PARIS — No matter how winding the Formula 1 track gets in Monaco, Tag Heuer won’t be missing a turn.
The Swiss watchmaker has been named the title partner of the May 25 race that will now be formally known as Formula 1 Tag Heuer Grand Prix de Monaco, marking the first time it has been associated with a brand.
The watchmaker’s name will be writ large, with a special logo created for the occasion, with visibility including trackside signage all around town.
And of course, it will already be present on the paddocks’ clocks — shaped like the brand’s square-shaped Monaco design — from the opening race in Melbourne in March.
Tag Heuer returned as official timekeeper for the elite motorsport on Jan. 1 as part of a global 10-year partnership with parent group LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton that also includes Louis Vuitton and Champagne house Moët & Chandon.
Michel Boeri, president of the Automobile Club de Monaco, said the organization’s “admiration and respect for Tag Heuer is reiterated” through this new agreement, a continuation of a “wonderful relationship” of nearly 15 years.
“As the watch synonymous with motorsport and the greatest drivers in the history of Formula 1, it is only natural that the Automobile Club de Monaco would choose to be indelibly connected with Tag Heuer,” he continued.
Chief executive officer Antoine Pin deemed Monaco the watchmaker’s “spiritual home,” a city that embodied the brand’s spirit of competition, quest for performance and pushing one’s limits in terms of mental resilience as well as physical prowess.
Steve McQueen and Ayrton Senna, wearing Tag Heuer timepieces.
Courtesy of Tag Heuer
“We are the brand that represents the very notion of chronography,” he said. “The Carrera [watch], the Monaco [watch] were born chronographs because performance and its measure are what has carried the house.”
But even so, this is one for the books, he said.
“Being the title partner in Monaco is a source of pride because you have to be recognized by many to get this title,” he told WWD exclusively. “This is acknowledgement of the legitimacy of the house from our peers, from all spheres — political, sports and luxury — so we can be proud of it. Now we must rise to the challenge and be worthy of the trust we were given.”
A key point will be balancing the glamorous nature of the “most symbolic race of Formula 1” with the growing popularity of the sport.
Formula 1 drew 6 million race attendees and a cumulative TV audience of 1.5 billion last year, as reported. The average audience per race is around 70 million, but some may top the 100 million mark, while the social media tally of the competition has passed 60 million fans across all its platforms.
Younger viewership is also surging, fueled by the Netflix series “Drive to Survive” and “Senna.”
“This pushes us to be more creative, more exacting in execution to ensure that the greater number can share in this exceptional moment,” the executive continued, although he demurred on details of activations around the racing weekend. “It’s a virtuous circle where the more you give, the more you want to share.”
Plus the Formula 1 weekend won’t be the only highlight in Monaco for Tag Heuer. The watchmaker will continue its association with the Grand Prix de Monaco Historique, dedicated to vintage automobiles, with the 2026 race.
It will also become the partner of the Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique, a rallying event dedicated to cars that took part in prior races between 1911 and 1983, as part of its ongoing multiyear deal with the Automobile Club de Monaco.
Serving as official timekeeper of Formula 1 for a second time is also recognition of Tag Heuer’s longstanding association with competitive motorsports.
“We are inseparably linked to the discipline,” said heritage director Nicholas Biebuyck. “At the beginning of the 20th century, it was precision chronographs that would define who won and who lost — one of the market leaders was Heuer.”
The watchmaker returned as timekeeper on Jan. 1.
Courtesy of Tag Heuer
The onset of its golden era in the 1960s under then-CEO Jack Heuer’s tenure coincided with the beginning of Formula 1. The watchmaker became the first luxury brand to have its logo on a race car in 1969 and sponsor a team in 1971. The Swiss watchmaker served as the sport’s official timekeeper from 1992 to 2003.
Over the decades, it partnered with prominent racing teams Scuderai Ferrarai, McLaren and, most recently, Oracle Red Bull Racing. Tag Heuer linked with the team in 2016 and extended the contract for a “significant” amount of time in 2023, though terms were not disclosed.
And with 239 wins, 613 podiums, 11 World Constructors’ Championships and 15 World Drivers’ Championships through its associations with teams over the course of 75 years, Tag Heuer is nothing less than “the most winning brand in Formula 1, second only to Ferrari,” according to Biebuyck.
Not to mention that “basically, every major driver in the sport had an official connection to Tag Heuer at some point in their career,” he added, reeling off names that included Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.
Beyond the racetracks, 2025 will be about exploring Tag Heuer’s “natural territory of expression” in precision engineering, cutting-edge technology and avant-garde materials afresh for the CEO.
With watch lines named Formula 1 and Monaco, there’s a raft of novelties to come throughout the year, including during May’s race weekend.
The brand started the year with a new case design and details reflecting the aerodynamic lines of the cars for its Formula 1 Chronograph collection at January’s LVMH Watch Week. Other evolutions in this family are expected to drop at Watches & Wonders in Geneva in April.
The watch fair will be “the crystallization of our brand vision and narrative,” for Pin. “It will be a moment that shows a very coherent direction in time while allowing us to explain this paradox of [a watch as] a machine that creates emotion.”
