WristWatch Magazine | Page 41

TAG Heuer headquarters Making His CARRERA Twenty-fifteen was the year Jean-Claude Biver recast TAG Heuer, a company long associated with value and motorsport S teve McQueen raised the Heuer Monaco to the level of 20th century design icon in the racing film LeMans. A Heuer Autavia with a white dial, black registers and blue chronograph hand means one thing: Swiss Formula 1 driver Jo Siffert. In the eyes of many a collector, TAG Heuer is the quintessential racing watch. As a chronograph specialist that hit its stride during the heyday of motor racing in the 1960s and 1970s, Heuer combined industry-leading technology, revolutionary product design, and the preternatural marketing skills of a young Jack Heuer to make its name in pit row as well as on the wrists of countless racing enthusiasts and hobbyists. Now another great marketer is taking his turn at the wheel of TAG Heuer, and there’s little chance he will “crack under pressure.” BIVER AT THE WHEEL On taking over TAG Heuer last year, Jean Claude Biver told a group of journalists that if he his ambitions for the brand proved successful, it would be the greatest achievement of his career. It was a particularly bold statement from a man not averse to making them. Everyone assembled knew that Biver’s was already a singular career. The changes imminent at TAG Heuer were to be large in scope. Twenty-fifteen indeed proved a pivotal year in the history of TAG Heuer. The watchmaking maven who relaunched Blancpain and revamped Omega before orchestrating the well-publicized turnaround at Hublot has realigned TAG Heuer’s products to target younger collectors while coming to market with Switzerland’s best answer yet to Silicon Valley’s wave of smart watches. More on that exciting news later. And be sure to look for an in-depth, hands-on review of the aptly named Connected Watch in the next issue of our sister publication, AboutTime. First, let’s focus on exciting new developments—both inside and out—in the Carrera line, a watch that has long been TAG Heuer’s bestselling model. 2016 | WRISTWATCH 39