Racing Season: TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph
All three of the new TAG Heuer Monaco Chronographs represent the brand’s take on the contemporary semi-skeletonised dial form sports watch.
On the occasion of the 2023 Monaco Grand Prix, TAG Heuer presents three new Monaco chronographs. All three of these new watches present TAG Heuer’s take on the contemporary skeletonised dial chronograph, or more accurately semi-skeletonised dial form sports watches. Given that this is TAG Heuer, where legibility is king, a full openworked watch, even going so far as to take the dial off, is quite the challenge because these types of watches privilege a certain look and feel where reading the actual time is not the point. This is one reason why these 2023 TAG Heuer Monaco chronographs mark the first time this collection is getting an openworked dial of any sort.
As you can see, the La Chaux-de-Fonds manufacture has succeeded in putting its best foot forward, with each one of the three chronographs offering a different flavour of easy readability. Given that none of these watches are true skeletonised watches, the movement here is the usual automatic Heuer 02. This might be the best presentation of the chronograph movement ever in a TAG Heuer Monaco case though, with key mechanical features including the date wheel and elements of the motion works visible for the first time. The date is worth noting here, with SuperLuminova applied on the date track itself, it would seem.
To be fair, the Heuer 02 has been on display before, in the era when TAG Heuer did try to literally show its mechanical chops, but that was mainly in the old Carrera collection. We have not seen the watches in the metal so we will refrain from making comparisons, but it is nice to see the Heuer 02 again.
All three Monaco chronographs are 39mm timepieces cased in grade 2 titanium, with one model going for the Dark Lord look, with a sandblasted black DLC treatment. That last one also features a black dial (called turquoise) with turquoise indices and highlights, along with turquoise opaline chronograph counter tracks. The blue dial (Original Blue) version features white accents, indices and chronograph counters, although the blue SuperLuminova here makes things look a little blue-on-blue, but it is best to judge this sort of effect in the metal. Finally, the black dial (Racing Red) version also goes with white accents, indices and chronograph counter tracks. All versions feature calfskin and rubber straps, in matching colours (black and blue). Water-resistance is 100 metres.
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