with the phenomenon that is the Nissan GT-R LM NISMO: authentic Avant-Garde design.
After 16 years of absence, Nissan is back with a revolutionary new car, a true technological challenge. An incredible car with a unique design, it is a behemoth with more than 1,000 horsepower, hybrid front wheel drive and a V6 3-litre twin turbo engine. It is the only vehicle in 2015 to be powered in this way - all the others are propulsion - not seen since 1997. A large prototype engine listed in the premier class (LMP1), it brings together the latest technologies in its kinetic energy recovery system, which is incredibly demanding to implement. Three cars have been made, with 9 drivers who will take turns to drive them. Three of them, Lucas Ordonez, Jann Mardenborough and Mark Shulzhitskiy are all graduates of the Nissan Academy, the "school" for drivers which recruits...using a PlayStation game.
TAG Heuer Carrera "NISMO" Calibre 16 Day-Date Chronograph Special Edition
At the 24H du Mans, TAG Heur will be launching the Carrera "NISMO" Calibre 16 Day-Date Chronograph Special Edition. With its 43 mm case in titanium, micro-blasted with titanium carbide, the timepiece offers robustness and lightness. Its sporty spirit is enhanced by its black dress, adorned with charcoal grey and red bands on the dial. The ceramic bezel is scratch-proof and features a tachometer for measuring average speed, while the caseback is decorated with a Nissan Nismo decal.
The TAG Heuer Carrera "NISMO" Calibre 16 Day-Date Chronograph Special Edition is equipped with the calibre 16 movement, known for its reliability and robustness. It is fitted with a Soft Touch matt alligator strap with red top-stitching.
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TAG Heuer - Geneva Motorshow 2015
This year, TAG Heuer will be creating an incredible stand of almost 1000 m2 at the Geneva Motor Show to mark 30 years of partnership with McLaren - the longest collaboration between a watch brand and a Formula 1 team -, and to celebrate all the links the brand boasts with the motor racing world. On this stand, the Swiss brand will be showcasing Formula 1 and Rally, Endurance and Formula E, and legendary races such as the Carrera Panamericana and classic car rallies such as Goodwood. A number of show cars will be on display to delight visitors, under the gaze of all of the Brand's leading ambassadors.
To celebrate this anniversary, a limited edition red and black TAG Heuer Formula 1 will be on display exclusively at the show.
The partnership between TAG Heuer and MacLaren is packed with legendary names, not least that of Ayrton Senna. He was chosen to feature in the first #DontCrackUnderPressure campaign, but is not in the most recent. However, he is returning. TAG Heuer has appointed him as a mentor in its Pantheon of Ambassadors.
This season, the drivers for this legendary stable are Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button.
2015 will also see the return of TAG Heuer to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMP1 category, the media's favourite, via one of the most innovative constructors: Nissan and its Nissan GT-R LM NISMO.
2015 presents a new challenge for Sebastien Ogier, World Rally champion in 2013 and 2014. Let's hope his TAG Heuer Carrera 1887 brings him good luck!
2015 is set to be a particularly electrifying year, thanks to the Formula E championship, the fully electric race series, featuring cars which are little gems of technology and design. It offers a different way of looking at motor racing, perfectly in line with TAG Heuer's cutting edge nature. The Swiss brand is official partner and timekeeper, and partner of China Team and Mahindra Team. Bruno Senna, Ayrton's nephew, is one of the key drivers.
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Ball Watch - On the Ball
I remember writing about Ball Watch Company for the first time five, maybe six years ago, and feeling like I'd stumbled across one of the watch industry's best-kept secrets. Here was a brand with a wide but measured collection of good-looking, well equipped, affordably priced mechanical watches that nobody seemed to be talking about - at least, not in the UK where I'm based. Six years on, not much has changed. Ask your average watch buyer to name a few watch brands in the affordable luxury category (which, for my money, is around £750-£3,000), and I'd be amazed if any of them mentioned Ball. TAG Heuer, Omega and Breitling, sure (albeit increasingly wrongly as prices soar). Longines, and Bell & Ross, perhaps. But Ball? Unlikely. I still find this odd. Ok, it can take years of heavy investment to give a brand momentum. But Ball's got a lot going for it, without the need to bellow from the rooftops. Starting with a good backstory. Ball was born on the American railroads at the end of the 19th century, good hunting ground for romantic tales. Although in this case, romantic isn't quite the word. Watch aficionados will know that Ball Watch Company only came into this world because of the fatal Kipton railroad disaster in Ohio, USA, in 1891.
It was because of this tragedy that Webster Clay Ball, a Cleveland watchmaker, was appointed chief inspector of the Lake Shore Lines. Ball was fastidious about timekeeping and insisted on all manner of strict codes to make sure the railroads ran safely and on-time. His system was a success and it was incorporated across the country and into Mexico and Canada, eventually covering 75 per cent of the American network and 175,000 miles of railroad. From this came his brand, Ball Watch Company, which enjoyed many fruitful years Stateside, becoming the country's largest wholesale distributor of standard railroad watches. But after the Second World War, the American railroads declined and Ball went with it. At some point between 1960 and 1980, the brand went bust - 1962, according to one Cleveland historian, closer to 1980 according to Ball HQ. Details of what happened between then and its 1990s rebirth are equally sketchy, but at some point the Ball name was bought from the founder's descendants by private investors and became Swiss. The company moved to La Chaux de Fonds and launched its first watch, the Engineer, in 2001. Its home market is still the USA, but growth has taken it into traditional markets including Switzerland, Hong Kong and the UK, and into less familiar territories for luxury watch brands such as Pakistan.
Backstories and functioning distribution networks only get you so far, mind. But Ball backs these up with good product. Despite the inevitable price hikes during those years since I first interacted with the brand, you can still pick up a Ball watch for under £1,000 in the UK. The Fireman Racer automatic is £920 and a super watch for anyone looking for a quality mechanical on a modest budget. Further up the ladder, Ball does some nifty complications, again without going anywhere near the ceiling price for mechanicals with equivalent spec. Take its latest Trainmaster Worldtime, launched during Basel 2013. It has day and date indications and can tell the time in 24 time zones simultaneously. It's chronometer certified, shock-resistant to 5,000Gs and has a good smattering of Ball's self-powered micro gas lights, which, the brand says, glow 100 times more brightly than SuperLuminova and for 25 years. And it costs just £1,960/€2,340. Competition for that kind of get-up at that sort of price is next to non-existent. Slightly pricier, but only by virtue of the innovative tech inside it, is Ball's new Hydrocarbon Black - an intimidating name for a watch - which features its in-house developed SpringLOCK anti-shock system. This, claims the brand, can reduce the impact of shocks by as much as 66 per cent (what, no decimal point?), particularly useful it you're American freeclimber Alex Honnold, for whom the watch was designed. Yours for £2,900/€3,470. Innovations like these are very much the brand's own doing. Jeffrey Hess, who runs Ball in America, stated recently that the brand's chief technical officer Philippe Antille has registered 35 patents exclusively for Ball since he joined the company in 2008.
Hess, for the record, was at the centre of rumours earlier this year that Ball would launch its first in-house movement at Basel 2014, but latest reports from inside the company indicate that while development continues, it's unlikely there'll be a launch any time soon. Costs incurred to date mean price points for watches powered by such a movement would be prohibitively high, given the brand's current positioning. For now therefore, Ball will continue to be supplied by ETA, a relationship it knows - as do many other independent brands - won't last forever. Any base calibre Ball produces would, you'd expect, be designed to carry all manner of modules because the brand's approach to complications is unconventional to say the least. The Ball for BMW TMT, due in retailers now, has a mechanical thermometer. That's a little pricier, coming in at £4,350/€5,200. There's much to like about Ball, and much to anticipate. If it can stay 'on the ball', so to speak, there's no reason it couldn't take up a healthy position in the market. In fact, it would be only right and proper if it did - the legend has it that the expression 'on the ball' was coined in response to Webster C. Ball's revolutionary timekeeping system. Now there's a thing.
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Internet - Dominated by members of an exclusive club
June 2nd 2009
In the fifth edition of its WorldWatchReport (WWR) published in partnership with EuropaStar, the IC-Agency web specialist shows that cybernauts typically search for information on just a handful of brands. Rolex, Omega, Breitling and TAG Heuer get by far the highest number of hits on various search engines. The conclusions are based on a massive sample of over 300 million searches globally.
The document provides a wealth of information. Since its last version, the IC-Agency report has been broadened to encompass social networks such as Facebook and Youtube as well as the usual fields such as the regions and countries of origin from which the searches stem, along with brands, the most famous models per brand, the nature of these models - originals or copies - and the various brand ambassadors. The number of brands dealt with has also more than doubled from 12 to 25. The Geneva start-up has thus undertaken an in-depth survey that provides an extremely relevant vision of brands' existence on the internet.
60% of searches
Models priced between 3,000 and 15,000 Swiss francs, classified in the "prestige" category, quite clearly top the rankings, with an average of 60% of global searches. That leaves little room for other types of watches. The same pre-eminence is echoed in searches for both brands- Rolex, Omega, Breitling and TAG Heuer - and models - Seamaster, Speedmaster, Daytona, Aquaracer, etc.
These figures naturally only reflect internet or "virtual" behaviour. Nonetheless, if these searches or "user intentions" do in fact translate into purchases, the best-selling watch clearly embodies a luxury object that is within reach of men - all the model searches are for masculine timepieces! - with a small sum at their disposal and who are looking to treat themselves to a well-known and clearly identifiable product. The watch buyer profile that emerges is that of a man with an established career and wishing to own a precious object. It is also worth noting that this man wants to buy authentic models, since searches linked to replicas or fakes account for only 2.3% of the total number.
The biggest consumers
The WWR underscores the public interest in affordable models with a powerful image. Its analysis of the typical watch consumer reinforces the idea that these are the kind of people who actually buy the most timepieces. After years spent in a kind of hype bubble with brands presenting ever more luxurious and expensive models, there is clearly a renewed interest in products that are simpler but also accessible to a broader market segment. This judicious trend was already apparent at the recent watch shows, and a glance at the strategies adopted by brands in their latest collections reveals their determination to win over these clients who had not so far been given due consideration.
Read the IC-Agency press release
The IC-Agency report can be ordered from the following website:
www.worldwatchreport.com
[Rating: 5 / 5 stars]
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