‘Allez les bleus!’: New TAG Heuer Monaco is inspired by French Racing Blue

TAG Heuer has revealed a new version of its iconic square motorsport watch, the Monaco.

Inspired by France’s national racing Blue – as used by Bugatti race cars of the 1920s and today’s Alpine F1 team – the Monaco ‘Racing Blue’ Limited Edition pairs a silver dial with blue subdials and a bright blue perforated leather strap.

The watch features a case made from strong but lightweight grade two titanium, with push buttons at the extreme corners of the right side, and a crown positioned on the left of the case, at the nine o’clock position. The Monaco has always had its crown on the left, as a way of signalling how the automatic movement does not require manual winding.

The bright blue colour dates back to when racing teams were yet to discover the lucrative world of sponsorship and advertising. Instead of brand logos, cars carried their national racing colour. French teams used blue, while the Italians chose red, the Germans opted for white and the British painted their cars green.

The blue is complemented by the silver dial, which features a sunray brushed effect that TAG Heuer says is reminiscent of the engine-turned dashboards of sports cars raced in the 1920s and 1930s.

TAG Heuer has used a contrasting lime green for the second hand and 12 o’clock marker for the new watch, which has the same 39mm case diameter as other members of the Monaco family. The watch uses TAG's own automatic calibre II movement, visible through the sapphire crystal of the exhibition case back, with a Dubois-Depraz chronograph module, 59 jewels and a power reserve of 40 hours.

It's water resistant to 30 metres and features Super-LumiNova on the hands and hour markers for nighttime illumination. The watch comes with a perforated calfskin strap with a titanium folding clasp.

Limited to 1,000 pieces, the TAG Heuer Monaco Racing Blue is priced at £8,050 and is available now.