I woke up this morning to some nice surprise news coming from Tag Heuer and their collaboration with Kith. They just announced a new Formula 1 that’s modeled on the original from 1986, and there’s plenty of color options to satisfy anyone here. At first glance I thought we we’re going through a deja vu of the Omega Moonswatch release in Tag Heuer form, but I was gladly mistaken.
Original Cloned Design
After reading the release from Tag Heuer, and checking out some of their press images, I must say that I’m eager to go hands on with one of these. Actually, I had an urge to purchase one of the variants on the stainless steel bracelet for myself. It appears that Tag Heuer has gone to extreme lengths to bring back the original case shape and sizing from 1986, they even sought out the original manufacturer of the case from back then and produced these watches with them. Is it the exact same machinery that was used? Probably not, but the effort and nostalgic factor is pretty high.
Upon closer inspection of the provided details from Tag, the case appears to be a luxury composite made mainly of steel with a sandblasted finish. I must say that it’s a very intriguing look with the combination of the bright retro colors and the textured finish. Since the case of the watch actually used the original mold from 1986 the size has of course remained the same at 35mm. This is going to be a very small wearing watch especially when you factor in the bezel, but that’s the current trend we’re in, with many watch brands going back to more vintage proportions, colorways, and materials.
This new iteration is quartz powered, as was the original version. While that may be a let down for some, I see it simply as Tag Heuer sticking to the original specs of the watch. There’s tree benefits to this quartz movement, for one it’s going to be more accurate, secondly the watch has a very slim case at only 9.45mm, and finally we all know that quartz will be more robust and less prone to damage and repairs. The thinness and compact size of the watch is really going to allow this watch to fit comfortably on wrist, and it should look quite elegant as well.
Final Thoughts
This is a really intriguing new release from Tag, and I like the fact that they’ve included a nice selection of 10 different variants. The collaboration with Kith comes off as a little too advertorial for my taste, but if that’s what it takes to have interesting releases like this one, then so be it. One last thing to note is that these watches are all limited editions depending on the variant, with some models having as little as 350 pieces produced. This is another gimmick to increase the perceived collectibility of the watches, and if you really want one you’ll have to act quick.
Leave a Reply