The full circle moment for TAG Heuer’s dive watch collection

Borna Bošnjak

Whether you think of (TAG) Heuer in a modern or vintage sense, it’s likely that your first association will be one of the brand’s legendary chronographs – a Carrera, Monaco, or Autavia, perhaps. Ever since the late 1970s, however, Heuer’s (and then TAG Heuer’s) catalogues have been home to an extensive collection of dive watches of all shapes and sizes, with models that would have cameos in big Hollywood productions and be worn by some of the most recognisable faces in the world. Today, that model is unified under the TAG Heuer Aquaracer name that continues to be a best-seller, but let’s look at its entire life cycle -from its inception in 1978, evolution in the ’80s, rapid (and perhaps too rapid) expansion in the ’90s, and return to form in recent years.

Why a chronograph company decided to make divers

For once, we don’t have to speculate what the brand’s intention were in releasing a particular model, as Jack Heuer himself is quite candid regarding his dive watch’s origins. “ISPO is Europe’s leading international trade fair for sporting goods and sports fashions, and for several years Heuer had taken a stand at the fair in Munich where we often found ourselves next to manufacturers of skin-diving products. They were mostly American firms and while chatting with their representatives at the 1979 fair I heard about the difficulties that they had buying private-label watches for underwater sports. They had had some bad experiences with watches bought from an importer in New York – in next to no time the watches let in water and they had had to deal with many angry customers. That gave me the idea of trying to enter this market with a range of sturdy, Rolex-style diving watches with quartz movements, which would avoid overusing the winding crown as was inevitable with mechanical movements.”

While not all of the features were a direct carryover, the layout of the dial with its inverted triangle at 12 as well as the design of the hands (which are oddly enough a cathedral style – when do you see that on a diver?), the inspiration was clearly the success of the Rolex Submariner. There were key differences though – Heuer was able to compete with a much more attractive price point, and offered its diver in a variety of sizes.

And it worked, sort of. Jack Heuer did end up selling to Piaget in 1982, but without the investment and the new, successful models, Heuer would likely have become yet another on the long list of brands that went under in the 1970s.

The brand trialled several models in the late 1970s, and a few did stick – like the automatic reference 844 that is now popular with collectors – and would lay the foundations for the officially labelled 1000 Series that was to come. With the threat of the quartz crisis still looming, Heuer used a number of suppliers for the watches – the movements were by France Ebauches, cases by MRP SA, and assembly was actually done in France by Georges Monnin whose 1970s divers bear very close resemblance to the Heuers of the time. In fact, the 844 was actually in reference to a Monnin case design, which the brand would use for other brands that would outsource to them, like the Lancaster diver above.

Quick expansion into mainstay collection

Considering the success of the early pre-1000 Series, TAG Heuer would eventually move production from France to Switzerland, which is why you’ll find the ref. 844 with and without “Swiss Made” text on the dial. But this success also allowed Heuer to experiment with more designs, which is why the 2000 Series launched alongside the original pre-1000 in 1982. The idea of the 2000 Series was for it to break the mould of what people expected from a dive watch, and to capture more attention from the fashion-conscious. Heuer did so by changing up the look of the bezels and dials, and also incorporating two-tone models, no longer so strictly focusing on all-out performance. Alongside four sizes (28mm, 32mm, 38mm, and 42mm – all measured including the crown), Heuer also offered a Series 2000 chronograph in both quartz and automatic, something you could not get from a 1000 Series. You’ll also notice that Heuer completely moved away from the cathedral handset and fully adopted a Mercedes-style hour hand.

This pre-1000 Series collection would continue into the officially named 1000 Series starting with the 1984 catalogue, and continuing until 1991 with several variants that were the best example of achieving (and exceeding) the six utility tenants for a Heuer Professional Series watch. They required a minimum of 200 metres of water resistance, a screw-down crown, a folding safety clasp, a unidirectional bezel, sapphire crystal, and lumed indices. Watches like the Super Professional (above) and its predecessor, the ref. 980.023 Deep Dive, clearly went beyond that, offering up to 1,000 metres of water resistance – a remarkable feat for the time.

The most recognisable model from this early period of the Heuer diver is undoubtedly the 1000 Series Night Diver for its accompaniment of Timothy Dalton as 007 in The Living Daylights. Though, as with any good movie watch, there is still ongoing debate whether the model Dalton wore was branded “Heuer” or “TAG Heuer”. The movie came out in 1987, two years after Heuer’s merger with Techniques d’Avant-Garde, and a year after the watches would become co-branded for the first time with the Formula 1.

We are now in the middle of the 1980s, and this was the heyday of the TAG Heuer dive watch. The 3000 Series would join in on the fun in 1984, positioned as a premium offering to sit above the 2000 Series for those who were still fashion-conscious, but wanted an elevated look. You can clearly recognise these by their odd dodecagonal bezels with black protrusions on each side that were meant to improve grip.

I did say this was a luxurious collection, but it still didn’t make the jump to solid gold. Pieces like the ref. 937.406 and its size variants sported a highly contrasting black bezel atop a plated case, along with the quartz ETA movements found across the rest of the collection. Unlike the 1000 and 2000 Series, the 3000 was not really a popular model, and would be discontinued in 1990.

The naughty noughties (and nineties)

The ’90s brought significant change to the TAG Heuer Professional series, but only because it would continue to expand. The 2000 Series went from strength to strength, with dials sporting the now full-colour TAG Heuer logo and (eventually) applied indices. This is the watch that defines TAG Heuer for me, as I’ve spent most of my formative years asking dad to play with the bezel. Seeing as he regularly used it for shallow diving and pretty much never serviced it, I could rarely actually turn the bezel – the battle scars are evident, but the two-tone design and exaggerated bezel will always hold a special place in my heart.

And it’s the 2000 Series that would go on to outlive the rest of TAG Heuer’s Professional models, eventually branching into the trio of  Classic, Exclusive, and Sport (above), with the latter then becoming the 2000 Aquaracer. You can already guess which of those names stuck – but more on that shortly.

Come 1991, the 1000 Series that still continued the ethos of the original Heuer divers would come to an end, and it would not really be replaced. In its stead, TAG Heuer introduced three different new model lines between 1990 and 1992 – the 1500, 4000, and 6000.

It was the 1500 that was most similar to the 1000, but only because of its relative simplicity and price positioning. It continued being the most affordable TAG Heuer Professional, sitting below the 2000, but would take many of the 2000’s design quirks such as the bezel and multi-link bracelets – all available in steel and two-tone, of course. The 1500 has also become affectionately known as the “Barack Obama”, as a two-tone, white-dialled variant was favoured by the President during his campaign for the 2008 presidency, and later.

As we’ve reached the 1990s, we’re bound to eventually come across some design quirks that defined the decade. Now is that time, courtesy of the TAG Heuer 4000 Series, the brand’s solution to fill the gap between the newly introduced, flagship S/El, and the mid-range 2000 diver. It’s still clearly a TAG Heuer Professional, but the case lines have softened, and we have the addition of that signature full colour TAG Heuer logo on the bezel. Its party trick? When you turn the bezel, the green “TAG” portion and red “Heuer” portion of the logos split, with the latter following the movement of the bezel. If that’s not nineties tackiness at its very best, I don’t know what is. The 4000 was fairly short lived, ending a six-year production run in 1997 alongside the 1500 Series.

But if you’re looking for the pinnacle of TAG Heuer’s dive watch design in the ’90s, look no further than the 6000 Series. Launching in 1992 with Ayrton Senna as the poster boy, the 6000 brought chronometer-certified automatic movements and precious metal cases with a pseudo-integrated bracelet design. The TAG Heuer logo still managed to make its way off the dial and onto the case, but this was clearly a more elegant proposition, as it was no longer in full colour and only subtly emblazoned into the lower lug. These watches packed a pretty hefty punch, with cases in both yellow and white gold, as well as a 99-piece run in platinum that the new owners could customise. And if this integrated-bracelet design looked at all familiar, it’s because it is. The 6000 was designed by Jorg Hysek, who was also tasked with designing the TAG Heuer Kirium that was set to replace the 4000 Series.

Numbered days are numbered, and the Aquaracer cometh

As other models returned to the TAG Heuer collection, such as the legendary Carrera and Monaco, TAG Heuer began to move away from the numerical naming schemes of its pieces – hence the aforementioned Kirium. As such, only the 2000 and 6000 Series Professional models survived the turn of the millennium, and the acquisition by LVMH in 1999. The 6000 would fizzle away in 2002, while the 2000 continued to hold strong until 2004, with its latter models already carrying the Aquaracer name. For the 2005 catalogue, TAG Heuer made the call to start referring to its dive watch simply as the Aquaracer, dropping the name that featured in its brochures since 1982. The 2000 Aquaracer brought a list of quality of life improvements, including a bump in water resistance up to 300 metres, a colourful aluminium bezel, and an aesthetic that was simple yet distinct enough for it to be a success.

The Aquaracer collection quickly blossomed into a full-blown model family with a range of quartz and automatic movements, different sizes, and for the first time more than just time-only and chronograph pieces. The stand-outs here would be the introduction of in-house, Calibre S quartz-powered pieces in 2006 and the first new deep-diving TAG Heuers for a while with the 500-metre Aquagraph replacement WAJ references in 2009, with refinements to the Aquaracer we recognise today beginning to materialise in the mid-2010s.

Return to roots, and continued innovation

A trend that has begun to reach into the deepest crevices of the industry has been that of the reissue – and it makes sense. Why would a brand not look to one of its respected and well-liked models from the past to give legitimacy to a new collection and make it more appealing? This works great in theory, but also needs to be well-executed. Thankfully for TAG Heuer, its Aquaracer reissues have been done the right way, aptly beginning at the very beginning with the tribute to ref. 844. While it took a few small cues from the Monnin case (such as the large size), the main draw was the dial and its 24-hour markings. The fauxtina was present, but not too obvious, with modern upgrades all-round such as the titanium case construction and Sellita-based Calibre 5 movement.

But this generation of the Aquaracer had its own design cues that set it apart from what TAG Heuer (and other brands) have done previously. The bezel got 12 facets for better grip, with the theme being picked up by the octagonal applied indices, while the rubber straps were upgraded with an excellent quick-adjust system that is not talked about enough even now. TAG Heuer continued to pay subtle tribute to past designs, including with the Aquaracer Night Diver in 2021. This of course references the aforementioned James Bond watch, and returns with a uniquely contrasting colour scheme that enhances the legibility of its lume dial at full glow.

 

A year after the latest significant Aquaracer redesign, TAG Heuer introduced the watch that would sit atop the pile as king. That was, of course, the 2022 Aquaracer Professional 1000 Superdiver. While it didn’t have as many design cues that tributed Heuer divers of the past, the Superdiver was release 40 years after Heuer’s first 1,000-metre dive watch – the reference 980.023. Not only that, this was also the first properly deep-diving watch from TAG Heuer in two decades, as the last 1,000-metre diver was phased out as the Aquaracer name came to prominence with the sea urchin-like ref. 840.006. Along with a bump in water resistance, the titanium case sports a Kenissi-made movement, which cements its place as the ultimate Aquaracer.

While the Aquaracer 300 line introduced a new design language and pushed the envelope as far as its technical capabilities, TAG Heuer also distilled some of this into the more everyday Aquaracer 200. This spiritual successor to the 2000 Series received its most unexpected novelty in 2022 with the Aquaracer Solargraph. And yet, maybe it wasn’t that unexpected? The blackout look and carbon bezel may have been unusual, but TAG Heuer’s quartz Aquaracers have been best-seller for a long time, so it made sense for the brand to continue iterating and improving this collection. And as I always say – if you’re going to make it quartz, may as well make it solar.

It wouldn’t be long before we saw other, more conventional Solargraph variants join the collection, including a sleek, matte titanium variant in 2023 preceding perhaps the most commercial piece later that year. With a mix-finish steel case and lovely blue (or grey) dial, the steel Aquaracer 200 Solargraph is a watch we often recommend at the entry-level. It offers the no-fuss convenience of solar cells with an approachable entry point into a luxury brand, with even a 34mm variant introduced earlier in 2024.

With chronograph and GMT models filling out the current Aquaracer collection, we’ve pretty much returned to the opulent options the brand was offering as part of its Professional series back in the ’80s and ’90s, albeit with much improved specs and up-to-date design. Though, I’m not sure that we’ll see a platinum Aquaracer in collaboration with Max Verstappen any time soon.