: Hello everyone on onthedash.com ! I'm JC, the CEO of TAG Heuer and
: first and foremost wish you all a very happy new year thanking
: you for your passion for Heuer and TAG Heuer.

: As indeed there has been a controversy on our new Calibre 1887
: movement, I owe you some direct and personal explainations so
: that as Heuer specialists and passionate lovers you have a
: direct understanding of what's going on.

: Like in 1968 when Jack Heuer luanched the Cal11 project teaming
: with several partners, we decided more than 3 years ago, instead
: of re-inventing the wheel (which we did on the Monaco V4,
: currently being launched with already 85 units delivered out of
: the 150 from the 150 years limited edition, to acquire some IP
: rights from Seiko Instruments Inc. in Japan as they had
: developped a remarkable construction never industrialized nor
: really developped in large quantities, an named TC78. This IP
: was very interesting as allowing us to bridge the gap between
: our modular 28.800 alt Dubois-Depraz Cal 11 and 12 (Monaco,
: Silverstone) and our integrated 36.000 alt Calibre 36 done on a
: Zenith El Primero base. The TC78 IP was matching virtually all
: our requirements in terms of architecture (integrated, column
: wheel, oscillating pinion), versatility, evolutivity rather than
: performances, reliability and potential for important
: productions at reasonable costs. We obviously could have somehow
: gone around that IP as many Brands would have done, coming up
: with a slightly different construction but that would have been
: highly unethical. Therefore we contacted SII and had the chance
: to find highly competent people just eager to see their great IP
: becoming a real volumetric high end movement as until then SII
: had only produced few thousands only but never really
: industrialized it.

: And so the work started which basically was like developping a new
: movement from scratch as our swiss team in La Chaux-de-Fonds,
: redesigned entirely the blueprints filing them legally in
: Switzerland, re-developped several key components, decided to
: move to a swiss assortment and changed the dimensions slightly
: enlarging the diameter but reducing the thickness. All plans
: have been developped in Switzerland as well as all the
: prototyping. Initial prototypes were powered by a SII assortment
: until we decided to change for a Nivarox FAR specific
: development as Nivarox FAR had some capacity to do that unlike
: in 2007 when we first asked them (at this time remember the
: market was up 15% a year an no Company had any capacity). In
: parallel we invested more than 20 mio $ in state of the art dry
: automatized milling technology allowing to produce internally in
: La Chaux-de-Fonds the main plate and bridges at speeds, costs
: and micron-precision unheard before in the industry (and being
: oil-free it's also greener than any other watch factory in
: Switzerland), getting close to 100% of pieces accepted without
: corrections ! we also have developped with another swiss company
: the 1st ever fully automatized jewels setting automat, capable
: to sort and pick-up the right stones under a micron-camera
: video-computerized control and setting the jewels on the plate
: and bridges again at an incredible speed with utmost precision
: and again very limited fall-off. We work with 22 suppliers,
: including 21 from Switzerland and SII from Japan supplying some
: screws, pionions and cut parts.

: The controversy was born out of two factors probably - fuelled by
: "smart" competitors perhaps - which I would summarize
: as follows:

: - we wrongly did not mention the IP in our Press Release and surely
: were too bullish in our "100% home-made" statements as
: indeed many parts are made by other swiss partners and not
: entirely by us. Said that we already do internally more than
: many so-called Manufactures !

: - we acquired a japanese IP which apparently is a sacred cow in our
: Industry ! Indeed, in the recent past several other high end
: Brands have acquired IPs from competitors to develop their own
: movements but this created no big issue as these competitors
: were either swiss or german. I have underestimated the emotional
: dimension of Japan for most swiss companies. Probably an
: american IP too would have created a lot of controversy too as
: well as wrongly american watches are snobbed by many swiss
: companies like japanese - as if some countries were allowed to
: have good watchmaking ideas (Switzerland, Germany) and others
: not (Japan, US...)? In a global world one has to take the best
: where it exists. So was the TC78 IP. And this is what we did.
: This does not prevent our movement to by by all means SWISS MADE
: !!!!

: Said that TAG Heuer is perfectly capable to come up with its own IP
: and patents when it's not about doing something conventional but
: really revolutionary like a Caliber S or the Monaco V4 not to
: mention the Caliber 360. But even if the V4 IP is TAG Heuer's
: and 100% swiss, still its belts are french............is it a
: sin ? I should ask to our detractors.

: Since that controversy the Swatch Group has disclosed its intention
: to stop supplying the Industry of movements and parts such as
: the assortments. It has created a lot of buzz, at least in
: Switzerland. We read the newspapers like anyone and take good
: note, assessing scenarii and options should it materialize as
: Swatch Group claims they will do it. Today we are one of the
: major Clients of ETA in terms of mechanical movements but also
: hands and we are very happy with their quality, service and
: customer-focus. Now if they want to stop we'll find some other
: ideas but it would be a pity as we ever worked with them, at
: least since the early 1980's and are probably one of their
: oldest, largest and most loyal Customer over the last 25 years.
: We have gone thru 150 years of history and nothing will prevent
: us to write another 150 years anyhow. So let's wait and see.
: You'll be amazed by the Caliber 1887 and judge it by yourselves.
: Now, a bet ? In which series will TAG Heuer launch it in Basel
: 2010 ?

: Best regards and Happy new year - JC Babin