TAG Heuer hits the road with Aston Martin

TAG Heuer’s partnership with Aston Martin is a match made in racing heaven, says Alex Doak

For a brand that began making dashboard chronographs in 1911, and almost single-handedly invented the notion of the “driving watch” with its Autavia and Carrera wrist chronographs in the early 1960s, TAG Heuer has been playing its motoring connections relatively lightly of late.

Despite its status as “engine name partner” for Red Bull Racing’s F1 cars, the brand’s reorientation towards younger lifestyles has placed DJs, supermodels and surfers as prominently in its activities as things car-related. Which is why the announcement at this month’s Geneva Motor Show of a new partnership with Aston Martin – also a sponsor of Red Bull Racing, and this season with its name in the title – seems so significant.

“The great thing about TAG Heuer is of course its huge, iconic heritage in motor racing,” says Aston’s design director Marek Reichman, who explains that his own first watch was a Heuer Monaco (see boxout, below), acquired at the Monaco Grand Prix. “I spent all of my first two terms’ student loan and ate beans for the next six months, but if you’re a guy, who wouldn’t want to be Steve McQueen?” he says.

Two special-edition chronographs have been unveiled: a quartz Formula One watch inspired by the successful Aston Martin Racing (AMR) endurance racers, and a Carrera Calibre 01 chrono, designed in the same luxurious vein as Aston’s grand-touring coupes, with exclusive features including a hexagonal cut-out dial inspired by details on the latest Vantage, and redesigned lugs and case.

To its many petrol-head fans, this brings TAG Heuer back into the mainstream motoring world – petrol coursing through its veins once more, as it were – alongside a carmaker truly going places. In late February, Aston Martin posted record pre-tax profits, and the strongest fourth-quarter performance in its history, fuelled by its first new core product in 13 years, the DB11.

New CEO Andy Palmer, meanwhile, is driving through a “Second-Century Plan” that sees its traditionally GT-oriented range exploding into almost every other conceivable luxury segment, from the “Valkyrie” mid-engined hypercar developed with Red Bull Racing (a new version with TAG Heuer’s logo, shown above, was unveiled in Geneva) to an all-electric SUV being built at a vast new facility in south Wales.

Similarly, TAG Heuer is a watch brand that has been on manoeuvres in recent years. For example, both its tourbillon, retailing for an unprecedentedly accessible ￡12,100, and its high-profile swerve into the smartwatch sector, have been developments as notable as Aston’s extreme Valkyrie project. The much-vaunted “shared DNA” conversation is actually far easier than expected with the new bedfellows.

“Our portfolio is growing, and that’s where TAG Heuer really makes sense for us,” Reichman told Telegraph Time on a trip to the carmaker’s headquarters in Warwickshire. “Because of its range, you can align with one collection that feels ‘midengined’, or another that’s more ‘GT’ or ‘SUV’.” Reichman adds that TAG Heuer’s speed of development is also very different to the slow lead times that are traditionally found in the watch industry.

“If you’re a company running at a certain clock speed, you’re never going to fit with someone running slower,” he says. “The reality is that TAG’s clock speed is as fast as ours.” The new launch models are just the start of an ongoing series – like Aston’s Second-Century Plan, the long term is firmly in mind, with a Connected smartwatch on the cards, and then the promise of something that’s truly unique. “Start walking, then running,” Reichman continues. “We’re getting the product to market to then get revenue to invest in what hasn’t been done before.