Leap Of Time

Chronograph technology has fundamentally remained little changed since its invention 200 years ago and Carole Forestier-Kasapi is here to change all that at TAG Heuer

- JONATHAN HO

CAROLE FORESTIER-KASAPI has a nickname in the industry. She's often known as the "Queen of Complications". Widely recognised for her genius during her time at Cartier, she has brought her lauded skills to her new role as Movements Director at TAG Heuer. For watch lovers, this can only mean good things for our beloved complication: chronographs.

If you think about it, the first modern chronograph was created in 1816 by French watchmaker Louis Moinet. His chronograph could measure time accurate to 1/60th of a second - an unrivalled degree of precision at the time of its creation. By the time Longines built one of the earliest chronograph wristwatches in 1913, it'd take another 50 years for the premier watchmakers of the era - Hamilton, Heuer, Breitling and Buren - to create and patent an automatic chronograph calibre known as Calibre 11. Since then, the technology (and even its underlying architecture) has been largely unchanged and Forestier-Kasapi is here to shake things up.

It goes without saying that under her leadership, there has been quite a few exciting developments in TAG Heuer's movement portfolio since their last novelty for Only Watch Monaco. For 2023, the Aquaracer's design continues to evolve with the new Carrera Date and the use of disruptive lab-grown diamonds in both Carrera Plasma and Aquaracer collections, as well as a range of new advances in chronograph calibres creating new efficiencies and tolerances.

When it comes to reinventing a legacy complication like the chronograph, do you think it's already the best it could be or can you reinvent the chronograph?