TAG Heuer Releases a Visionary Take on the Monaco to Honor the Pinnacle Grand Prix Race

Your guess is as good as mine on which teams and drivers will cross the line with victories at the illustrious Monaco Grand Prix this weekend. But thanks to F1 partner TAG Heuer, watch enthusiasts have already scored a big win today, thanks to a new timepiece that not only speaks to the soul of motorsports but also speaks to the soul of innovative horology.

Created in collaboration with Louis Vuitton’s La Fabrique du Temps development workshop and lab, founded by master watchmakers Michael Navas and Enrico Barbasini, the new 50-piece limited edition Tag Heuer Monaco Speed 12 is a Monaco, but it’s not a chronograph. It’s a Monaco, but it only has one hand. It’s a Monaco, but it has the appearance of an open-worked engine.

In short, the new TAG Heuer Monaco Speed 12 delivers equally bombastic doses of race-inspired design and unexpected watchmaking innovation within the familiar, and eminently motorsports-historic, square face of the Monaco timepiece. So, let’s take a closer look at it.

Based on La Fabrique du Temps’ patented Spin Time movement, the Monaco Speed 12’s Caliber TH84-00 automatic movement provides not only the visionary engineering that creates a fundamentally unique expression of mechanical time-telling, but also the foundation for some masterful design work that essentially redefines the Monaco’s dial “canvas.”
 

You can, of course, get a full view of this innovative movement through an exhibition caseback; however, as it is a circular movement ingeniously suspended via some less-than-obvious bridging within the Monaco’s square case design, let’s first talk about how this movement’s construction – especially how it has reinterpreted the Spin Time complication – informs how the Monaco Speed 12 looks before addressing what it does.
 

Simply put, the top view provides an unmatched level of open-worked transparency for the timepiece. While we’ve seen open-work techniques come into play on other elevated Monaco models (most recently, the groundbreaking Monaco Evergraphs debuted during this year’s Watches and Wonders), this time visibility plays a more critical and even more purposeful role by framing the uncanny hour indices.
 

The 12 indices that circle the dial (a hallmark of the Spin Time movement) were purposefully designed to mimic petrol-engine piston heads. The shape and details of each make this association undeniable.

As the single red-tipped minute hand completes a circuit along its central ring gauge, we see the translation of this “12-cylinder” firing sequence into time-telling: The appropriate piston for the current hour rotates 90 degrees to reveal its index numeral while the previous hour’s piston rotates back to hide its number.

As a watch enthusiast and a car guy, this is an intriguing (not to mention wonderfully apt) riff on a “jumping hours” function that theatrically sings like a rev-pop from a well-tuned racing engine.
 

Perhaps most importantly, given the Monaco’s historical focus on track-worthy chronography and timing, the Monaco Speed 12 stands uniquely as a timepiece that plays out its drama by the hour, not so much by the split-second. In fact, the watch doesn’t feature a traditional dedicated seconds counter.

However, despite this deliberate shift in intention, the Monaco Speed 12 has only required very subtle changes to the unmistakable square-dialed nature of the timepiece.

While only sporting a single crown and no pushers, the Monaco Speed 12’s 40mm brushed-and-polished titanium case still stands fender-to-fender within the Monaco pantheon. That is because, although this is the only non-chronograph in the current Monaco collection, TAG Heuer has produced notable single-crown non-chronograph Monaco executions in the past.
 

Moreover, most current Monaco chronographs place the main crown on the right side of the case, as the Speed 12 does. So, this delicious apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree, delighting many potential collectors, no doubt.
 

Finally, a black, contrast-stitched, textile-embossed rubber strap and titanium double-safety folding clasp complete this thought-provoking vehicle.

Debuting today, just ahead of the F1 race in Monaco, the TAG Heuer Monaco Speed 12 is slated for availability in December of this year, with an anticipated list price of $87,000.

With only 50 being made, however, if you are interested in getting your hands on one of these timepieces, I’d slam it into high gear. For more information, check out the TAG Heuer website.