Red Bull Racing
Following
@Jim Dollares's excellent
blog post about the past Red Bull Edition watches, I'd like to clarify for the intents & purposes of this thread, my definition of a Team Watch. A "team watch" is one that is worn almost uniformly by the team at large as an extension of their team attire (with exceptions for the drivers and top management). This was the approach taken by McLaren, but at Red Bull things are a little different.
The pre-Max championship years: 2016-2020
TAG Heuer's new partnership with Red Bull Racing began at the start of the 2016 F1 season. TAG also launched their current gen, Series 6 Formula1 roughly around the same time. Hence, I had thought the new F1 would've become the team watch of RB, especially when the first Red Bull Racing F1 watch was released. However, this was not the case.
While the Drivers and Leadership members wore a variety of TAGs, the rest of the team seemed to wear whatever they pleased. Unlike McLaren, Red Bull did not seem to have any dress code for watches when it came to the crew in the trenches. So basically, there was no singular team watch during these first 5 seasons IMHO.
Many members didn't even wear a wristwatch.
For those that did wear watches, many wore other brands, such as the G-Shock shown below.
Those that actually did wear TAG Heuer seemed to be in the minority, especially during the first season in 2016. But with each season, I noticed more and more TAGs being worn. While there still was no standard, the Formula1 and Connected were popular choices.
Pictured below, from 2018, a member wears a black F1 (left) and also what I believe is the Connected E2 Red Bull Racing (right).
The Max Championship era: 2021-Present
Starting in 2021, things began to change a little. While Red Bull still did not seem to enforce a dress code for watches, I did notice that a new Connected was worn by quite a few members that year. Take note of the two members in the bottom left of this group pic, taken at Abu Dhabi 2021 when Max clinched his first WDC.
I also noticed this watch being worn by others in the crew. E.g.
At first glance, it seems to be a blue bezel
E3 Connected SGB8A11. However, look closely at the straps.
The strap doesn't appear to be the normal blue rubber Connected strap. To me, the strap looks similar to the Red Bull Racing Leather strap from the E2 Connected RB edition. Could this watch have been a special issue done for the Red Bull team? An E3 Connected with a custom Red Bull leather strap? (See my mockup below.) What do our Connected experts have to say? If this watch was a special custom issue, I'd classify it a team watch, even though it wasn't worn ubiquitously by the team.
Then in 2022, TAG Heuer released the 3rd
Red Bull Racing edition F1 watch ref CAZ101AL.FT8052. I noticed quite a few members wearing the new F1. But others still wore the Connected and other watches, or were watch-less. So almost a team watch (maybe) but not quite, at least not like the McLaren era.
In 2023, the crew continued to wear various TAGs, non-TAGs and no watch at all.
The above group pic is from Japan 2023, with RB clinching the Constructor's championship. Note the member on the far left wearing the RB F1, next to him another member wears a Connected on blue rubber, second from the right wearing another RB F1 and far right wearing what looks like an Apple iWatch.
To celebrate his record achieving 2023 WDC, Max Verstappen commissioned TAG Heuer to make a special RB World Champions F1 watch. This was given as a thank you gift to the team members around early March 2024. I consider this to be a team watch, since the whole team got one. However, I've not been able to spot any of the crew wearing one during this 2024 F1 season yet. Perhaps too special & rare to be worn daily at work.
Finally at the 2024 Miami GP, most members would wear the KITH-Heuer F1 as a kind of "team watch". But it was a onetime thing, done purely for promotion of the KITH x TAG Heuer Formula1 re-issue. And I don't believe the team got to keep the KITH watches, as I never saw them worn again. Thus, I'm hesitant to classify the KITH-Heuer F1 as an "official" team watch.
To close things out where I began (in my first post at the very top), TAG Heuer released a new
E4 Connected Red Bull Racing edition ref SBR8A80.EB0365 in mid Aug '24. The only race since the watch release was the Italian GP and I did spot at least one crew member wearing the latest RB Connected watch. I'll be watch spotting the crew the rest of the season to see if more members start wearing this latest RB TAG.
From 1990-1991 and part of '92, the F1 Chrono ref 472.513 became the McLaren Team watch.
Then sometime in 1992, the F1 Chrono ref 571.493 (bracelet) became the next McLaren Team watch.
It seemed to remain the McLaren Team watch throughout the rest of the Marlboro sponsored era. As I still noticed it in pictures like this one from 1996, the last season before West tobacco sponsorship took over.
