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TAG Heuer Launches Racing Blue Monaco 

TAG Heuer re-affirms its close connection to motorsports with the new Monaco Chronograph Racing Blue Limited Edition, a new edition of the famed square racing chronograph boasting a dial accented in a particularly French shade of blue.

The new TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph Racing Blue Limited Edition.

The highlight color of the new Monaco chronograph model is meant to recall the early days of automotive racing when cars were distinguished by their national colors rather than the colors of a manufacturer or sponsor. TAG Heuer’s new Monaco Chronograph Racing Blue also references the hues of automotive brands like Talbot-Lago, Delage and Bugatti.

Thus, TAG Heuer designers colored the sub-dials and strap on the new watch with blue tones, twelve blue markers and rhodium-plated hour and minute hands with blue SuperLumiNova.

This color scheme nicely matches the silvered sunray brushed dial said to recall the engine-turned dashboards of sports cars in the 1920s and 1930s. A hard-to-miss yellow stripe announces the chronograph central hand and the faceted baton marker at 12 o’clock.

Inside the 39mm titanium case TAG Heuer fits its modernized automatic Calibre 11 chronograph movement, which is visible through the clear sapphire caseback.

The watchmaker decorates the back of the watch with a “One of 1000” engraving that details the number of watches available in this TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph Racing Blue Limited Edition series.

TAG Heuer supplies a perforated blue calfskin strap with the watch. It’s linked to the wrist with a titanium folding clasp decorated with an engraved Heuer logo.

Price: $9,200.

 

Specifications: TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph Racing Blue (CAW218C.FC6548, a limited edition of 1,000) 

 

Movement: TAG Heuer Calibre 11 Automatic (Sellita base) powering hours, minutes, seconds, date and chronograph.

Dial: Silver sunray brushed with 2 blue opalin counters, angled date, rhodium plated, polished applied indexes, rhodium-plated hour and minute hands with blue SuperLumiNova, lime yellow lacquered central hand, black HEUER printed logo.

Case: 39mm grade 2 titanium sandblasted, beveled, domed sapphire crystal, titanium crown, sapphire caseback, water resistance to 100 meters.

Bracelet: Blue perforated calfskin strap with grade 2 titanium folding clasp with double safety pushbuttons. 

Price: $9,200. 

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The Watches

Analog Shift Teams with Nivada for Retro-Style Chronograph   

Swiss watchmaker Nivada Grenchen has teamed with Analog Shift (the vintage watch division of the Watches of Switzerland Group) to launch the Chronomaster ‘Big Eye’ Yachting, a 38mm steel-cased yacht timer and chronograph.

The new Nivada Grenchen Chronomaster ‘Big Eye’ Yachting.

The 1970s-style Chronomaster ‘Big Eye’ Yachting offers a sharp-looking clean white dial with easy-to-see broad arrow hands and a minute counter (at three o’clock) modified with blue and orange sections made specifically for counting down the first ten minutes of a yacht race.

The watch’s chronograph display can track up to thirty minutes with a bright orange central seconds hand, the minute counter and a small seconds counter at the nine o’clock position.

In addition, the watch’s unidirectional aluminum bezel offers a third function: tachymeter. The engraved tachymeter scale includes markers for fifths of a second to track average speed.

Inside the case Nivada Grenchen fits a manually wound Sellita SW510 BH B movement with a 63-hour power reserve. The movement is set under a sapphire crystal that the watchmaker has domed to mimic the same shape of the original Chronomaster’s acrylic crystal.

As vintage experts, Analog Shift asked Nivada Grenchen to pair the limited edition watch with a genuine vintage ‘beads of rice’ steel bracelet.

The Chronomaster ‘Big Eye’ Yachting, a limited edition of 100, is available from all Watches of Switzerland Group platforms, including  WatchesofSwitzerland.com, Mayors.com, Betteridge.com, and AnalogShift.com. 

Price: $1,995.

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The Watches

Jaeger-LeCoultre Applies Retro Style to Master Control Chronograph Calendar 

Jaeger-LeCoultre dresses one of its most impressive Master Control models in mid-twentieth-century style with a sharp-looking pink gold case with a black dial and red accents.

The new Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Control Chronograph Calendar.

Inspired by its own Memovox and Futurematic collections from the 1950s and 1960s, Jaeger-LeCoultre offers the new Master Control Chronograph Calendar with patterned sub-dials and a dark blue moon-phase indicator, both of which nicely contrast with the black brushed sunray dial.

You might recall that Jaeger-LeCoultre applies the Master Control name to watches that pass its in-house 1,000-Hour Control Certification. The rigorous testing protocol, now standard for all Jaeger-LeCoultre timepieces, involves testing not only the movement but the entire cased-up watch.

The vintage styling on the Master Control Chronograph Calendar is framed by a pulsometric scale marked around the flange. This red-colored display was traditionally used by physicians to measure patients’ heart rates, and, as the watchmaker notes, is still relevant today. The red is repeated on the sub-dials and in the day and month windows.

The full dial is beautifully balanced. The complete calendar and a bi-compax chronograph indications are easy to read while the day and month windows in the upper section of the dial are almost symmetric with the moon-phase and date indicator at 6 o’clock.

Jaeger-LeCoultre’s excellent automatic Caliber 759, an integrated chronograph with a column-wheel chronograph and vertical clutch, powers the watch’s timing indicators and the triple calendar with moon-phase display. The movement, finely decorated and visible through the sapphire crystal case-back, offers a strong sixty-five-hour power reserve. (See below for additional specifications). 

Price: $32,500. 

Specifications: Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Control Chronograph Calendar 

Case: 40mm by 12.05mm pink gold, 50 meters of water resistance. 

Movement: Automatic Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 759 with a 65-hour power reserve. 

Dial: Black sunray-brushed with indicators for hours, minutes, small seconds, day, date, month, moon phases, chronograph with 30- minute counter and pulsometer. 

Strap: Black alligator.

Price: $32,500.

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The Watches

New Arnold & Son Perpetual Moon Glows in Celestial Blue 

Arnold & Son expands its Perpetual Moon collection (a favorite here at iW) with the new Perpetual Moon 41.5 Platinum Celestial Blue, a stunning platinum-cased watch that glows with a ‘Stellar Rays” engraved dial and a large white mother-of-pearl moon.

The new Arnold & Son the new Perpetual Moon 41.5 Platinum Celestial Blue.

The watchmaker creates the ray-shaped dial decor by applying irregular engraving to various depths and widths to produce a fluctuating sequence that allows light to reflect and refract. Artisans then add a several layers of transparent lacquer to accentuate the effect.

Arnold & Son renders its ultra-large moon in white mother-of-pearl with hand-painted shadows, all liberally coated with Super-LumiNova. This is placed amid a grained sky comprised of midnight-blue PVD. And as with all models in the Perpetual Moon collection, the moon is surrounded by the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia constellations, which are also hand-painted and coated with luminescent material.

This new model measures 41.5mm in diameter, the new size of the recently redesigned Perpetual Moon series. In addition to refining the case size with the revision, Arnold & Son also re-shaped the lugs, creating a more elegant form with beveled ends.

The back of the Perpetual Moon 41.5 Platinum Celestial Blue also provides both information and eye candy. There, Arnold & Son places a secondary, easily adjustable moon phase indicator. Artisans finish the manually wound A&S1512 Caliber with beautiful polished and chamfered bridges and circular satin-finished wheels. All screws are blued, chamfered and polished.

The caliber easily performs up to the high level of its finish. The movement’s two barrels and oscillating frequency of 3 Hz contribute to a whopping 90-hour power reserve. 

With only thirty-eight Perpetual Moon 41.5 Platinum Celestial Blue watches being made, I’d expect Arnold & Son to sell all examples of this model fairly quickly. 

Price: $48,300.

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The Watches

Chronoswiss Sparks an ‘Electric’ Open Gear 

With its CVD-coated blue case and swirling black dial, the new Chronoswiss Open Gear Blue Spark is meant to echo the energy of an electrical charge.

The new Chronoswiss Open Gear Blue Spark.

The watch melds a classical regulator dial layout with a stunning hand-guilloche swirling dial pattern meant to remind its wearer of pure energy.

The Chronoswiss Open Gear series is comprised of  regulator dial watches that feature a prominent, separate central minute hand and secondary hour and seconds hands. The layout was historically placed on reference clocks for use by watchmakers to quickly read the time while setting new or repaired timepieces.

 

The swirled black dial here provides an energetic backdrop for a blue hour ring at the 12 o’clock position. This is paired with the long minute hand and a small seconds display at six o’clock, which provides its own whirlpool of time.

 

The display is presented on two levels with the upper level showcasing skeletonized gear train bridges and the hour and seconds indicators and the lower showcasing the intricate, hand-crafted dial work.

 

The Chronoswiss Open Gear style is present throughout the watch with its 41mm stainless steel case, satin-finished and polished knurled bezel and onion crown. Through the clear sapphire back you’ll see Chronoswiss’s Caliber C. 299, an automatic movement with a skeletonized rotor.

Price: $11,600. Limited edition of 50. 

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