The History of Tag Heuer Watches

A true classic, the Swiss made Tag Heuer Watches, can be traced all the way back to 1860 and a young man by the name of Edouard Heuer who at the age of just 20 opened his first watch workshop ""Edouard Heuer, Fabrique d'Horlogerie."" in the Swiss village of Saint-Imier.

Heuer a tinkerer by nature was fascinated with precision time-keeping. His emphasis on precision was exemplified in 1916 with the introduction of what would be called the "Micrograph", a stopwatch accurate to 1/100th of a second, this would shortly be followed by the Semicrosplit, accurate to 1/50th of a second. His obsession with precision is what would ultimately lead to worldwide notoriety. His chronographs were so cutting edge that in 1920 they were chosen as the official timepiece of the Antwerp Olympics. Decades later, it would be a Tag Heuer that would become the first Swiss watch to go into outer space on the wrist of John Glenn.

To get to a level of such precision, Heuer worked long hard hours and along the way patented a variety of unique mechanical functions such as the "Time of Trip" feature (think of two sets of hour and minute hands overlaid one which tells the time, the other which acts as a timer) which extended beyond the wrist and into the dashboards of planes and cars in the early 1900s. Heuer was so ahead of his time, his patent for the oscillating pinion granted in 1887 is still used in many watches today.

As the years rolled by Heuer would create a series of famous watches, each more innovative and more accurate than the prior. It was 1969 however that would represent the next step forward in watch making when a joint venture between Heuer, Breitling and Hamilton would yield what was arguably the worlds first automatic chronograph. This achievement, unveiled in New York on March 3rd 1969 helped further expose the brand on the worlds stage and would solidify its place as a lasting luxury watch manufacturer.

In 1985, Heuer was purchased by Tag (Techniques d'Avant Garde) to create the Tag Heuer Watch company. The company would go on to make one of the most popular Tag Heuer models ever, The Tag Heuer Formula 1 Watch. On September 13th, 1999 the company would be sold to luxury brand holding company LVMH Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy for an estimated $750 million dollars. The new parent company would further increase distribution capacity exponentially and enhance the Tag Heuer Watch brand as one of status and privilege.

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