TAG Heuer Heritage Director Nick Biebuyck takes us through the brand’s Formula 1-filled motorsport history

Borna Bošnjak

It’s not often that you get the chance to bring a camera into a watch brand’s archives, and even less often do you get nearly unbridled access, led by the brand’s own Heritage Director. But that’s exactly the courtesy TAG Heuer and Nicholas Biebuyck granted us before the opening of the 2025 Formula 1 season in Melbourne, taking Andrew and Marcus on a tour of (TAG) Heuer’s historical influence on the fastest sport in the world. I won’t spoil too much, and I have no reason to – who better to tell you these stories than the brand’s chief historian and bonafide Formula 1 and racing enthusiast?

As a Formula 1 nerd myself, though, I can’t quite help myself but at least bring you the highlights. While Heuer’s motorsport timing efforts began with their Rally-Master dash-mounted stopwatches, the story really begins with the Autavia in the late 1960s, worn by the likes of Jochen Rindt and Jo Siffert. The former is still the only driver to ever win a Formula 1 championship posthumously (a claim we hope doesn’t repeat), with the star pictured wearing various Heuer references alongside his wife Nina – herself lending her name to another famous chronograph that Biebuyck cheekily nods to.

Early Autavias like the 3646 evolved into the ref. 1163, worn by Siffert and coinciding with another horological tale of old, that of the race to develop the world’s first automatic chronograph – but that’s a story for another time. Biebuyck notes the differences in the Chronomatic-branded 1163s that would later bear “automatic chronograph” instead, beginning the brand’s conquest of the circuit that would happen over the next decade led by their maverick CEO, Jack Heuer.

And how would Jack Heuer achieve that? That’s where the Carrera 1158 CHN comes in, which would go on to become the most recognisable vintage Heuer reference outside perhaps only the Steve McQueen Monaco. With it, Jack Heuer also built his relationship with Ferrari, starting as a technical one with Heuer providing essential timekeeping equipment, and developing in the early 1970s as Ferrari’s demands rose. Not only did Ferrari demand the timekeeping tools for free, they also asked Heuer to pay their drivers CHF 25,000 each. Jack, the smart businessman that he was, offered the drivers a free, solid gold Carrera each while bringing them to the Heuer factory. That watch was the 1158 CHN, of course, and it would go on to become a revered possession in the paddock, and inspire many future (TAG) Heuers, including a recent Carrera Glassbox.

While Formula 1 would see a rise in popularity in the 1970s, Heuer wasn’t quite so lucky thanks to that pesky quartz crisis that always pops up when you talk about this decade. By 1979, Heuer was in real trouble, despite making some quartz watches in the period, eventually falling into the hands of Piaget in 1982. This ownership was short-lived: the story goes that Yves Piaget was sitting next to Akram Ojjeh on a plane and struck up a deal for the latter’s TAG group to purchase Heuer. A year later, in 1986, this acquisition bore fruit in the shape of the TAG Heuer Formula 1, a resin-cased, colourful piece that pretty much saved the brand, and is now a staple in the permanent collection. If you look carefully, you’ll see just that this watch was already planned before Heuer and TAG merged – the shield on the straps is short and wide, as it was originally just meant to say “Heuer”, while there was enough time to reprint the dials with the correct logo.

All this is just a taster of the wealth of knowledge that Biebuyck shared, with stories about Jacky Ickx, Ryan Gosling, Lewis Hamilton, and more told at length, with the actual watches that those icons wore. Get some snacks, and enjoy the watch, folks.