We are expecting big news from TAG Heuer tomorrow, with the release of the company's concept watch, in Basel (code-named the "Apollo Project"). You will be able to watch the announcement live, through the feed shown immediately below.

Pasted below is the TAG Heuer press release relating to this announcement.

OK, experts, so what do we think TAG Heuer will be announcing? The teaser shows the new Mikrograph, with chronograph timing to 1/100th of a second. We read that the Apollo Project will involve a "groundbreaking innovation in ultra high-frequency timepiece technology". So are we going from 1/100th to 1/1000th? Last year, we saw the "Pendulum", replacing the hairspring with magnets. I seem to recall somewhere a statement from TAG Heuer that the pendulum could be incorporated into a chronograph. Could this be what we are going to see tomorrow?

So what are we expecting? Is this exciting / favorable for the vintage community? Share your thoughts, then watch the Webcast announcement right here, then comment on the new concept watch.

Jeff

THE “APOLLO PROJECT” WEBCAST AT BASELWORLD 2011

TAG Heuer to announce a game-changing new concept in very high-frequency chronograph technology at BaselWorld 2011
with interactive online press conference

To celebrate a groundbreaking innovation in ultra high-frequency timepiece technology, TAG Heuer will webcast live from BaselWorld its press conference on Facebook.

6:45pm CET on March 23 . . . http://www.facebook.com/TAGHeuer

Facebook fans of the legendary Swiss brand will have a front-row view of what TAG Heuer’s President & CEO Jean-Christophe Babin is calling “TAG Heuer’s most radical, out-of-the-box, totally mind-blowing innovation to date.”

“We’ve had the Apollo Project - a code name - under wraps for months,” said Jean Christophe Babin, who will field questions at the end of the conference from Facebook fans and the BaselWorld journalists in attendance. “It’s our most closely guarded secret ever. Now it’s time to take the lid off. Doing so live online gives us an opportunity for interaction with TAG Heuer watch owners, collectors and enthusiasts everywhere.”

If this year’s commercial launch of the Heuer Carrera Mikrograph 1/100th — the first-ever mechanical chronograph to measure and display 1/100th of a second on a flying central hand — is to watchmaking what walking on the moon is to space history, then the top-secret Apollo Project is the equivalent of the first manned landing on Mars.

Founded in 1860, TAG Heuer has pioneered, mastered and dominated high-frequency timing and chronographs since 1916, the year Charles-August Heuer introduced the 1/100th Mikrograph stopwatch. With the Calibre 360 in 2005, TAG Heuer introduced the first-ever wrist mechanical chronograph measuring and displaying 1/100th of a second. In January 2011, TAG Heuer went one step further with the Carrera Mikrograph 1/100th of a second chronograph, the first-ever integrated wrist mechanical chronograph with a central hand displaying 1/100th of a second. This internally designed, patented and manufactured Masterpiece literally reinvents the mechanical chronograph as for the first time ever, a mechanical chronograph combines the ultimate accuracy together with the utmost readability.

The “Apollo Project” is the latest milestone in TAG Heuer’s relentless drive towards total mastery of mechanical speed and precision.