The colours of speed, for fans of engines, watches and cinema

There is always a bright side to every situation. An optimistic phrase, perhaps a little naive, but one that often has a kernel of truth. Even in watchmaking. The year was 1971 and The 24 Hours of Le Mans was released in cinemas. A film that, at least on paper, had everything in place to become a blockbuster: the star of the moment as the main actor, namely a Steve McQueen fresh from a series of successes such as Bullit in 1968, racing cars engaged in one of the most famous races in the world and spectacular filming. But, with so many production problems, it ultimately did not go as well at the box office as expected. However, here is the silver lining, at least for watchmaking: from that film, the legend of the Tag Heuer Monaco was born.

Il cinturino bianco, a destra, del Monaco Chronograph x Gulf è in Nomex, un materiale ignifugo usato per le tute professionali da pilota prodotte dalla stessa azienda americana che aveva realizzato quella usata da Steve McQueen nel film Le 24 Ore di Mans. L’orologio viene consegnato con un secondo cinturino in pelle di vitello blu navy, a sinistra.

In fact, McQueen had personally chosen to wear in the film a Monaco Ref1133B, a watch that Heuer, then the name of today's Tag Heuer, had launched in 1969. It was a chronograph with a distinctive square waterproof case (the first in history to have this shape) with the crown positioned at 9 o'clock and a blue dial, powered by an automatic movement. The brand had already been linked to the world of motors for some time, so much so that the same year it also became the sponsor of the famous Jo Siffert (between 1962 and 1971 he had raced in Formula 1 for historic teams such as Lotus and Brabham). The Swiss driver was, among other things, much appreciated by McQueen, who chose him as driving consultant for the film, and in 1969, he took part in and won, at the wheel of a Gulf Porsche 908/3, the Targa Florio, another legendary race of the time. On that occasion, he wore the team's fireproof overalls, white with vertical blue and orange stripes on the left side of his chest and the Heuer emblem on the right, which was to become a motor racing icon in a very short time.

Il quadrante del Monaco Chronograph x Gulf riproduce il motivo della famosa tuta Gulf, con il fondo bianco argentato e le strisce blu e arancione inserite nella parte sinistra. Al centro si trova, poco sotto le lancette, il logo Gulf e, a ore 12, lo storico simbolo Monaco Heuer. A ore 3 e 9 ci sono due indicatori neri supplementari, rispettivamente quello dei secondi continui e dei 30 minuti cronografici e, a ore 6, il datario a finestrella.

Not least because it will be used by McQueen in the film to play Michael Delaney, the driver of a Porsche 917K with Gulf livery in the colours blue and orange. The rest is history and the film, despite its underwhelming debut, will become a cult, while the Monaco watch will go on to become one of the most famous models in watchmaking. Various variants of this chronograph have been produced over the years, some very avant-garde (such as the very recent Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph F1 with a white ceramic case and TH81-00 high-performance automatic movement, seen in April at the Watches and Wonders fair in Geneva), others a little more evocative and linked to the brand's tradition in the world of motoring. This category includes the Monaco Chronograph x Gulf, a model launched over the weekend of the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix (23rd to 25th May) which, in fact, encapsulates all the mythology that has accompanied the watch to date.

Produced in partnership with Gulf, this watch is a limited edition of 971 pieces, a number that, as seen above, recalls both the year of release of the film Le 24 Heures du Mans and, in the three numbers, also the Porsche 917K driven by McQueen in the film. The dial is a real must for enthusiasts and reproduces the motif of the famous Gulf suit, with a silver-white background and the unmistakable blue and orange stripes on the left side, the Gulf logo positioned just below the hands and, at 12 o'clock, the historic Monaco Heuer symbol. The dial at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock features two additional black indicators for continuous seconds and 30-minute chronographs respectively and, at 6 o'clock, the date window. The square case of the Monaco Chronograph x Gulf is made of grade 2 titanium with a diameter of 39 mm and is water-resistant to a depth of 100 metres, while the crystal is a slightly arched sapphire crystal. The watch's engine is the Calibre 11, an in-house mechanical movement capable of 28,800 vibrations and 40 hours of power reserve with, of course, a chronograph function, which is visible through the transparent case back. Another special feature that underlines the uniqueness of the watch and the fact that nothing has been left to chance is the white strap, which is made of Nomex, a fireproof material used in modern professional pilot suits. To produce it, Tag Heuer involved the American company Hinchman: the same company that had made the suit worn by McQueen in the film. This model was not the only novelty presented at Monte Carlo that looks back to the brand's heritage. There was, in fact, also the Monaco Chronograph Stopwatch, a watch with a 39 mm diameter blackened grade 2 titanium case and the same Calibre 11 movement that, aesthetically, celebrates the brand's motorsport history, inspired by its chronometers used between the 1960s and 1970s to set the times of racing cars. The watch therefore has a dial with the central part decorated with an all-black circle and the outer part, in contrasting silver opaline, while the hour markers and seconds hand are in red. The strap is made of leather with holes to recall the pilot's gloves used in the past. And so Tag Heuer's Monaco race never stops.