TAG HEUER'S NEW TOUR DE FORCE

The watchmaker has high hopes for the new Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph

- Bilal Khan

From the Mikrograph I used to time the Olympic Games in the 1920s and 1930s to the Heuer stopwatches used to time motorsports in the 1960s, there are few brands more closely associated with the chronograph than TAG Heuer. Recently the brand was able to add a serious watchmaking achievement to bolster its robust resumé with the introduction of its first mechanical split-seconds chronograph.

Indeed, TAG Heuer had a split-seconds quartz chronograph watch that was released in 1989 and was worn by racing icons like Ayrton Senna, Gerhard Berger, and Michael Schumacher throughout the subsequent decade. That said, a mechanical version is an entirely different matter. The split-seconds chronograph-or, rattrapante (French for 'catch up')-is a notoriously difficult movement to produce due to not just mechanical complexity but also the watchmaking skill required to assemble and adjust such a finicky complication. As most readers likely know, this is why it is placed alongside minute repeaters and perpetual calendars in the more commonly understood parlance of what makes a 'Grand Complication.