I have 2 different opinions on the modern TAG Heuer: If I were advising them (if I had skin in the game), I would tell them to look to the future and not the past. Acknowledge the past in models like the Monaco, Carrera. etc., but forge ahead into the future which include electronic watches. That is, in fact, the Heuer legacy. Heuer revolutionized the way race cars are timed on a track. They developed the system that incorporated electronics in F1 timing. We love mechanical watches because they have character. But the future of watch tech is an electronics one. I think the wrist watch will be the TV, computer, GPS, health monitor, medicine distributor, communications center of the future. I don't think it's the next big thing, but it could be next to the next big thing. It's just more convenient to carry the logic for all those devices hanging from one device on our wrists. Make it expensive and you also have the status-seeking humans crave.

If I we involved with TAG Heuer as a dealer or anyone else in their supply chain, I'd tell them to forge into the future and start incorporating the logic that's currently in cellphones & tablets and place those into the wrist watch. But do it in a non-1980's Casio G-Shock El-Cheapo type of way. Do it with impeccable engineering and design of the case and band. Something with style and modernity, forget the past on this one. Make it relatively expensive. Make it "aspirational". But worth the price.

If I were advising TAG Heuer from an emotional point of view? Find the original tooling on all the components from the glory days. Use the same exact materials to the molecule of the original parts and basically re-start their production as if they never ended. But I wouldn't bet on their future success as anything but as a niche player though. They've become a very big company, the next fight will be who wins the real estate of future wrists.

It's possible that one day it'll be odd if anyone wears anything but a smart watch on their wrist. That real estate could be reserved for what will be a necessity to live our daily lives and we may not want to wear anything else on it. If peoples' status cravings are satiated by the expensive versions of smart watches then the mechanical watch market could seriously be effected.

I'll tell you what concerns me more, I have a few young people who work part-time for me. Since I'm in a college town I get a lot of smart kids who want part-time income. Not one of them owns a watch. And when I ask them if any of their friends or roommates owns a watch they look perplexed and say no. TAG Heuer may not have a choice.