TAG Heuer celebrates 50 years of the Monaco watch at Grand Prix, with Bella Hadid, Winnie Harlow, Jourdan Dunn

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TAG Heuer marked a half-century of its iconic Monaco watch, as worn by Steve McQueen in Le Mans, with a three-day bash centred around the Monaco Grand Prix, with guests including Bella Hadid, Winnie Harlow, Jourdan Dunn, Patrick Dempsey, Kai Lenny, Jean-Éric Vergne, Richard Madden, Daniel Brühl, and DJ Bob Sinclair
May 26, 2019/23.22

David M. Benett

TAG Heuer has held a three-day celebration over the Grand Prix de Monaco weekend to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its iconic Monaco watch, the first water-resistant square watch and the first with an automatic-winding chronograph movement.
On Friday, the company unveiled the first of five new Monaco collector watches at the Key Largo Villa, hosted by CEO Stéphane Bianchi and chief strategy and digital officer Frédéric Arnault. VIPs included Max Verstappen from the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Team, who delivered the new watch by helicopter, and Bella Hadid, Winnie Harlow, Patrick Dempsey, Kai Lenny and Molly Payne, and musician Guy Berryman. Magician Laurent Beretta entertained guests at the dinner.
The new watch, the TAG Heuer Monaco 1969–1979 Limited Edition (169 pieces) has a brown leather strap with holes lined in light brown, a green dial with brown and yellow features, and a Côtes de Genève finishing. The hands are coated with SuperLuminova. The back is engraved with the original Monaco Heuer logo, and ‘1969–1979 Special Edition’ and ‘One of 169’.
A display at the villa showed a Porsche 917K in Gulf livery, along with photos and a racing suit from Steve McQueen’s car racing movie Le Mans, where he wore a TAG Heuer Monaco watch. TAG Heuer has been the official watch of the Monaco Grand Prix since 2011, tying in to the grand prix that gave the watch the name in 1969.
TAG Heuer hosted a 1970s-themed cocktail party and dinner to tie in with the Monaco watch’s first decade.
On the second day, the company took guests on a private tour of the Monaco Top Cars Collection Museum, including a retrospective on the Monaco timepiece, followed by a track and pit-lane tour, and viewing the qualifying sessions from the TAG Heuer lounge. Christian Horner, team principal of Red Bull Racing Formula One, gave a debrief.
That evening, it hosted a party with cocktails and dinner on the TAG Heuer Yacht moored in Monaco, again with Hadid, Harlow, Dempsey and Lenny, and Jourdan Dunn, racing driver Jean-Éric Vergne, Richard Madden and Daniel Brühl. DJ Bob Sinclair performed live.
On race day, guests enjoyed access to the Grand Prix itself. Lewis Hamilton had pole position and won the race.

David M. Benett