The “TAG” in TAG Heuer

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Hi everyone,

First post here, I’m not a Tag Heuer follower but I’m interested in the history of major watch manufactures and I was once an avid student of multiple brands and types of watches, so Heuer was on my radar.

I had been intrigued about how the vintage Heuer brand had turned into the LVMH owned “TAG Heuer”, posting Cara Delevigne advertisements on billboards and bus stops in certain affluent areas of my city, so I finally poked around the web.
You might all know this here but since I posted it over on “Omega Forums” I figured it had a better home on this forum.


Maybe every car enthusiast knows what I’m reading on Wikipedia (and which I hope is mostly true)? that TAG, a private company owned by a Saudi businessman was involved in Formula 1 since the late 1970s, became a shareholder of McLaren Group, hence the name of the “TAG Porsche” turbo engine in the mid 80s.
TAG Aviation managed private planes, and held assets in luxury airport infrastructures.

TAG stands for “Techniques d’avant garde” (avant garde techniques).

In 1978, the French newspaper of record Le Monde recounted the group invested massively in France, banking, real estate, private jets and was said to have ties to the Saudi royal family.
https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/art...par-appli&lmd_creation=ios&lmd_source=default

The French newspaper Liberation in 1999 reported, the billionnaire owner of the TAG group had also been an “advisor” to the Saudi defense minister and involved in the negociation of weapon sales contracts between France and Saudi Arabia.
https://www.liberation.fr/culture/1...am-ojjeh-seront-vendues-aux-encheres_283305/#

Guess the chronograph business was a bit of sidebar 😜

Anyhow, TAG’s Heuer ownership only lasted from 1985-1999, again according to Wikipedia.

Not too surprising the Tag Heuer website history now completely omits the mention of TAG’s (somewhat opaque) ownership.

Edit/ add -They do appear to deserve some credit though, as they appear to have turned the company into a seller of funky, modern and quality sports watches to a broader audience.
Edited:
 
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Welcome S, great to have you here 😀

Yeah, Mansour Ojjeh was quite the character. TAG Group actually still exist too, though no longer a manufacturer of aerospace and motorsport componentry but as a private jet management and charter company - https://www.tagaviation.com/en
 
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Welcome S, great to have you here 😀

Yeah, Mansour Ojjeh was quite the character. TAG Group actually still exist too, though no longer a manufacturer of aerospace and motorsport componentry but as a private jet management and charter company - https://www.tagaviation.com/en

Great, thank you, that’s exactly what I was wondering. The private jet management side of the business did seem like the core part of it.

Yes, maybe if I had bought those two Heuer chronographs I was eyeing back then I would have spent more time on this side. But I was too reasonable, as I have been many times. It would have been a good investment. 😉
 
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Welcome S, great to have you here 😀

Yeah, Mansour Ojjeh was quite the character. TAG Group actually still exist too, though no longer a manufacturer of aerospace and motorsport componentry but as a private jet management and charter company - https://www.tagaviation.com/en
Fun fact - they still use the old TAG (Heuer) logo font type - at least on their hangar at GVA airport…
 
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Fun fact - they still use the old TAG (Heuer) logo font type - at least on their hangar at GVA airport…

Yep, on their website as well.



As we saw a couple years ago though, TAG Heuer has changed the 'TAG' part of the logo so now it no longer resembles the (superior, IMO) Techniques d'Avant Garde logo.
 
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Yep, on their website as well.



As we saw a couple years ago though, TAG Heuer has changed the 'TAG' part of the logo so now it no longer resembles the (superior, IMO) Techniques d'Avant Garde logo.

I agree. I prefer the Techniques d'Avant Garde logo myself. Maybe TAG Heuer wanted to separate themselves from Techniques d'Avant Garde as part of the reasoning behind the new logo? Never thought of it that way.
 
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Yep, on their website as well.



As we saw a couple years ago though, TAG Heuer has changed the 'TAG' part of the logo so now it no longer resembles the (superior, IMO) Techniques d'Avant Garde logo.
The new TAG font was introduced in 2015 when Biver took over. Here's the discussion we had about it back then.
 
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I prefer the old logo as well, as it represents TAG's historical role in F1 with Williams & McLaren etc.


My preferences for logos:
Heuer > "Original" TAG Heuer > "Current" TAG Heuer
Edited:
 
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When the new logo came out I didn't like it, but now it looks right and the old one looks a bit 'rustic.
 
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Many in the watch community blame "TAG" for turning the Heuer brand into a fashion watch maker, questioning the designs and quality. But the funny thing is, I never noticed any negativity towards the brand while it was TAG owned. In fact, it seemed very admired throughout most of the 90s and into the early 2000s.

TAG has had nothing to do with the brand post-LVMH buy out in 1999. So I suppose it makes sense that the logo should change.
 
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Very true that. All those awful 90s quartz watches were popular with the buying public.
 
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I prefer the old logo as well, as it represents TAG's historical role in F1 with Williams & McLaren etc.


My preferences for logos:
Heuer > "Original" TAG Heuer > "Current" TAG Heuer
Here's video that you're likely to enjoy.
 
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The new TAG font was introduced in 2015 when Biver took over. Here's the discussion we had about it back then.

I remember watching an interview where Biver wishes that the name was not changed from "Heuer" to "TAG Heuer", but he felt that it didn't make any sense to change the name back to "Heuer". I agreed with him.
 
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Very true that. All those awful 90s quartz watches were popular with the buying public.

Hey - I own one of those "awful 90s quartz watches" and it's one of my favorites in my modest collection! LOL.

...or were you referring to quartz watches in general and not TAG Heuer quartz watches from the 90s? I believe you own quite a few yourself!
 
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I remember watching an interview where Biver wishes that the name was not changed from "Heuer" to "TAG Heuer", but he felt that it didn't make any sense to change the name back to "Heuer". I agreed with him.
"OK, you change name -- but I change wife."

DC!
 
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side notes:

Heuer logo design and proportions look great on watch dials. Legible, clean, and unique. The triangular bottom is a perfect fit for watch hands set to the 10 and 2 position. It's just good design.

TAGHeuer logo design is at its best when scaled up and large, like on a step and repeat backdrop at a social media event or the hood of a race car. Not ideal on a watch due to proportions looking more squarish at that small a size. It's just not a strong logo on a watch dial unfortunately.
 
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"OK, you change name -- but I change wife."

DC!
Biver was spot on. It was so arrogant of Mansour Ojjeh to slap his company name in front of Heuer!

I laughed when he said "It's like if I bought Ferrari and changed the name to BIVER Ferrari".
 
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Hey - I own one of those "awful 90s quartz watches" and it's one of my favorites in my modest collection! LOL.

...or were you referring to quartz watches in general and not TAG Heuer quartz watches from the 90s? I believe you own quite a few yourself!

Oh sorry, it's not me that thinks they are awful. I should have put 'awful'. And yes, I own at least four of them too...
 
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Biver was spot on. It was so arrogant of Mansour Ojjeh to slap his company name in front of Heuer!

I laughed when he said "It's like if I bought Ferrari and changed the name to BIVER Ferrari".
“Beeveer Ferraree!” In JCB voice does sound fun ::rimshot::