VIDEO: Vintage Heuer is through the roof, so why isn’t my new TAG Heuer worth more? Biver responds

Andrew McUtchen

If you look at the last two years, the price of vintage Heuer has rocketed, but so far the uplift has not raised all boats on the modern TAG Heuer and Heuer tide. David Chalmers, founder of Calibre 11, the “home of TAG Heuer and vintage Heuer collectors”, asks the CEO of TAG Heuer, Jean-Claude Biver, why is it so? For those not interested in watching the 90-second response from Mr Biver, the transcript is below.

The Heuer Autavia Jo Siffert Collector’s Edition, released by Calibre 11 – the home of TAG Heuer and vintage Heuer collectors – was a limited release of just 100 watches and stands an excellent chance of increasing greatly in value over time

If you look at the last two years, the price of vintage Heuer has rocketed, but I wonder how much benefit has that given to TAG Heuer, because normally you follow the idea of saying vintage Rolex values go up, new Rolex values go up because of the perception around the brand. It seems as though that hasn’t necessarily happened with vintage Heuer and TAG Heuer.

“No, it has not happened in the past because there was such a discrepancy between the beautiful, traditional, old TAG Heuer pieces from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. When you are looking at the pieces of now, people would say, ‘Oh, is it the same brand?’ because the past was so much better than the present. Now, with the changes we have brought, the present is at the level of the past and once the past and the present are on the same level then synergy starts to be created. But if the past is here and the present is here, no synergy can start. So now it will be different.”