Even if cars leave you cold, they do say there are three motor races that everyone should attend at least once: the 24 Hours of Le Mans for its day and night drama; the Indianapolis 500 for
its sheer theatre; and the Monaco Grand Prix –because it’s the most glamorous motorsport event on the planet.

First run in April 1929 and won by Franco-British spy William Grover-Williams in a Bugatti adorned with the original “racing green”, the sight and sound of 16 of the world’s fastest cars being driven through the tiny principality’s streets by 16 of the world’s best drivers gripped spectators like nothing before.

There was drama around every corner in the early decades, not least in 1955 when Alberto Ascari spectacularly launched his Lancia D50 into the harbour after missing a chicane while leading the pack. Inevitably the cars got quicker every year and, from being one of the most spectacular fixtures on the grand prix calendar, the Monaco race has now come to be seen as “boring” by some.

They say today’s F1 machines are simply too long, too wide and too fast for the circuit – making giddy overtakes all but impossible and therefore diluting the excitement. All the same, the Monaco Grand Prix is still the jewel in every season’s crown, not least because Monaco is in the unique position in Formula 1 of calling many of its own shots. It pays a reduced fee to F1 owner Liberty Media for the privilege of hosting the race (believed to be around half the amount charged in other locations), it controls how the race is televised and, most importantly it retains the right to organise its own track advertising and sponsorship deals.

That last fact enabled TAG Heuer to sign up as “official watch partner” of the Monaco Grand Prix in 2011 before becoming sponsor and timekeeper in 2020 – even though F1’s overall watch partner was Rolex. That situation changed this year when the global role was taken over by LVMH which (as TAG Heuer’s owner) has further strengthened the watchmaker’s hold over the event and reinforced its already inextricable links with motorsport. Finances, ownership arrangements and F1 politics aside, TAG Heuer does seem the natural choice of partner for the Monaco Grand Prix – if only on the basis that it’s the only watch brand to actually produce a model called Monaco.

Launched in 1969 as the world’s first water-resistant, square-cased chronograph, the Monaco arrived in the same year that Jack Heuer took his brand to the pinnacle of motorsport by recruiting Swiss F1 star Jo Siffert. But while naming the new chronograph “Monaco” linked it to the famous motor race, it was also intended to evoke the principality’s celebrated glamour as a means of attracting wearers from fields such as design and architecture to give Heuer (as it was then known) a wider, more sophisticated reach beyond the world of cars.

Ironically, the Monaco became indelibly associated with motor racing not because of the place after which it was named, but because of its appearance on the wrist of Hollywood star Steve McQueen in the 1971 movie Le Mans. At the time, no one really noticed what was strapped around McQueen’s wrist and production of the original Monaco came to an end around five years after
the film’s release.

When LVMH bought TAG Heuer in 1999, one of its first moves was to revive the distinctive, square-cased chronograph. The result was that the Monaco not only returned with a vengeance but was subsequently adopted as the platform for some of the most radical TAG Heuer creations of the modern era, such as the Monaco 69 of 2003 (a swivel-case creation combining mechanical and analogue movements) and the Monaco V4 of 2004 (with a movement driven by tiny rubber transmission belts).

There have been numerous other variations on the Monaco model during the past two decades, but it wasn’t until last year that a version became available with a “split-seconds” chronograph movement – a mechanism central to motor racing because it allows the independent timing of two cars simultaneously.

At the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix, TAG Heuer presented the Oracle Red Bull Racing star Max Verstappen with a customised version of the watch marked with his name, race number and his lion’s-head logo. The dial also featured three stars, one for each of the Dutchman’s Formula 1 World Championship victories – which, by the end of the season, he had increased to four.

And at April’s Watches & Wonders show in Geneva, TAG Heuer celebrated its new role not just as the official timekeeper of the Monaco Grand Prix but of the entire series with the release of a special “F1” edition of the Monaco Split-Seconds made from white ceramic. Available in just 10 examples, it costs more than £140,000.

To mark this year’s race, meanwhile, the brand created the three new Monaco models pictured here – two of which you won’t need to be on a grand prix star’s salary to be able to buy…

tagheuer.com