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Jose Martin V. Ursúa
August 16, 2016     |    

Banking on the Past

Behold! The new Monza!

With its 40th Anniversary Monza, TAG Heuer has packed a lot of history into one striking and sporty watch. As always, you can count on marketing departments to simplify, obfuscate, and omit certain details, so the story behind the watch is never as straightforward as it is made out to be in press releases. So where do we begin on this genealogical exercise to trace the Monza’s roots?

Let’s start with the name: Monza. Home of the Italian Grand Prix since the 1920s, Monza is also the natural habitat of the tifosi, that rabid sea of red that worships at the altar of Enzo Ferrari — first, when he managed the Alfa Romeo works team, and later, when Il Commendatore was forced to manufacture his own cars independently. As a race track, Monza remains the fastest on the Formula 1 calendar, despite the addition of chicanes and the elimination of its famed banked turns in the 1960s. Michael Schumacher’s victory in 2003 remains the swiftest Grand Prix of all time, with an average race speed of 248 km/h. Grands Prix at Monza would also play pivotal roles in both the 1975 and 1976 F1 championships.

1976 was the Heuer Monza’s inaugural year and, serendipitously, it is also considered the most exciting season in the history of Formula 1. The watch was named after the ’75 Italian Grand Prix, which saw Niki Lauda clinch his first World Championship, while Ferrari secured its third Constructors Cup. Capping this red-letter day was a first-place finish by Clay Regazzoni, also driving a scarlet Ferrari 312T. Jack Heuer’s pioneering efforts in motorsport sponsorship in the late 1960s led to his family’s company becoming the official timekeeper for Scuderia Ferrari in 1971. (The deal would end in 1980, with Longines stepping in and placing its logos beneath the windscreens of Villeneuve and Scheckter.) Heuer famously provided chronographs to all Ferrari drivers, with their blood types engraved on the caseback should the worst occur. In that era, it often did.

The 1976 season centered on a year-long rivalry between Lauda and McLaren’s James Hunt — a duel that was ultimately settled in the final race after countless ups and downs, including Lauda’s near-fatal crash at the Nürburgring. Against all the odds, and despite horrific and agonizing burns that scarred his head and lungs, Lauda willed himself to resume racing at Monza, just three Grands Prix later. Bolstering the season’s legend are the ancillary details: The strong and contrasting personalities of the two drivers, the wild-looking cars that were barely reined in by technical regulations, the long-gone attitudes toward personal danger, and the hedonistic pursuit of happiness. (The 2013 film “Rush” is a good, if predictably Hollywoodized, retelling of the season, and features an Oscar-worthy performance by Daniel Brühl as Niki Lauda.) For good and ill, we will never again see a season like it in Formula 1.

Grand Prix racing in the 1970s was more casual, and dangerous, than today's Formula 1.

Although a special commemorative edition, the Monza of 1976 was actually one of the cheapest watches in the Heuer lineup. Its most distinctive characteristic was its black case, as it is one of the first to be coated via a PVD process. The case, whose shape is borrowed from the second-generation Carrera, is made of brass rather than stainless steel. The underlying metal can be seen on many vintage Monzas, as the early PVD coatings were notoriously delicate and would wear away easily. Also iconic on this model is the odd subdial layout: A 30-minute counter at 3 o’clock and a small running-seconds at 10. This, too, was a result of cost-cutting, as the Monza’s Calibre 15 was designed to be a cheaper, detuned version of Heuer’s Chronomatic movement. (The Monza would later be sold with the flagship Calibre 12.) Nevertheless, the Monza would become an icon, and would continue to grace Heuer catalogs until 1985, when the TAG Group purchased the then-125-year-old watchmaker. Coincidentally, that year’s reigning F1 champion was none other than Niki Lauda. His car? A McLaren-TAG.

Echoes of 1976 are clear to see on the face of the 40th Anniversary Monza. Markings are in white and Ferrari scarlet, set against a black dial, now with a subtle sunburst pattern that reveals itself under the light. The dial layout stays as faithful as possible to the Calibre 15 original, though with the running-seconds counter now at 3, and the 30-minute totalizer at 9. Refreshingly for vintage fans, the mismatched subdial hands (blocky white for minutes and pointed red for seconds) have been retained. The chapter ring also continues to bear both tachymeteric and pulsometric scales, with the latter (meant to assist in timing one’s heart rate) helpfully highlighted by a red arc. The hour markers and main hands have been painted with vintage-look, yellowish luminescent material that matches the patination found on most original examples. If there is one aspect of the dial that might raise a purist’s eyebrow, it’s the unnecessary updating of typefaces. The new fonts are modern, angular, cold, and at odds with the era that the designers have carefully tried to evoke. Inattention to details like these is what sets apart companies like TAG Heuer and Omega from retro masters like Longines and Tudor. Protecting the dial is a sapphire crystal (with anti-reflective coatings on both sides) that is slightly domed, in contrast to the flat crystals on recent Monzas.

“Shining brightly against the dark finish are the polished stainless steel crown and pushers, which match the contrasting parts on the 1976 Monza. This Monza is water-resistant to a depth of 100m, but obviously the pushers should not be operated while submerged.”

Once we look beyond the dial, it becomes clear that the 40th Anniversary Monza has a mixed parentage, as there are very few cues inherited from the 1976 original. In fact, the Monza’s stronger genetic line is one that began in 1933, when Heuer produced a single-button chronograph with a cushion-shaped case. This watch was unnamed, but its form was resurrected with the “Monza Re-Edition” of 2000, during a time when TAG Heuer made a conscious decision to embrace its rich past. But why was the 2000 re-edition called a Monza when it had nothing in common with the 1976 model? That is a mystery that only TAG’s marketing people can answer, but it did result in this lovely new watch that unites the two Monza families. The four-sided cushion is back, but this time the case is in titanium, blackened with a hard coating of titanium carbide. Shining brightly against the dark finish are the polished stainless steel crown and pushers, which match the contrasting parts on the 1976 Monza. This Monza is water-resistant to a depth of 100m, but obviously the pushers should not be operated while submerged.

Underneath the metal is TAG Heuer Calibre 17, previously powering a variety of watches dating back to the Kirium chronograph. Most notable among these are past re-editions of the Monza, Carrera, and Monaco. Calibre 17 is a modular movement derived from the popular workhorse ETA 2894. Opinions on modular chronographs are mixed among watch collectors and watchmakers alike, but the Calibre 17 enjoys a reputation for accuracy and reliability, and has been used by TAG Heuer since 1996. One of the most obvious differences between the 40th Anniversary and the original watch is the crown’s position on the right side of the case, rather than on the left. This was a peculiarity of Heuer’s Chronomatic calibres, necessitated by space issues and never repeated after that generation of movements was retired. Turning the watch over, the Monza’s caseback is an imposing block of solid black metal, screwed tightly at all four corners. In the middle of the straight-brushed, titanium surface is the Heuer logo, inlaid with red lacquer, with the word “MONZA” engraved above it in white. Lastly, the black calfskin strap is perforated with big, rally-style holes that recall the original Monza’s Tropic Sport rubber strap — a much appreciated detail for fans of 1970s-vintage watches. Securing the strap is a deployant clasp, also in blackened titanium and bearing a huge Heuer shield for all to see.

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The confused parentage of the newer Monza has always bothered fans of vintage Heuer, as it unnecessarily complicated the heritage of the company’s lineup. However, this chaos was more than offset by the beauty of all the watches bearing the Monza name. For example, the Monza Calibre 36, sporting a movement derived from the Zenith El Primero, remains a very desirable addition to anyone’s chronograph collection. But the original Monza is a very different beast. It is a black beauty born of sporting purpose, and speaks of the fashions and technological state-of-the-art in 1976. The 40th Anniversary Monza marries these two classics, and the result is, surprisingly, not a Frankenstein mishmash of influences. Rather, it is a handsome chronograph that bears its own distinct face, and pays appropriate homage to two celebrated eras in TAG Heuer’s history. Well done.

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