Let's visit the TAG Heuer musuem but only talk about Heuer.

 

Lot’s of things to talk about TAG Heuer Heritage also.
Night Diver
Senna
McLaren
Babin - Bever Era

 

He tagged TAGHeuer on instagram for wearing to vintage Heuers, one being the holy 1158.

 

I wonder if this line will continue..

All of a sudden, I realized why green and red dials.
TAG Heuer shield logo

 

No panda or reverse panda as yet. What I would really go nuts for actually is a sunburst blue dial with white subdials. Or is it too close to the Blue Dreamer?

 

I feel the Montreal is a panda and kind of the inverse of the design you'd go nuts for. Also, I consider the Dato to be a one sided reverse panda as well.

 

I was thinking a sunburst dark blue more like the red and green.

 

I hear you, that would be stunning no doubt.

My 14 year old Navitimer remains a fav of mine for exactly that reason.

 

Classy

 

This exchange, from Instagram, implies that Nicholas Biebuyck would rather protect the investments of the vintage Heuer community rather than increase the sales of TAG Heuer.

His message is "buy vintage". Seems like faithful Heuer re-issues might be a thing of the past.

 

Faithfull re-issues were only made once though, the '90s Carreras branded Heuer only. I absolutely agree doing 100% recreations the way Omega does is pointless and not in line with the TAG Heuer values. There are many in the market and they keep surfacing. These are original and no re-issue could be a true substitute. A good 2447s Ice King granddaddy can be had for about 4-5k, less than TAG Heuer would charge for a new one. My colleague just bought one.
Re-interpretations like the glassbox Carreras are what we need. There are certainly flaws but they are still very nice.

 

Agree. While a 100% faithful reissue would be fab, I don't expect that or need it to get my interest. But models that evoke the spirit of the originals with modern features like sapphire and automatic movements are fine by me.

 

Even the '90s re-issues weren't exact copies. It doesn't need to be 100% faithful to satisfy me. The Monaco McQueen CAW211P, Carrera Silver 160th and Carrera Dato Glassbox are all close enough. I'd be happy to see more along those lines. But I'm afraid that even these types of heritage re-editions may not be in the cards.

Instead, it seems like more playful heritage reinterpretations are the focus, such as the Montreal, Green & Red Glassbox Carreras, the Monaco Dark Lord tribute and the all black Autavia 60th anniversary.

 

I really like Nicholas but he does come out with some strange statements for a heritage director.

If the values of original pieces are supposedly so important to him, why is he advocating for a factory refurbishment programme at the same time? Surely originality is the key to preserving the values of vintage pieces, not chucking loads of contemporary re-manufactured parts on to them?

And on the point about cars, I was listening to a podcast with the CEO of Bentley recently who revealed that most of the Blower recreations had been sold to owners of original cars who wanted something they could actually drive and enjoy without worrying…surely this is where re-editions fit in?

This is an interesting debate. Regardless, I don’t think we’ll be seeing much heritage inspired stuff from TH whilst lil’ Freddy is in charge.

 

Do re-editions really affect the price of originals? I find that hard to believe. Part of the appeal surely lies in the fact that it is an original? Strikes me if anything what he's really saying is that the cost of making these watches isn't worth it for the low numbers they think they would sell.

 

Hard to say. As @Yago pointed out, the release of the Carrera Silver 160th seems to have had little affect on the original 2447S. However, the release of the Hodinkee Dato 45 seemed to have renewed collectors' interest in the original and I saw that prices for the vintage ones trended up after the release.

What Nicholas is implying is if TAG Heuer were to re-issue a 2447SN (Panda) or 2447NS (Reverse Panda) it would hurt the collectors. The Carrera 2447 Pandas & Reverse Pandas are more expensive and harder to find. If TAG Heuer were to do a re-edition for around $7500, it would still be half the asking price of a typical vintage original. But I really doubt a glassbox re-issue would hurt prices that much, since they aren't exact copies.

 

From what you're saying about the Hodinkee Dato, a re-edition might actually positively affect vintage values rather then hurt them.

Another example to look at would be the Speedmaster moonwatch. Vintage values are driven by the fact that they're vintage, and I don't honestly think the new Speedmasters have much of an influence on prices.