The breakthrough came as a result of five years of intensive research by TAG Heuer’s Haute Horlogerie engineers to overcome the last stumbling blocks-most important being the successful development of ultra-thin and ultra-resistant transmission belts.Ī true work of art, the MONACO V4 was the most avant-garde watch industrialized to date, housing the first new complication in a commercially realized timepiece since the first automatic chronograph movement, Calibre 11 Chronomatic, was issued by Heuer in 1969.īuilding on its top-secret development of transmission belts no thicker than a single hair, TAG Heuer takes its avant-garde creation to the next level-juxtaposing its patented belt technology with one of the most emblematic complication of watchmaking-the tourbillon. In 2009, against all expectations, TAG Heuer stunned the watchmaking world by unveiling what many industry insiders said would never see the light of day: a fully commercialized production model of the MONACO V4.

Housed inside another revolution, the audacious, square-faced Monaco seen on Steve McQueen wrist in the 1971 race-film classic Le Mans, it won Best Design at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, Germany’s Red Dot Design Award, Wallpaper Magazine’s “Watch of the Year” and Popular Science’s “Best of What’s New”. The concept watch’s patented belt-driven transmission and linear mass represented nothing short of a complete rewriting of the fundamental principles of mechanical watchmaking. The V4 name derived from the V-shaped main plate on which the movement’s four barrels are mounted: the 2-by-2 belt series on ball bearings are angled at +/-13 degrees, and look like the cylinders in a Formula One motor-racing engine. The TAG Heuer MONACO V4 Concept Watch is the world’s first watch with belt drives, linear mass and ball bearings. This year, the manufacture celebrates the 10th anniversary of this innovation and incorporates the same technology to Tourbillon, one of the most elegant and complex horology complication ever made. In 2004, TAG Heuer introduced the ground breaking V4 technology that gave birth to the world’s first mechanical wristwatch to be driven by belts.

Tag heuer monaco v4 tourbillon