TAG Heuer in the high-end price segment
With the new Replica TAG Heuer Monaco Split Seconds Chronograph, TAG Heuer is returning to the high-price mechanical segment. This wristwatch was on display during Watches & Wonders 2024. Logically, chief watchmaker Carole Forestier is behind this eye-catching creation alongside the management, whose price range starts at around 135,000 euros without any customization measures.
The entry into this price range was initiated at the time by Jean-Christophe Babin, who now heads Bulgari as CEO. In 2004, TAG Heuer presented the patented Monaco V4 with four V-shaped barrels, 39 micro ball bearings and 13 micro toothed belts during Baselworld. However, it took another seven years for this timepiece to really work in Switzerland.
At 75,000 euros, the price for the Monaco V4 Limited Edition (60 units) was several times higher than the price level known up to that point. From 2011, the Carrera Mikrograph 1/100th, limited to 150 units, was available for 40,000 euros.
Popular tourbillon with chronograph
This high-mech scenario changed in 2016 with the launch of the Carrera Calibre Heuer 02 Tourbillon COSC. These wristwatches were available for less than 20,000 euros. In other words: TAG Heuer had created a combination of chronograph, tourbillon and self-winding at almost popular prices, which is still available. From 2017, these timepieces were also available with diamonds at prices starting at 48,000 euros.
Incidentally, the chronographs for which the company has been known since its founding were and are in price ranges below 6,000 euros. This is where fans of the brand look for and find their favorite products called Aquaracer, Autavia, Carrera, Formula 1 and Monaco. In 2023, the company manufactured an estimated 390,000 wristwatches under the umbrella of the French LVMH group. Sales ex-factory were estimated at 615 million Swiss francs. This equates to an average ex-factory price of just under CHF 1,600. Extrapolated, the average retail price of TAG Heuer wristwatches is therefore likely to be in the region of around 5,400 Swiss francs.
Split-seconds luxury
The Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph, recently presented in Geneva, is far from such prices. It costs at least 135,000 euros. Julien Tornare, who moved from Zenith to TAG Heuer as CEO in 2024, must therefore look for a new target group. In general, split-seconds chronographs, which are known to embody a complex, enhanced form compared to normal timepieces, are aimed at a relatively small circle of people with a penchant for unusual mechanics. Technical information on this watchmaking complication can be read here in Uhrenkosmos.
