In-Depth: The Surprising Origins Of TAG Heuer’s Formula 1 Watches

I used to be born in Neuchâtel in 1954 and raised in La Chaux-de-Fonds, the cradle of Swiss watchmaking. Each of my mother and father labored within the watch business, my father labored in watchmaking provides, and my mom was a setter working at house on the workbench.  My mom’s father was additionally within the business, as he stamped watch circumstances.

Having grown up on this area and on this household, it was pure for me to envisage a profession within the watchmaking business. After highschool, I enrolled within the Faculty of Utilized Arts, the place I discovered jewellery making. At the moment, there was no college that supplied watch design. I additionally discovered creative drawing, sculpture, pure creation, and analysis into unique types, which entails pure creation round a given theme, for instance, making a desk clock with no constraints. However in fact, it was solely pure that I might develop into occupied with watch design.

I graduated from artwork college within the Spring of 1973 and shortly turned to watchmaking, doing varied internships in watch case factories to create designs and prototypes. I used to be most occupied with studying in regards to the manufacturing course of and the “secrets and techniques” of producing.  

I spotted that in designing watches, the designer have to be pragmatic and know what may be produced profitably for industrialized watches. I felt that innovation and proposing new concepts was necessary, however this needed to be throughout the limits of what could possibly be produced. I am certain that we are going to get to this after we focus on the design of TAG Heuer’s System 1 watches.

I held a collection of jobs within the watch business. I labored as a designer for Nepro Watch in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Certina in Granges, and Buler in Longeau earlier than becoming a member of Roventa-Henex in 1980. Positioned in Tavannes and Biel/Bienne, Roventa-Henex was a specialist in watch design and improvement, in addition to manufacturing watches on a private-label foundation, and I labored as a designer for all the brand new watch developments for the corporate’s clients.  

This coated a variety of kinds, from very female and fancy watches like Gucci and Fendi to sporty watches like TAG Heuer, in addition to extra standard strains.

Though I’ve at all times loved designing all kinds of watch, I feel I’ve at all times had a gentle spot for sporty watches like TAG Heuer.

Heuer was an enormous buyer of Roventa-Henex, and in 1982, as a Roventa-Henex worker, I designed their new Heuer 2000 Collection watch. The design transient for this new assortment was comparatively easy. Within the late Seventies, Heuer began out with conventional diving watches (just like the Rolex Submariner), and so they did properly with these watches, however they needed one thing bolder and extra fashionable. That they had no specific standards for aesthetics, however insisted on method, water-resistance, consolation on the wrist, and the grip of the rotating bezel.

That is once I determined to create protuberances on the bezel in order that when sporting diving gloves, you’d have a greater grip. However it wasn’t simple as a result of, on the time, we did not know the best way to create reduction by stamping; stamping was very fundamental. It, subsequently, took a number of makes an attempt to realize the specified end result. The 2000 Collection was manufactured by Roventa-Henex for TAG Heuer and was very profitable, with Heuer providing a full vary of watches and chronographs. The 2000 Collection was a revolutionary assortment for TAG Heuer and stays of their catalog to today, renamed because the “Aquaracer” over 20 years in the past.

The 3000 Collection was launched in 1984 and it additionally got here from a comparatively easy design transient. The brand new collection was not presupposed to compete with the 2000 collection however to supply larger selection for the model. I took a special strategy, with a dodecagonal (12-sided) rotating bezel and a barely extra aggressive however thinner case. 

The Govt, launched the next yr, was designed with the exact purpose of creating a diver’s watch flatter than common, with a extra elegant look. We achieved a flatter stack by making a rotating bezel “sandwiched” between the case and an higher bezel. Neither the 3000 Collection nor the Govt assortment matched the success of the 2000 Collection, however they had been novel designs. 

In 1984, Heuer launched the Tremendous Skilled, which was a whole updating of its “deep dive” watches. This new watch was impressed by the bezel of the 2000 assortment — with the protuberances on prime — nevertheless it was way more imposing and sturdy. The case is of monocoque development, housing huge seals, with a socket on prime to make sure water-resistance to 1000 meters. Discover that the highest and backside areas of the case cowl the ends of the bracelet, to supply further safety, as we’d see on the long run System 1. 

Roventa-Henex assembled all these watches for TAG Heuer — the 2000 Collection, the 3000 Collection, the Govt, the Tremendous Skilled, and later the System 1.

To grasp the transient for the System 1 design, it is necessary to grasp Heuer’s catalog and the market that Heuer needed to focus on with its new watch. With the 1000, 2000, and 3000, Heuer had a pleasant vary of watches for diving and different sports activities, however one thing was lacking – colour!!  

With the System 1, we had been making an attempt to create a brand new fashion of watches for American surfers, divers, and different younger of us heading for the seashore. They had been sporting massive Casios, with digital shows, a lot of buttons, and sophisticated modes. Whereas many of the Casios for watersports had been black or chrome steel, Casio was including colour to many of those waterproof fashions.

So the transient from Heuer, in Spring 1985, was to create a brand new watch that was enjoyable, colourful, and younger. Consider the intense surfboards and the garments that the surfers had been sporting. However, in fact, Heuer was robust in dive watches and the brand new watch additionally needed to have the requisite diver capabilities – good water-resistance, notched unidirectional rotating bezel, and legible arms, even within the water or shiny solar. Affordability was additionally necessary, particularly in competing with the Casio fashions for younger consumers.

Constructing such a watch in 1986 wasn’t so simple as it might sound. To get the colours, the case needed to be artificial, however making a diver’s watch from artificial supplies on the time and providing water resistance to 200 meters was merely remarkable. It was a enjoyable watch but in addition a revolutionary watch!

Roventa-Henex can be liable for the design and improvement of the brand new watch and would additionally manufacture it, so I used to be tasked with discovering the proper companions to make it. I enlisted two corporations for the mission: MRP SA and R. Montavon.

MRP SA had produced the circumstances for a lot of of Heuer’s early dive watches (1000 Collection) and I had labored with them on the 2000 Collection and 3000 Collection, as properly. MRP would deal with the chrome steel parts of the case and make sure the required water-resistance.

Maybe the third companion, R. Montavon, had essentially the most difficult function of the three. That they had experience in plastic and rubber injection and overmolding, and so they had been liable for what can be distinctive parts of the System 1 — the artificial circumstances and bezels.

The three companies met to deal with essential manufacturing features to provide a wholly new fashion of casing that might meet the necessities of the transient. We added fiberglass to the plastic base materials to extend its hardness and stability, and we integrated a separate metal container to accommodate the motion and assure watertightness of 200 meters. The artificial a part of the case can be overmolded on the chrome steel container, with TAG Heuer advertising this as its “twin mixture” case.  

The artificial rotating bezel proved to be significantly difficult. There can be notched enamel contained in the artificial bezel, however the essential query was whether or not to make use of a metal spring, which could trigger speedy put on on the enamel or to develop an artificial spring. Giancarlo Dal Busco, the technical director of R. Montavon, prompt that the spring also needs to be fabricated from artificial materials to keep away from put on and tear on the mechanism; nonetheless, there was nonetheless the query of what sound the bezel would make when turned. Mr Dal Busco took out his comb and ran a fingernail over the enamel, and it was clear that the sound was good!  It is humorous how one thing so simple as the sound of working a fingernail over the enamel of a comb might end in an answer for what we looked for this bezel motion.    

On the time, it was an excellent first to create a case comprising a spherical metal container with a screw-down case again, crown tube and crystal, and a 25% fiberglass-reinforced artificial coating enabling many shiny colours to be realized, with an all-synthetic, notched, unidirectional turning bezel. The Swiss watch business had by no means seen something just like the System, a shiny, colourful dive watch.

Clearly, the System 1 watch needed to be attractively priced, nevertheless it needed to be a historically manufactured watch with a repairable and detachable motion, which was not the case with the Swatch. Even the suggestion that Swatch affected the colours did not enter into the equation, for the reason that purpose was to compete with Casio with the youthful viewers, so the Swatch actually did not have an effect on the design transient for the System 1. Maybe the Swatch confirmed that folks needed lighter, colourful watches, that had been enjoyable to put on, however TAG Heuer needed a wholly completely different kind of watch.

System 1 was a severe timepiece that could possibly be worn within the water or on the seashore; this was very completely different from the Swatch, which was not meant to be usedas a look ahead to watersports. It’s nice to see so many System 1 watches nonetheless wanting good and working properly in 2025.

Sorry, however that is one other piece of fiction! We started engaged on the brand new watch in Spring 1985, and if my reminiscence is right, we known as this mission the “diving look ahead to younger folks.” The design transient didn’t point out racing or System 1, however the title was added to the watch in the course of the design and improvement course of.

The title System 1 was added in reduction on the backside of the case, within the space that covers the strap. In my sketches from 1985, you may see that the underside of the case is marked “location for model title.” After all, by the point the watch was launched, TAG Heuer had entered the racing world, and “System 1” was the right title for it.

The brilliant colours and sturdy development would enchantment to younger divers and drivers, so, what started as a colourful dive watch was quickly marketed as a sporty racing watch.

On the time, Tag-Heuer’s dive watch (Plongeur) assortment was made up of the “traditional” Collection 1000 assortment and the newer 2000 Collection assortment with its raised lugs on the rotating bezel. For me, it was essential to innovate on the System 1 watch and produce a special look to the watch to deliver out the colour in the easiest way potential, whereas incorporating the important qualities of a diver’s watch.

After just a few sketches, I made a decision to go for a case with lug covers, hiding the ends of the bracelet at 6 and 12 o’clock, making the case extra engaging and giving it larger power. As we mentioned, we had to make use of an artificial materials to get the colourful circumstances we needed, and this new form can be stronger than a case with conventional lugs.

The homogenous floor of the bezel highlighted the robust colours, whereas the slight depressions gave the bezel a sure rhythm. The dial, with its minute monitor encapsulated in a coloured zone and four-quarter inlaid indexes recalling the TAG Heuer emblem, additionally added graphic innovation and celebrated the start of TAG Heuer.

As for the arms, we made no aesthetic change from Heuer’s lineup of dive watches, persevering with with the fashion utilized in Heuer’s different dive watch collections. These arms offered wonderful legibility and had been acquainted to divers and surfers.

The straps had been fabricated from injected PVC and at all times matched the colour of the bezel.  We made them additional lengthy in order that surfers and divers might put on the System 1 watches with moist fits, however they had been marked with V-shaped grooves in order that they might simply be lower to an ordinary size for put on on the wrist.

These V-shaped grooves resembled the bottom of the TAG Heuer emblem,, and the “keeper” additionally mirrored the brand’s form. TAG Heuer was very pleased with its new emblem, so we integrated its form throughout the dial and strap.

On the time, watches had been typically smaller than in the present day, and the System 1 was no exception. The scale of the unique mannequin was 35mm on the horizontal axis and 40mm on the vertical axis (lug-to-lug), whereas the bezel had a diameter of 34.5mm. We additionally supplied a 28-millimeter model for feminine divers and swimmers, however even these smaller watches supplied the identical development and efficiency.

The System 1 watch was an excellent success from the beginning, being particularly widespread amongst younger women and men. A lot of the preliminary advertising was in america, and the success unfold from there. With the success of the preliminary assortment, we shortly moved on to extra artificial and all-steel variations and the primary chronographs, and I designed all these fashions.

The motion fitted to the primary System 1 “chronographs” was produced by Roventa-Henex. It was, the truth is, a pseudo chronograph, as its base motion was the ETA 902.101, with a three-hand watch surrounded by a chrono module developed by Conseil Rey in La Chaux-de-Fonds. On most conventional chronographs, the chronograph seconds hand is mounted on a middle pinion, and the “working” seconds hand is on a smaller recorder. On the motion that Roventa-Henex developed for the System 1 chronograph, the central seconds hand is a part of the bottom motion and was, subsequently, not a part of the chrono. The chronograph seconds are counted in one of many small counters.

This explains why the primary System 1 chronographs had been outfitted with two batteries, one for the bottom watch motion and one for the chronograph module. This motion was not very dependable, however its use was chosen for worth causes and the shortage of availability of correct chronograph actions at ETA, which was the one producer of quartz chronograph actions on the time.

It was a pleasing shock for me to see the unique System 1 watches supplied once more by TAG Heuer, and these watches introduced again many good reminiscences. It was fascinating that these Kith collaboration watches used the identical tooling as the unique watches, with a comparatively small dimension.

It will have been an attractive evolution to have seen a bigger diameter tailored to in the present day’s tastes. I feel the System 1 design might work properly in a bigger dimension, between 38 and 42mm, so long as it retains its freshness and a lovely worth, which was additionally an purpose of the unique fashions.

It was additionally satisfying to see the passion of in the present day’s collectors for this watch as if it not had that youthful freshness. I loved the truth that 40 years later, this design was particularly interesting to youthful fanatics, the identical crowd that we had been concentrating on again in 1986.

I met Barry Cohen in 1994, shortly after he launched Luminox, a watch model outfitted with gentle sources based mostly on a brand new method. He was searching for a designer to conceive and enhance the aesthetics of this watch. I started creating watch designs for Luminox, leading to an extended collaboration because the model introduced its specialised illumination expertise to the patron market and have become an excellent industrial success. This was additionally the start of an excellent friendship that continues to today. 

The story continues in the present day with my design work for Barry’s new ProTek model, which nonetheless makes use of tritium gentle supply lume expertise. We collaborated to create the aesthetics for ProTek watches, taking over a number of the previous codes I had developed for Heuer on the 2000 line however giving the brand new model a special character, extra consistent with the very tactile model. A brand new journey begins, a friendship endures, and it looks like that is just the start.

This interview has been edited for size and readability.