Tag: Best Fake TAG Heuer Monaco Watches

TAG Heuer is best known for its attainable racing-inspired chronographs. However, every so often, the official timekeeper of Formula 1 drops an exotic timepiece. Today’s new Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph Air 1 debuts at Dubai Watch Week, and we’re excited to take a closer look.

Avant-garde best replica TAG Heuer watches are a relatively normal occurrence from TAG Heuer. While many of the brand’s designs are rooted in the past, we enjoy the occasional futuristic release. In my opinion, the best use the Monaco as a base. The new Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph Air 1, however, is not simply a color variant. As we’ll see, it introduces a new case-making technology, and it looks fantastic.

As a longtime vintage chronograph collector and racing fan, I’ve always been attracted to the thought of drivers using their instruments as tools. Of course, that time has long since passed. Still, it’s fun to consider, but it’s even more exciting to envision the type of modern mechanical watch a driver would wear now if perfect fake TAG Heuer Carrera watches were truly necessary in the cockpit. Most current options are attractive, but many follow the same classic formula. That’s why I’m so enthralled by the new Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph Air 1. It looks fresh and appropriate for a present-day driver.

The perfect fake TAG Heuer watches work with the current Monaco’s 41mm by 47.9mm dimensions, but the comparisons end there. The case is a wild amalgam of Grade 5 titanium, sapphire, and 2N yellow gold. Instead of using a traditional CNC-machined case, TAG Heuer applied Selective Laser Melting (SLM) technology to build the case layer by layer from Grade 5 titanium powder. A laser melts the powders and fuses them to create a near-final shape, which can then be polished. The outer case and side lattice structures are made using this time-intensive process. As a testament to the difficulty of the technology, it takes five times longer than traditional machining. The result, however, is a strong but skeletonized 15.2mm-thick case weighing 85 grams. Finally, the right side of the case has black DLC pushers and a tapered crown.

In addition to the titanium bits, the Air 1 uses SLM technology on the 18K yellow gold lattice pieces below the black DLC-coated bezel. These pieces are on the lug sides of the case. We also find a gold rattrapante pusher on the case’s left flank.

The new Monaco Air 1 uses the brand’s top-level chronograph movement, the 81-00. This impressive automatic column-wheel caliber is a thoroughbred with 65 hours of power reserve and a high frequency of 36,000vph. Functionally, it powers a standard chronograph and a desirable split-seconds complication. Case backs aren’t always a highlight, but on this watch, the cover is made entirely from sapphire and is affixed via four screws. Somehow, the replica TAG Heuer watches for sale have the 30m water resistance rating.

While I’m often critical of TAG Heuer’s frequent decision to adorn its chronographs with a sub-dial for running seconds, it works perfectly here. The 12-hour and 30-minute totalizers are somewhat traditional, each displaying white markings on a black background. However, the sub-seconds register at the bottom looks like a gauge from a race car. Above the skeletonized surface, the Monaco has a clear sapphire dial with a minute track, luminous blocks, and lacquered gold indexes. This golden hue matches the tips of the hour and minute hands, as well as all three of the chronograph hands. For a progressive design, I think it looks fantastic and well composed.

TAG Heuer will produce 30 numbered pieces of the Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph Air 1, which seems like a relatively generous production run considering the price. Yes, that’s the sticky part because this watch costs CHF 150,000. Is that a lot? For sure, but I’m sure the case technology, looks, and complication will appeal to plenty of well-heeled motorsports fans. Some of these cheap copy TAG Heuer watches may even find their way to the wrists of some of the current drivers.

Speed and precision. Engineering and craftsmanship. No sport offers the visceral thrills of motor racing, no timepiece is more purpose-built for speed than the chronograph, and among iconic racing chronographs – including the Rolex Daytona and the Omega Speedmaster – the one with the most direct connection to motorsport is the (TAG) Heuer Monaco.

That’s a bold statement, considering TAG Heuer are the motorsports best replica TAG Heuer watches, with other racing icons such as the Autavia and Carrera in its catalogue. But among these, the Monaco reigns supreme: not just because it’s named after one of the most famous and glamorous locations in all of motor racing, but because of its unique aesthetic and history.

The Monaco’s most recognizable feature, that iconic case shape, presented some real technical puzzles to solve – most notably waterproofing a square-cased chronograph. Sure, square-cased fake watches had come before, but making those case shapes water-resistant is a challenge: if you’ve got a square case, you need a square gasket, for instance. The additional challenge of the chronograph pushers proved to be a real feat, but Heuer managed to enlist some outside help from Swiss casemaker Piquerez (best known for its Compressor and Super Compressor case designs and a supplier to brands including Breguet, Enicar, Hamilton, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Longines and Universal Genève) to execute the Monaco.

They also gained some real credibility in the racing community via the first Heuer brand ambassador, Formula 1 driver Jo Siffert. Siffert would be the first of many F1 drivers to wear Heuer replica watches (however it’s worth pointing out that Siffert famously wore an Autavia rather than a Monaco or Carrera). Not long after coming on board, Siffert was tapped to serve as a technical advisor for the landmark Le Mans film, starring Steve McQueen, and thus a legend was born…

Already a household name from starring roles in The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, Bullitt, and The Thomas Crown Affair, McQueen was also a serious race driver, and that passion was poured into his 1971 film, which was shot in part during the 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans. McQueen wore the Monaco ref. 1133B throughout filming, thus cementing that reference’s exalted place in the eyes of collectors. Of course, McQueen, known as “the King of Cool”, occupies a particularly special place in watch culture: the original Rolex Explorer II ref. 1655 is nicknamed after him (although it’s worth pointing out that he never wore the Explorer II himself: he mostly wore a Submariner, actually). But the Heuer Monaco is the cheap copy TAG Heuer watches most closely associated with him, and McQueen more than any other figure helped make the Monaco an icon.

Despite the star power associated with the Monaco, its success wasn’t built to last. By the mid-70s, due to changing tastes and the dominance of quartz perfect fake TAG Heuer watches in the marketplace, the watch disappeared from Heuer’s catalogue. Heuer gradually lost their mojo, and were in somewhat dire straits when they were bought out by Techniques d’Avant Garde in 1986, thus birthing the TAG Heuer moniker. The company began an aggressive new marketing direction and enlisted the racing drivers of the day to introduce new quartz-based lines, like the colourful composite-cased Formula 1 (which TAG brought back in a big way in 2024 through a collaboration with NYC streetwear brand KITH) and the S/el, endorsed by Brazilian F1 legend Ayrton Senna.

One of the most notable Monaco Swiss fake TAG Heuer watches in recent memory is the Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph. First produced as a piece unique for the delayed Only Watch 2023 auction, this watch has since been entered series production and boasts TAG Heuer’s first mechanical split-seconds chronograph movement, the Calibre TH81-00, marking TAG Heuer’s return to producing higher complication movements. Its skeletonised dial is particularly eye-catching, as is its novel caseback: the entire bottom ‘sandwich’ of the case is made from a single piece of sapphire in order to further exhibit its movement.