“They say you can’t go back in time, we did!” Thus TAG Heuer has just announced what had already been rumored for months, namely its return as Official Timekeeper of Formula 1. Twenty-two years after the last time, the LVMH Group brand returns to the track in place of Rolex, further consolidating an alliance that has perpetuated for more than 70 years and has marked the history of both brands.

TAG Heuer’s return to F1

The news was published this morning by all official TAG Heuer and Formula 1 channels, announcing the passing of the baton from Rolex after 11 years. Thus, at the 75th edition of the championship, we will find TAG Heuer again for the second in its history as official timekeeper, meaning that instruments made by the brand will be used to take race measurements. ” Being the name linked to what defines the winner: time, is an honor and a privilege,” said Antoine Pin, CEO of TAG Heuer. ” We are excited to start this new chapter and create new stories to enrich the history of Formula 1.”

TAG Heuer: in pursuit of precision

TAG Heuer previously served as the official timekeeper of the world’s most famous motor racing championship from 1992 to 2003, but their partnership began much earlier.

Founded in 1860, Heuer has always sought quality and precision with its timepieces, so much so that as early as 1916 it produced the first stopwatch with hundredth-of-a-second accuracy, the Mikrograph, a first for the time. Thanks to this watch, it was possible to measure the timing of cars in motor races with extreme accuracy, thus becoming a benchmark. It was precisely because of this continuous innovation that in the 1950s, the period when F1 was born, Heuer, not yet under the ownership of Techniques d’Avant Garde (TAG), decided to produce exclusively wrist chronographs, greatly increasing the quality and engineering of its products.

Tag Heuer’s breakthrough in the 1960s-70s.

By the next decade, F1 became a globally known brand, which thus implied some visibility for the watch brand as well. In 1969 Heuer formed a partnership with Lotus driver Jo Siffert, on whose livery the brand’s logo was applied, becoming the first to appear on an F1 car, a truly exceptional act of marketing that opened the door to a future in which it became common to all racing teams.

The years went by, and the quest for greater precision in calculating lap times grew more and more. In 1971 Ferrari needed a timing system for the Fiorano track, and so Heuer developed a piece of equipment called the Le Mans Centigraph capable of calculating tenths of a second very accurately, soon to be adopted by all motorsport teams globally. This device became fundamental to the Italian team, and contributed greatly to its successes including winning the 1975 World Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships with Niki Lauda. Also in the same year it also became the first brand to sponsor a team.

In 1979 the partnership with Ferrari ended, replaced a few years later in 1985 by McLaren, one of the longest-running partnerships that lasted until 2016. A major turning point came in the same year, when Heuer was acquired by Techniques d’Avant Garde Group (TAG), owner of the McLaren team, leading to the birth of the TAG Heuer name, and setting even higher standards of quality and precision.

In the 1980s there were two events that solidified TAG Heuer as the main F1 championship brand. In 1986, the Formula 1 watch was made, which soon became a cultural icon in the industry. Then in 1988, a young Brazilian driver named Ayrton Senna joined McLaren and wore TAG Heuer watches. This gave further notoriety to the watch brand, given the driver’s fame that was growing more and more as a result of his endless victories, thanks to an innate talent behind the wheel.

TAG Heuer’s historian

Nowadays TAG Heuer is one of the most important brands in the history of F1. In its history we find 239 victories, 613 podiums, 9,471 points, 11 World Constructors’ Championships and 15 World Drivers’ Championships. In addition, it is important to highlight the collaboration with teams such as Ferrari and McLaren, but also with drivers of the caliber of Lewis Hamilton, Mika Hakkinen and Ayrton Senna as mentioned earlier.

Since 2016, it has been an official partner of Red Bull Racing, with which it has won four World Drivers’ Championships with Max Verstappen and two consecutive Constructors’ Championships.

Conclusions

Thanks to this new partnership, TAG Heuer returns to the center of the global automotive scene. Indeed, remember that Formula 1 nowadays boasts 1.5 billion viewers, so from a marketing point of view it could be a profitable move. Who knows what will come out of this new collaboration, we expect some watches in tribute to F1 and why not, maybe even one on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the competition, we’ll see… In the meantime, we look forward to the Austrian Grand Prix expected on March 16, which will inaugurate the 2025 season with TAG Heuer ready to strike the starting time. Did you guys expect this passing of the baton?

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