In-Depth: The Surprising Origins Of TAG Heuer’s Formula 1 Watches

I used to be born in Neuchâtel in 1954 and raised in La Chaux-de-Fonds, the cradle of Swiss watchmaking. Each of my dad and mom labored within the watch business, my father labored in watchmaking provides, and my mom was a setter working at house on the workbench.  My mom’s father was additionally within the business, as he stamped watch instances.

Having grown up on this area and on this household, it was pure for me to envisage a profession within the watchmaking business. After highschool, I enrolled within the Faculty of Utilized Arts, the place I discovered jewellery making. At the moment, there was no college that provided watch design. I additionally discovered inventive drawing, sculpture, pure creation, and analysis into unique varieties, which includes pure creation round a given theme, for instance, making a desk clock with no constraints. However in fact, it was solely pure that I’d grow to be concerned about watch design.

I graduated from artwork college within the Spring of 1973 and shortly turned to watchmaking, doing varied internships in watch case factories to create designs and prototypes. I used to be most concerned about studying concerning the manufacturing course of and the “secrets and techniques” of producing.  

I spotted that in designing watches, the designer have to be pragmatic and know what could be produced profitably for industrialized watches. I felt that innovation and proposing new concepts was vital, however this needed to be throughout the limits of what could possibly be produced. I am positive that we’ll get to this after we focus on the design of TAG Heuer’s Components 1 watches.

I held a sequence of jobs within the watch business. I labored as a designer for Nepro Watch in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Certina in Granges, and Buler in Longeau earlier than becoming a member of Roventa-Henex in 1980. Positioned in Tavannes and Biel/Bienne, Roventa-Henex was a specialist in watch design and improvement, in addition to manufacturing watches on a private-label foundation, and I labored as a designer for all the brand new watch developments for the corporate’s clients.  

This coated a variety of kinds, from very female and fancy watches like Gucci and Fendi to sporty watches like TAG Heuer, in addition to extra standard traces.

Though I’ve all the time loved designing all kinds of watch, I feel I’ve all the time had a comfortable spot for sporty watches like TAG Heuer.

Heuer was an enormous buyer of Roventa-Henex, and in 1982, as a Roventa-Henex worker, I designed their new Heuer 2000 Sequence watch. The design temporary for this new assortment was comparatively easy. Within the late Nineteen Seventies, Heuer began out with conventional diving watches (just like the Rolex Submariner), and so they did effectively with these watches, however they needed one thing bolder and extra fashionable. That they had no specific standards for aesthetics, however insisted on approach, water-resistance, consolation on the wrist, and the grip of the rotating bezel.

That is after I determined to create protuberances on the bezel in order that when sporting diving gloves, you’d have a greater grip. But it surely wasn’t straightforward as a result of, on the time, we did not know create reduction by stamping; stamping was very fundamental. It, due to this fact, took a number of makes an attempt to realize the specified outcome. The 2000 Sequence was manufactured by Roventa-Henex for TAG Heuer and was very profitable, with Heuer providing a full vary of watches and chronographs. The 2000 Sequence was a revolutionary assortment for TAG Heuer and stays of their catalog to this present day, renamed because the “Aquaracer” over 20 years in the past.

The 3000 Sequence was launched in 1984 and it additionally got here from a comparatively easy design temporary. The brand new sequence was not imagined to compete with the 2000 sequence however to supply better selection for the model. I took a special method, with a dodecagonal (12-sided) rotating bezel and a barely extra aggressive however thinner case. 

The Govt, launched the next yr, was designed with the exact intention of creating a diver’s watch flatter than ordinary, with a extra elegant look. We achieved a flatter stack by making a rotating bezel “sandwiched” between the case and an higher bezel. Neither the 3000 Sequence nor the Govt assortment matched the success of the 2000 Sequence, however they have been novel designs. 

In 1984, Heuer launched the Tremendous Skilled, which was a whole updating of its “deep dive” watches. This new watch was impressed by the bezel of the 2000 assortment — with the protuberances on high — however it was much more imposing and strong. The case is of monocoque development, housing huge seals, with a socket on high to make sure water-resistance to 1000 meters. Discover that the highest and backside areas of the case cowl the ends of the bracelet, to supply extra safety, as we might see on the longer term Components 1. 

Roventa-Henex assembled all these watches for TAG Heuer — the 2000 Sequence, the 3000 Sequence, the Govt, the Tremendous Skilled, and later the Components 1.

To grasp the temporary for the Components 1 design, it is vital to grasp Heuer’s catalog and the market that Heuer needed to focus on with its new watch. With the 1000, 2000, and 3000, Heuer had a pleasant vary of watches for diving and different sports activities, however one thing was lacking – coloration!!  

With the Components 1, we have been attempting to create a brand new fashion of watches for American surfers, divers, and different younger of us heading for the seaside. They have been sporting massive Casios, with digital shows, a number of buttons, and sophisticated modes. Whereas a lot of the Casios for watersports have been black or stainless-steel, Casio was including coloration to many of those waterproof fashions.

So the temporary from Heuer, in Spring 1985, was to create a brand new watch that was enjoyable, colourful, and younger. Consider the intense surfboards and the garments that the surfers have been sporting. However, in fact, Heuer was sturdy in dive watches and the brand new watch additionally needed to have the requisite diver features – good water-resistance, notched unidirectional rotating bezel, and legible palms, even within the water or shiny solar. Affordability was additionally vital, particularly in competing with the Casio fashions for younger patrons.

Constructing such a watch in 1986 wasn’t so simple as it may appear. To get the colours, the case needed to be artificial, however making a diver’s watch from artificial supplies on the time and providing water resistance to 200 meters was merely extraordinary. It was a enjoyable watch but in addition a revolutionary watch!

Roventa-Henex can be liable for the design and improvement of the brand new watch and would additionally manufacture it, so I used to be tasked with discovering the best companions to make it. I enlisted two firms for the mission: MRP SA and R. Montavon.

MRP SA had produced the instances for a lot of of Heuer’s early dive watches (1000 Sequence) and I had labored with them on the 2000 Sequence and 3000 Sequence, as effectively. MRP would deal with the stainless-steel components of the case and make sure the required water-resistance.

Maybe the third associate, R. Montavon, had essentially the most difficult position of the three. That they had experience in plastic and rubber injection and overmolding, and so they have been liable for what can be distinctive components of the Components 1 — the artificial instances and bezels.

The three companies met to sort out vital manufacturing elements to provide a completely new fashion of casing that will meet the necessities of the temporary. We added fiberglass to the plastic base materials to extend its hardness and stability, and we integrated a separate metal container to accommodate the motion and assure watertightness of 200 meters. The artificial a part of the case can be overmolded on the stainless-steel container, with TAG Heuer advertising and marketing this as its “twin mixture” case.  

The artificial rotating bezel proved to be significantly difficult. There can be notched enamel contained in the artificial bezel, however the essential query was whether or not to make use of a metal spring, which could trigger speedy put on on the enamel or to develop an artificial spring. Giancarlo Dal Busco, the technical director of R. Montavon, instructed that the spring also needs to be manufactured from artificial materials to keep away from put on and tear on the mechanism; nonetheless, there was nonetheless the query of what sound the bezel would make when turned. Mr Dal Busco took out his comb and ran a fingernail over the enamel, and it was clear that the sound was good!  It is humorous how one thing so simple as the sound of working a fingernail over the enamel of a comb may end in an answer for what we looked for this bezel motion.    

On the time, it was an incredible first to create a case comprising a spherical metal container with a screw-down case again, crown tube and crystal, and a 25% fiberglass-reinforced artificial coating enabling many shiny colours to be realized, with an all-synthetic, notched, unidirectional turning bezel. The Swiss watch business had by no means seen something just like the Components, a shiny, colourful dive watch.

Clearly, the Components 1 watch needed to be attractively priced, however it needed to be a historically manufactured watch with a repairable and detachable motion, which was not the case with the Swatch. Even the suggestion that Swatch affected the colours did not enter into the equation, because the intention was to compete with Casio with the youthful viewers, so the Swatch actually did not have an effect on the design temporary for the Components 1. Maybe the Swatch confirmed that individuals needed lighter, colourful watches, that have been enjoyable to put on, however TAG Heuer needed a completely completely different sort of watch.

Components 1 was a critical timepiece that could possibly be worn within the water or on the seaside; this was very completely different from the Swatch, which was not meant to be usedas a look ahead to watersports. It’s nice to see so many Components 1 watches nonetheless wanting good and working effectively in 2025.

Sorry, however that is one other piece of fiction! We started engaged on the brand new watch in Spring 1985, and if my reminiscence is appropriate, we known as this mission the “diving look ahead to younger individuals.” The design temporary didn’t point out racing or Components 1, however the title was added to the watch throughout the design and improvement course of.

The title Components 1 was added in reduction on the backside of the case, within the space that covers the strap. In my sketches from 1985, you possibly can see that the underside of the case is marked “location for model title.” After all, by the point the watch was launched, TAG Heuer had entered the racing world, and “Components 1” was the right title for it.

The intense colours and sturdy development would enchantment to younger divers and drivers, so, what started as a colourful dive watch was quickly marketed as a sporty racing watch.

On the time, Tag-Heuer’s dive watch (Plongeur) assortment was made up of the “basic” Sequence 1000 assortment and the newer 2000 Sequence assortment with its raised lugs on the rotating bezel. For me, it was essential to innovate on the Components 1 watch and produce a special look to the watch to convey out the colour in one of the best ways potential, whereas incorporating the important qualities of a diver’s watch.

After just a few sketches, I made a decision to go for a case with lug covers, hiding the ends of the bracelet at 6 and 12 o’clock, making the case extra engaging and giving it better energy. As we mentioned, we had to make use of an artificial materials to get the colourful instances we needed, and this new form can be stronger than a case with conventional lugs.

The homogenous floor of the bezel highlighted the sturdy colours, whereas the slight depressions gave the bezel a sure rhythm. The dial, with its minute observe encapsulated in a coloured zone and four-quarter inlaid indexes recalling the TAG Heuer emblem, additionally added graphic innovation and celebrated the start of TAG Heuer.

As for the palms, we made no aesthetic change from Heuer’s lineup of dive watches, persevering with with the fashion utilized in Heuer’s different dive watch collections. These palms offered glorious legibility and have been acquainted to divers and surfers.

The straps have been manufactured from injected PVC and all the time matched the colour of the bezel.  We made them further lengthy in order that surfers and divers may put on the Components 1 watches with moist fits, however they have been marked with V-shaped grooves in order that they might simply be minimize to a normal size for put on on the wrist.

These V-shaped grooves resembled the bottom of the TAG Heuer emblem,, and the “keeper” additionally mirrored the brand’s form. TAG Heuer was very pleased with its new emblem, so we integrated its form throughout the dial and strap.

On the time, watches have been typically smaller than at this time, and the Components 1 was no exception. The dimensions of the unique mannequin was 35mm on the horizontal axis and 40mm on the vertical axis (lug-to-lug), whereas the bezel had a diameter of 34.5mm. We additionally provided a 28-millimeter model for feminine divers and swimmers, however even these smaller watches provided the identical development and efficiency.

The Components 1 watch was an incredible success from the beginning, being particularly widespread amongst younger women and men. Many of the preliminary advertising and marketing was in the US, and the success unfold from there. With the success of the preliminary assortment, we rapidly moved on to extra artificial and all-steel variations and the primary chronographs, and I designed all these fashions.

The motion fitted to the primary Components 1 “chronographs” was produced by Roventa-Henex. It was, actually, a pseudo chronograph, as its base motion was the ETA 902.101, with a three-hand watch surrounded by a chrono module developed by Conseil Rey in La Chaux-de-Fonds. On most conventional chronographs, the chronograph seconds hand is mounted on a middle pinion, and the “working” seconds hand is on a smaller recorder. On the motion that Roventa-Henex developed for the Components 1 chronograph, the central seconds hand is a part of the bottom motion and was, due to this fact, not a part of the chrono. The chronograph seconds are counted in one of many small counters.

This explains why the primary Components 1 chronographs have been geared up with two batteries, one for the bottom watch motion and one for the chronograph module. This motion was not very dependable, however its use was chosen for worth causes and the dearth of availability of correct chronograph actions at ETA, which was the one producer of quartz chronograph actions on the time.

It was a nice shock for me to see the unique Components 1 watches provided once more by TAG Heuer, and these watches introduced again many good recollections. It was attention-grabbing that these Kith collaboration watches used the identical tooling as the unique watches, with a comparatively small measurement.

It might have been a ravishing evolution to have seen a bigger diameter tailored to at this time’s tastes. I feel the Components 1 design may work effectively in a bigger measurement, between 38 and 42mm, so long as it retains its freshness and a sexy worth, which was additionally an intention of the unique fashions.

It was additionally satisfying to see the keenness of at this time’s collectors for this watch as if it not had that youthful freshness. I loved the truth that 40 years later, this design was particularly interesting to youthful fans, the identical crowd that we have been concentrating on again in 1986.

I met Barry Cohen in 1994, shortly after he launched Luminox, a watch model geared up with mild sources primarily based on a brand new approach. He was in search of a designer to conceive and enhance the aesthetics of this watch. I started creating watch designs for Luminox, leading to an extended collaboration because the model introduced its specialised illumination expertise to the patron market and have become an incredible business success. This was additionally the start of an incredible friendship that continues to this present day. 

The story continues at this time with my design work for Barry’s new ProTek model, which nonetheless makes use of tritium mild supply lume expertise. We collaborated to create the aesthetics for ProTek watches, taking on a few of the outdated codes I had developed for Heuer on the 2000 line however giving the brand new model a special character, extra in step with the very tactile model. A brand new journey begins, a friendship endures, and it seems like that is only the start.

This interview has been edited for size and readability.