Four generations of McQueen Monacos: - Top left: 1133B 1969/ Calibre 11 - Top right: CAW211P 2015/ Calibre 11 - Bottom left: CAW2113 2005/ Calibre 17 - Bottom right: CAW211A 2009/ Calibre 11 Photo by @mnejmantowicz #vintage #vintageheuer #heuer #tagheuer #heuermonaco #tagheuermonaco #monaco #stevemcqueen #mcqueen #calibre11
The layout of the registers is dictated by the base movement being used. Both the old Calibre 11 (1969) and the new Calibre 11 (2003-15) are piggy back movements- that is a chronograph module is mounted on a standard time-only movement. Even though they share a name, the Calibre 11s are based on totally different movements (Buren for the original, ETA/ Sellita for the new one- both have chronograph modules by Dubois Depraz, but those too share nothing in common) and those movements have different layouts. So it wasn't really a decision- that's just how the movements were originally.