Viva Technology: Innovation at the Heart of TAG Heuer

Technological prowess, precision timekeeping and avant-garde design are the pillars of TAG Heuer, a watchmaking pioneer since 1860. The watchmaking house, which embeds innovation in everything it does, is featured at the LVMH Luxury Lab during Viva Technology.

TAG Heuer’s identity is defined by a bold non-conformist approach, a taste for challenge and a pioneering spirit. Founded in 1860 by Edouard Heuer, the House revolutionized the watchmaking industry. Resolutely audacious, Edouard Heuer simplified the manufacturing of timepieces, making them more affordable without altering their precision. In 1887 he invented and patented the oscillating pinion, an advance that is still used in modern chronographs.

Edouard Heuer passed on his ambition to his son Charles-Auguste, who set out to create a chronograph able to measure time with ten times greater precision than current models. The Mikrograph, capable of measuring time with a precision of 1/100th of a second, was born in 1916. TAG Heuer celebrated the centennial of this major innovation in 2016.

TAG Heuer has since its founding been a leading support of major technological and sporting achievements. Advances in aviation and automobile racing inspired fresh innovative impetus as the House pushed the performance of its chronographs ever further. TAG Heuer also created the first water-resistant case, enabling its chronographs to be used under any circumstances by aviators, athletes, yachtsmen, scientists and others. TAG Heuer chronographs continued to innovate and win new customers with the first automatic chronograph movement. Initiated by Jack Heuer under the code name “Project 99”, it was kept secret until 1969 when the celebrated Calibre 11 movement, fitted with a microrotor, was revealed. This revolutionary movement merited an exceptional case, leading to the design of the Heuer Monaco chronograph, with its emblematic square, blue and waterproof case – a remarkable feat for a square case. The pushbutton at the left clearly showed that it was no longer necessary to wind the watch every day.

The Swiss house is a full-fledged watch manufacture with an impressive range of innovative movements created at one of its four production sites in Switzerland. TAG Heuer’s innovation drive never slowed, notably with the advent of the electronic age as Jack Heuer played a seminal role in development of the first quartz watches in the 1960s.

In recent years TAG Heuer has continued along this same path, designing such watchmaking wonders as the Heuer 02-T tourbillon chronograph, launched at the beginning of 2016. COSC certified and assembled by the master watchmakers at La Chaux de Fonds, the watch was introduced under the sympolic price point of 15,000 Swiss francs (14,300 euros).  The House has at the same time demonstrated a prowess for disruptive technological innovations with the first luxury connected watch, the TAG Heuer Connected. The fruit of an ambitious project led by Jean-Claude Biver, CEO of TAG Heuer and President of the LVMH Watches Division, the timepiece developed by the brand in partnership with Google and Intel has become an iconic model, emblematic of over 150 years of savoir-faire and audacity. During the three days of the Viva Technology show, TAG Heuer will be featuring this game-changing innovation in the world of watchmaking.