Introducing TAG Heuer Celebrates The 2025 Monaco Grand Prix With Three New Monacos

Put aside how the tight road course and giant Formula 1 cars of the current generation mix for the race – Monaco will always be the most iconic Grand Prix on the Formula 1 calendar, and you won't convince me otherwise. It's the one race I desperately want to go to some year, and it's also the one race that has yielded one of the most iconic watches in motorsport. So, for the inaugural year of the LVMH sponsorship of Formula 1, TAG Heuer is launching three new "Monacos" for the Monaco Grand Prix.

We'll start with the TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph Stopwatch, a limited edition release of 970 pieces in a lightweight and durable DLC-coated titanium case measuring 39mm by 15mm thick. The watch draws inspiration from a very cool vintage split-second pocket watch by Heuer, with a highly legible black center section of the dial with black-gold facetted hour and minute hands with blue Super-LumiNova, and black-gold polished indices. The silver opaline outer section features a red printed track that matches the red chronograph hand and red accents that were found on those old chronographs. The watch features the Caliber 11 automatic movement with hours, minutes, running seconds, a 30-minute counter for the chronograph, and date, with 42 hours of power reserve. The price is CHF 9,600.

If vintage inspiration isn't your thing, TAG Heuer is bringing out the big guns again with a new version of the Monaco Split-
Seconds Chronograph with a case made in texturized titanium, named TH-Titanium. The material was developed in-house at the TAG Heuer Lab and, using heat, creates an irregular, almost camo-like pattern in the titanium alloy used here. The movement is also crafted in titanium with black DLC coating, while the skeletonized display is highlighted with punches of neon lime green for a sporty look. The split-second chronograph movement works at 36,000 vph with a 65-hour power reserve. The entire watch weighs 86 grams, including strap and buckle (and the movement alone is just 30 grams). The watch is CHF 145,000

Finally, for the petrolheads in the audience, TAG Heuer brings back the Gulf Oil livery that became so iconic in the 1960s and 1970s when the company was sponsoring racing teams. The tie with TAG Heuer is probably strongest from when "Gulf" adorned the Porsche 917 driven by Steve McQueen in the 1971 film Le Mans, where he also famously wore a Monaco.

The new TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph x Gulf features the same dimensions and movement specs as the Stopwatch version above, with a sandblasted grade two titanium case and a folding clasp on the bracelet. The hands and indices are rhodium-plated, while the dial is a silver fine grain that looks white and features the Gulf logo and blue and orange stripes. The retail price is CHF 9,300 and is limited to 971 pieces (for the 1971 release of Le Mans).

If pushed to pick my favorite TAG Heuer model, it would probably be the Monaco. The "Dark Lord," as it's been nicknamed by the community (decidedly not the nickname the brand prefers, which is just "Black Monaco"), ref. 74033N is one of my top twenty favorite watches of all time – again, arbitrary rankings with a gun to my head. The CBL2184 skeletonized Monaco and the CBL2180 (reissued Dark Lord) were two of the most visually compelling watches in the brand's catalog in the last few years. But the new TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph Stopwatch caught my eye. That said, if I were going that route, I'd want to pick up the ref. 11.401 split-second pocket watch below. What a looker.

The case of the split-second Monaco looks wild in pictures, and I kind of want to see and experience that and the overall weight in person as well. I like this digi-cam look; it's very futuristic. That's sort of the preferred route I'd choose with a modern split-seconds chronograph. The vintage aesthetic has its place, but TAG Heuer has done well with this push to modernize the Monaco  and restablish the brand's connection with Formula 1 and the most iconic race of the season. 

For more information, visit TAG Heuer's website.