All,

Great post Jim.

I've contacted TAG with my views on the rebranding of the "Classics" line, but got no response from them......thus revealing their website as useless as a point of communication.

As I'm employed as a marketing manager I'm in a pretty good position to have an opinion:

The new "TAG HEUER" parent branded Classics line falls short of capturing the great heritage of the Company's 1960's-80's chronographs, the actual chronos we all so avidly collect.

I told TAG I'd be a certain purchaser of the white dial Autavia reissue if it was Heuer branded, but I received no response from them. In fact a few years ago I was the first to make the connection of this particular 1960's watch and with Jo Siffert, a now ubiquitous association with this model of Heuer chrono. Interestingly, TAG themselves in their promotional material have credited Siffert with wearing a Monaco, and with influencing Steve McQueen, yet this is just not the case. He did influence Steve (he supplied many of the cars for the film "Le Mans" and drove in the film), but he always wore a white dial automatic Autavia.

If TAG themselves don't really know the true heritage of their models, I expect more of the same, sadly.

I understand the need to harvest the heritage of Heuer into the TAG Heuer brand name, by branding the Classics range TAG Heuer, but my view is to leave this range branded as just Heuer, with faithful interpretations of the fantastic past designs.

I'm absolutely NOT a fan of the cars, in fact I loathe them, but Toyota have successfully adopted this strategy with those Toyota badged Lexus vehicles. These consumers would be a similar demographic of buyers that TAG would be pursuing, too.

"the heritage is fundamental to the future of the brand" : I find this quote farcical- get rid of the TAG branding on the Heuer Classics line and then this statement has some credibility. It's a bit like those jokers at Ford/Jaguar trying to claim a old unbroken Formula One lineage with the Jaguar brand- it just doesn't work.

I'd love to see a modern re-edition Chronosplit, a modern Silverstone and a re-edition version of a triple date Carrera in a big case, along with a host of other Heuers, but if they are TAG branded, I'll not be parting with my cash, I'd rather add another few older real Heuers (say Hoy-er!) to the collection.

I do own a first series re-release limited edition Monaco, one of my absolute favourite Monacos, and I wear it frequently. So I'm not averse to a re-edition model.

TAG- please listen and capture the true essence of the heritage of your brand. Maybe Mr Heuer will make a difference.

(I could certainly find time to act as a consultant to them)

Cheers all

SC Kay

: So after I got through reading my F1
: magazine(read the following post first), I
: get around to the October WatchTime issue.
: On the last page, called "The Last
: Minute", is an editorial by Joe
: Thompson(who lives in CT, BTW) about how Tag
: Heuer stole Tiger Woods away from Rolex and
: what a great marketing job they are doing
: with him. Apparently Rolex never utilized
: Tiger in his full starring capable roll with
: the luxo brand Rolex, but relegated him to
: the lesser sibling brand, Tudor.

: I hope everyone has seen the newest TV ad with
: Tiger hitting a golf ball and having a
: Formula One race car try to beat it through
: the streets of Monaco,Italy. Good stuff.

: LVMH, which owns Tag Heuer, has brought back
: Jack Heuer and named him Honorary Chairman,
: and put him on the product development team.
: This should bode well for the future as
: "the heritage is fundamental to the
: future of the brand" were the words
: spoken by LVMH CEO of Tag Heuer Daniel
: Lalonde said.

: Hope they are listening to this group. Maybe we
: could get on that product development team
: also.