BY DHANANJAY PATHAK
The year 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the Monaco and Tag Heuer is celebrating in true style by launching an entire range of five new watches paying a tribute to each decade of Monaco’s historical existence. It was not long ago that we talked about the new TAG Heuer Monaco 1969-1979 watch, the first of the new five watch collection and here we are today with news on the second installment. The new Tag Heuer Monaco 1979-1989 limited edition features a sparkling bright red dial and makes a style statement reminiscent of the 80s.
With blue becoming the new black, the color red is slowly but steadily becoming the crowd pleaser amidst the group of people who are looking for something different. The red sunburst dial on this new watch is striking to look at and is quite reminiscent of watches from the 70s and 80s. Positioned at 3 and 9 are two sub-dials that give the dial a balanced look and rendered in a shade of silver they provide a nice contrast against the red background. The outer periphery features horizontally placed hour markers that give the watch a unique visual appeal, followed by a printed circular minute ring and a date window at 6 towards the inside. One of my favorite details on this dial is the subtle use of black in the form of circular plots at intervals of 5 and also the tip of the hour and minute hand.
Moving on to what makes a Monaco special, its case. Made from stainless the case bears a square shape and has a diameter of 39mm. But don’t let the dimensions fool you as having tried one myself I can assure you that the watch wears larger than the dimensions might suggest and sits comfortably on the wrist offering a ton of presence. Like the unconventional case shape, another defining feature of this watch is the quirky setup of the physical button with the chronograph pushers at 2 and 4 on the right and the crown assembly at 3 on the left. The case is water resistant to a decent 100 meters.
Powering the watch is Tag Heuer’s Caliber 11 which is a modular automatic chronograph movement with a Sellita at its base. The movement operates at a frequency of 4 Hz and offers a power reserve of 40 hours.
The Tag Heuer Monaco 1979-1989 limited edition watch is a funky take on an iconic sports chronograph. The watch would come attached to a perforated racing style black leather strap, limited to just 169 pieces and would retail at a price of USD 6,550.
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