Jim Nichols writes;

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.

Well... Personally, I think Rolex messed up big time with Tiger... Not that Tiger wasn't a good person to have represent the firm, far from it as a matter of fact, but how they handled it.

Tudor suffers from, face it, the reputation of being a "poor-man's Rolex". My closest cousin wear's a Rolex Date-Just. And for him it's a perfect watch. So if I were to buy a Tudor (the affordable watch made by Rolex with common ETA movements) say about me were I to buy one? I'm a poor man's version of a my cousin? It doesn't really matter if the watch is a good or even great one (I do like some of the Pre-Tiger Tudor 7750's) basically what it says is that I don't have enough appreciation of the Daytona and am willing to settle for a substitute.

In a way that's what Rolex was saying about Tiger too. He's good enough to represent our economy/entry level brand, but not our Premier brand.

They also made the mistake of putting Tiger's name on the dial. Now I don't know about you, but personally I have a problem with someone (other than the manufacturer) putting a celebrities name on my watch... No matter what level of esteem I hold Tiger in. At least TAG-Heuer (and Omega too) have had the good sense to name a certain model a Hakinnen model (or Last man on the moon model) but not print the name on the dial.

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.

It's a fun and visually beautiful ad. I would recommend everyone view the ad TAG-Heuer has on their website for the Aquagraph 2000. An incredible ad, well worth the download time.

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.

The jury is still out on that one, and frankly, based on recent moves, TAG-Heuer has been moving backwards on this front as opposed to forward. The introduced a completely new model (with an old name that is completely different from the classic model) and put the high-quality No. 36 (El-Primero) movement in it, while due to Swatch moves, the true classic re-issue Carrera (with a high-quality Lemania 1873) movement was pulled and a ETA/Dubois-Depraz piggyback movement was put in it.

If the heritage is fundamental, treat it like it is, not an excuse to come up with fanciful designs that have no relation to the past.

Unfortunately, I don't think that the Honorary title is as powerful as we'd like...

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

It'd be nice, but I could see that the current "powers that be" would see any move like that to be an excuse to "rally around the flag" and stratify their existing position and trend...

The thing is that Heuer was really on the ropes in the mid 1980's when TAG stepped in. Since then, TAG-Heuer has completely reworked the firm, it's products and it's perception in the marketplace. Most of all it's profitable and prosperous. I could see the status quo revolting against a bunch of "throw-backs"...

Thanks for your post Jim!

Tag Heuer (non) Marketing Posted By: Stewart Kay

All,

Great post Jim.

I absolutely agree!

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.

Hmmm... I haven't tried direct communication, I've been more public with my thoughts...

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.

Hear, Hear!

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.

Hmmm... I don't know about that, but...

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.

Siffert was the template that McQueen patterned his Michael Dulaney character on. But according to the recent article in one of the watch magazines (I think it was in a magazine I saw this), Heuer shipped a couple of boxes of the firm's products to the production company and McQueen chose to wear the Monaco.

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

Me too...

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.

Personally, I would do it slightly differently...

I would split the product line in twain...

TAG-Heuer would compromise the, well..., Avant-Guard models like the 2000, Kirium, Alter-Ego, Link, etc... And as far as I'm concerned TAG-Heuer can do whatever they wish with the line as long as they remain profitable and do so well enough that they can absorb some losses from the other branch:

Heuer would consist of the Classic's and Specialist lines. These models would bear Heuer Dial's but the case back would be TAG-Heuer. The Classic models would look to the casual viewer to be dead ringers for the originals when on someone's wrist, however there would be enough subtile clues for the expert collector to distinguish between a vintage piece, a "Classic" or a Franken watch made of parts from each of the other two. The movements used would be as faithful to the operation of the original models as possible... For example, if you are going to have a Carrera 1964 model, Heuer would use a Handwound movement (Zenith Prime, Zenith HW based) instead of a ETA/Dubois-Depraz piggyback that doesn't even have the registers in the same configuration as the original.

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.

I'm not the best person to talk about Demographics. But I can say the goal with my scheme is to maintain the image of the TAG-Heuer that makes them popular with the general public (and scorned by many collectors) while expanding their product line to appeal to the "old salts"/collectors that remember Heuer fondly and perhaps get some defections from the TAG crowd...

"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 don't think you can completely deep six the TAG-Heuer part without seriously effecting collector values on vintage pieces. Instead make Classics that look like the original until you look closely when you see the subtile distinctions.

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.

The modern re-edition Chronosplit could be based on the F1 Micrograph very easily enough. I would like to see a Zenith movement Carrera 1964 re-edition as well as a Zenith based Autavia 12 re-edition.

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.

I own both Stainless models of the 1964 Re-Edition. I wish they would do more with this case and model. It's a fantastic dressy/casual watch and it's of a size that women can wear without feeling like they strapped an old alarm clock to their wrist...

And as far as that goes... I own a Kirium Chronograph (Quartz)... So I'm not adverse to a well executed TAG-Heuer model either...

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

Hopefully the long suffering collectors can be heard and make a difference too.

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

I'm not free but I'm reasonable with sufficent benefits...

Cheers all

SC Kay

Thank you Stewart!

About marketing and the new Autavia Posted By: Kav

Hi,

Interesting comments.

Indeed!

I prefer the Heuer over the Tag-heuer logo too. Maybe, by using it in the classics line they are trying to integrate the new logo to the history of the brand. But every time I see it on the dial of a classic, it just doesn't seem right. The watches look less like classics and more like reissues - hope you understand what I mean.

I do and I agree!

Tag Heuer as a brand entity is in a very complicated position. Some time ago I called them the flagship of LVMH. Chuck said that Zenith is the flagship of the group and I can see his point. I'd call Zenith the "crown jewel" and Tag the "flagship", it is just a matter of definition really (what one means by "flagship"). In 2000, from the 900 mil. CHF turnover of the LVMH watch division, Tag's share was 460 mil. and second was Ebel with 210 mil. So Tag is a MEGA brand.

Would you go with Pinacle=Zenith and Workhorse/Bread Winner = TAG-Heuer?

Still, for many watch enthusiasts their product is considered of average quality, with more hype than substance and the past product is considered more interesting than the present. And this is more of a problem, since they have a different logo now. Hard decision were to be made from non-WIS marketing people as to which logo to use in the classic line.

Simple, use the Heuer logo, but change the dial/hands just enough to be distinguished by the discerning viewer.

Anyway, I'm not sure I bought the new Autavia, even if it had the old logo. I have seen the white dial version, which I prefer, close enough to be disappointed. The bezel is too narrow and the date seems (is?) smaller, not to mention the lack of a hour subdial. Where is the functionality of the past?

Truth be told, if they had done either a: Three-Register Re-Issue, or b: a Two-Register Chrono with a 12-Hour register, I would be very tempted, if it had a Heuer logo on the dial... I can live with the different case shape, smaller bezel, different pushers, different bracelet. Just a couple of little changes...

I don't like the chrono pushers and how they integrate to the case and the colors of the chrono registers look better in the pictures than in real life. And after all these years of improvements in materials and production techniques, the new Autavia is, to my eyes, a lesser quality watch than some of the originals. I'm talking about the overall impression the watch left me. Well, the vintage Autavia(s) is one of my obsessions, so please excuse me for being too hard to please ;-)

I prefer the vintage models (patina and all) over the re-issues too, but it would be nice to be able to buy a Homage piece and not have to worry about parts availability for a change!

Great thoughts all!

Cheers!

-- Chuck