SAVOIR FAIRE Four Sides to the Story

By the mid-1960s, Heuer was booming. Under Jack Heuer, it had emerged as one of the leading Swiss wristwatch chronograph makers with era-defining designs such as the Heuer Carrera and the Heuer Autavia. To upwardly mobile buyers, a Heuer watch indicated not only good taste, but also ambition.

Now, Jack was looking for his next move. In 1969, Heuer and a consortium of watchmakers announced a groundbreaking new automatic chronograph movement. They would give it a name that would echo through the ages: Calibre 11

The avant-garde calibre needed a home to match. He’d seen an unconventional square-shaped case, a form that had previously posed problems with water resistance, a Heuer standard since the 1940s. But a new system bypassed the issue, and in March of 1969, Jack would present the world’s first automatic chronograph in a water-resistant square case.

He would give the watch the name Monaco, after the world’s most glamorous motor racing event. And a legend was born.

There would be one quirk. Calibre 11 dictated a left-hand crown, a design anomaly. Jack, ever the brilliant marketeer, would use it to his advantage, though. Heuer’s advertising campaign ran the line: “We moved the winding crown from the right side to the left side to remind you that this chronograph never needs winding.” That was Jack’s genius.

The Heuer Monaco would take its place in watch lore in 1970 when Steve McQueen chose to wear it for the filming of his movie Le Mans. The pair were inseparable ever after, two icons immortalized by the silver screen.

In 2026, the legend continues with the TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph TH20-11. Those familiar features remain, right down to the left-hand crown, and yet this is every bit the contemporary wristwatch.

The 39.4mm case is now in lightweight brushed titanium, with a thinner, more dynamic case improving ergonomics. Whether in its original opaline blue, sartorial green or luxurious titanium, rose gold and black livery, it looks as disruptive as ever.

And so Jack’s square watch, the unmistakable TAG Heuer Monaco, lives on.