The mess of Tag Heuer collections

[Jim Dollares]

Was browsing the Tag Heuer website the other day which is something I usually avoid since it is very slow and annoying to navigate it. However, it really hit me how some of the presentation of the collections really makes no sense. For us fellow nerds in this place it might not be an issue but what about "normal" people just looking to get a nice watch. So lets put ourselves in the mind of this normal person looking for a watch while browsing the Tag Heuer site:

OK so first we get presented with the different collections. Wow, cool how many collections there are! I wonder though why there is a picture of an Autavia on the Heritage collection when there is a specific Autavia collection in the middle, well well a mistake I guess.



Carrera looks cool, a sceletonized bad ass watch might be something for me. But wait a minute, are all these totally different watches named Carrera? It says "The classic yet contemporary sports watch inspired by Motor Racing" but this is everything from futuristic sceletonized tourbillions, to dressy chronographs to gold plated ladies watches with diamonds??





OK not sure I want a Carrera, who even knows what a Carrera is? Do Tag themselves know? OK lets look at the "Heritage" collection instead to see what that is. Well this is strange... there are both Autavia, Monaco and Carrera in this collection. But there are specific separate collections for them as well were there not, I wonder what the difference is...

Wonder why it says only Heuer on the dial, is that a different brand? Aaah I see now, maybe the watches with different logo saying just Heuer is under the Heritage collection! No, that Calibre 12 Monaco has a Tag Heuer logo so that makes no sense either. But still, that Tag Heuer logo on that one is also a bit different with small arrows on the G in Tag. Why do they use 3 different logos?



Monaco is kind of cool, very retro. Lets see what models are in that collection! Wow, a sort of neon pastel blue dial with carbon case, that is bad ass. That one also has the Heuer only logo though, wonder why that one is not in the Heritage collection? Now I see that 6 of the Monacos are presented both in the Monaco collection and the Heritage collection but there are a total of 11 watches in the Monaco collection... is there a difference between the Heritage collection calibre 11 Monaco and the Monaco collection calibre 11 Monaco? I see no difference but I guess I have to ask the store about it. Very odd...



Sorry if this became a bit of a messy thread but Tag should really consider streamlining their collections and especially make up their mind when it comes to what a Carrera is...

Do you agree or am I exaggerating?

All the best! //Jim

 

[Tag_ZA]

Thanks for this post, had a good laugh going through this. Being in the E-commerce / retail business this is part of my job. I have always found the TH site to be terrible to navigate, even the "Other watches in this collection" part, some of them have absolutely nothing to do with the watch I am viewing. An example, I am viewing the Formula 1 Gulf edition and a related variation is a Heuer 02T...

 

[Jim Dollares]

Tag_ZA

Thanks for this post, had a good laugh going through this. Being in the E-commerce / retail business this is part of my job. I have always found the TH site to be terrible to navigate, even the "Other watches in this collection" part, some of them have absolutely nothing to do with the watch I am viewing. An example, I am viewing the Formula 1 Gulf edition and a related variation is a Heuer 02T...

Hah, another great example indeed

 

[Aquagraph]

Yep, it's a bit of a mess alright!

 

[Pitfitter446]

Tag_ZA

Thanks for this post, had a good laugh going through this. Being in the E-commerce / retail business this is part of my job.

Need to contact them and offer your services, a wee contract on the side?

 

[Tag_ZA]

Pitfitter446

Need to contact them and offer your services, a wee contract on the side?

Haha that would be a dream contract to have. I would take payment in stock

 

[Ara]

100% agree. But after a few conversations on subjects similar to this with people offline, it feels like this is just how it's going to be with TH.

My personal opinion is that there are too many variations on top of too many models -- leading to convoluted design elements and branding. That said, it seems like that's what they're actually trying to achieve; broaden the target to appeal to a larger base. (I'm not adding anything new here by saying that, of course)

It's safe to assume this cluttered brand approach leads to a messy website. Your Monaco observations are a perfect example.

A quick story --> I was in a store called "Westime" near my house last year. Just for fun, I asked the store rep why there are Monacos with two different logos on the dial. Her response was "people like variation...."

At that point I shrugged. To me it's just too late for TH. They've spent 3+ decades being all over the place. That's their DNA.

 

[El Matarife]

Jim Dollares

Was browsing the Tag Heuer website the other day which is something I usually avoid since it is very slow and annoying to navigate it. However, it really hit me how some of the presentation of the collections really makes no sense. For us fellow nerds in this place it might not be an issue but what about "normal" people just looking to get a nice watch. So lets put ourselves in the mind of this normal person looking for a watch while browsing the Tag Heuer site:

OK so first we get presented with the different collections. Wow, cool how many collections there are! I wonder though why there is a picture of an Autavia on the Heritage collection when there is a specific Autavia collection in the middle, well well a mistake I guess.



Carrera looks cool, a sceletonized bad ass watch might be something for me. But wait a minute, are all these totally different watches named Carrera? It says "The classic yet contemporary sports watch inspired by Motor Racing" but this is everything from futuristic sceletonized tourbillions, to dressy chronographs to gold plated ladies watches with diamonds??





OK not sure I want a Carrera, who even knows what a Carrera is? Do Tag themselves know? OK lets look at the "Heritage" collection instead to see what that is. Well this is strange... there are both Autavia, Monaco and Carrera in this collection. But there are specific separate collections for them as well were there not, I wonder what the difference is...

Wonder why it says only Heuer on the dial, is that a different brand? Aaah I see now, maybe the watches with different logo saying just Heuer is under the Heritage collection! No, that Calibre 12 Monaco has a Tag Heuer logo so that makes no sense either. But still, that Tag Heuer logo on that one is also a bit different with small arrows on the G in Tag. Why do they use 3 different logos?



Monaco is kind of cool, very retro. Lets see what models are in that collection! Wow, a sort of neon pastel blue dial with carbon case, that is bad ass. That one also has the Heuer only logo though, wonder why that one is not in the Heritage collection? Now I see that 6 of the Monacos are presented both in the Monaco collection and the Heritage collection but there are a total of 11 watches in the Monaco collection... is there a difference between the Heritage collection calibre 11 Monaco and the Monaco collection calibre 11 Monaco? I see no difference but I guess I have to ask the store about it. Very odd...



Sorry if this became a bit of a messy thread but Tag should really consider streamlining their collections and especially make up their mind when it comes to what a Carrera is...

Do you agree or am I exaggerating?

All the best! //Jim

Yup, spot on. Not to mention the things that are listed that you can't actually buy because the aren't any - like the Bamford carbon!

 

[Mspeedster]

I really don't bother exploring the TAG Heuer website much. But since this topic was raised, I decided to dig a little deeper into the website than I normally do. Yup it is messy, but the US website is slightly cleaner, only because it seems to show less models. For example, no Bamford in the Monaco section.

In addition, I noticed that the page on the Gulf partnership has two glaring mistakes.

1. It says Steve McQueen drives a Ford GT40, when in fact he drives the Porsche 917 in the movie Le Mans.

"As TAG Heuer, Gulf is passionate about performance and pushing boundaries, driven by a constant search for innovation. A commitment passed to posterity in the movie Le Mans, released in 1971, in which Steve McQueen drives a Ford GT40 bearing Gulf’s colors, blue and orange."

2. The image shown for the new Monaco Gulf at the bottom of the page is actually the previous model, the Cal 12 Monaco Gulf Grey.

 

[Aquagraph]

Ara

A quick story --> I was in a store called "Westime" near my house last year. Just for fun, I asked the store rep why there are Monacos with two different logos on the dial. Her response was "people like variation...."

She's right though. TAG Heuer are the only brand with this stupid problem... I'd choose the TAG Heuer one over the Heuer one. Now, yes, what they maybe should have done was only ever put the Heuer logo on the Monacos from the relaunch. But they didn't, and if they put Heuer logos on the Cal 12 now people would bitch about that... they really can't win at this point. What options do they have now? They can't go back to being 'Heuer' because a lot of people would bitch about that, 'Oh don't put 'Heuer' on those awful quartz F1s!' and they can't dump the Heuer name either now. They made the break and then they bottled it, now they are stuck in between neither one thing or the other.

But still, she's right. Some people will only buy Heuer branded product, some people prefer TAG Heuer.

 

[Jim Dollares]

Aquagraph

She's right though. TAG Heuer are the only brand with this stupid problem... I'd choose the TAG Heuer one over the Heuer one. Now, yes, what they maybe should have done was only ever put the Heuer logo on the Monacos from the relaunch. But they didn't, and if they put Heuer logos on the Cal 12 now people would bitch about that... they really can't win at this point. What options do they have now? They can't go back to being 'Heuer' because a lot of people would bitch about that, 'Oh don't put 'Heuer' on those awful quartz F1s!' and they can't dump the Heuer name either now. They made the break and then they bottled it, now they are stuck in between neither one thing or the other.

But still, she's right. Some people will only buy Heuer branded product, some people prefer TAG Heuer.

Sure but saying something like "the brand used to be called only Heuer so the heritage models have that logo as a flirt with the past" would have been better explanation for a customer than just saying that people like variation.

 

[imagwai]

I don't find having two brands that confusing or complicated to understand to be honest.

 

[Aquagraph]

Jim Dollares

Sure but saying something like "the brand used to be called only Heuer so the heritage models have that logo as a flirt with the past" would have been better explanation for a customer than just saying that people like variation.

It would have been the more 'professional' statement, sure...

 

[Aquagraph]

imagwai

I don't find having two brands that confusing or complicated to understand to be honest.

That's because you're a watch enthusiast. The average man on the street who just wants a nice looking watch probably doesn't get it. It would be easier for him to understand if it was like Lexus and Toyota, but it isn't...

 

[El Matarife]

Mspeedster

I really don't bother exploring the TAG Heuer website much. But since this topic was raised, I decided to dig a little deeper into the website than I normally do. Yup it is messy, but the US website is slightly cleaner, only because it seems to show less models. For example, no Bamford in the Monaco section.

In addition, I noticed that the page on the Gulf partnership has two glaring mistakes.

1. It says Steve McQueen drives a Ford GT40, when in fact he drives the Porsche 917 in the movie Le Mans.

"As TAG Heuer, Gulf is passionate about performance and pushing boundaries, driven by a constant search for innovation. A commitment passed to posterity in the movie Le Mans, released in 1971, in which Steve McQueen drives a Ford GT40 bearing Gulf’s colors, blue and orange."

2. The image shown for the new Monaco Gulf at the bottom of the page is actually the previous model, the Cal 12 Monaco Gulf Grey.

Those are two huge errors!

 

[Pitfitter446]

Aquagraph

That's because you're a watch enthusiast. The average man on the street who just wants a nice looking watch probably doesn't get it. It would be easier for him to understand if it was like Lexus and Toyota, but it isn't...

Easier to explain if the sales staff were actually trained in product knowledge, popped into a Goldsmiths last week whose window display is purely TH, assistant noted my McQueen and said.......”nice watch, what is it?”!!!!!! They had several Monaco in the window including one like mine FFS.

 

[Remo]

If TAG Heuer would drop TAG from the brand they could solve the problem in the very long run (20 years or longer maybe). The TAG branded products would then get the status of vintage and part of the stormy history, while Heuer had come back to validate their roots and long heritage. And after this they should never change the brand again for the next couple of centuries (apart from minor modernisations of the Heuer logo).

 

[imagwai]

Remo

If TAG Heuer would drop TAG from the brand they could solve the problem in the very long run (20 years or longer maybe). The TAG branded products would then get the status of vintage and part of the stormy history, while Heuer had come back to validate their roots and long heritage. And after this they should never change the brand again for the next couple of centuries (apart from minor modernisations of the Heuer logo).

I like that, but Biver was very keen not to drop the "avant garde" and saw this as a way of differentiating TAG from all the other watch brands in the group.

 

[Aquagraph]

Remo

If TAG Heuer would drop TAG from the brand they could solve the problem in the very long run (20 years or longer maybe). The TAG branded products would then get the status of vintage and part of the stormy history, while Heuer had come back to validate their roots and long heritage. And after this they should never change the brand again for the next couple of centuries (apart from minor modernisations of the Heuer logo).

Okay, they could drop the TAG part of the name... but would you accept a Camouflage dial Aquaracer or a Connected as a 'Heuer'?
Or in this utopian vision are Heuer then only making Monacos, Silverstones and (old school) Carreras...

 

[Hubert]

Mspeedster

I really don't bother exploring the TAG Heuer website much. But since this topic was raised, I decided to dig a little deeper into the website than I normally do. Yup it is messy, but the US website is slightly cleaner, only because it seems to show less models. For example, no Bamford in the Monaco section.

In addition, I noticed that the page on the Gulf partnership has two glaring mistakes.

1. It says Steve McQueen drives a Ford GT40, when in fact he drives the Porsche 917 in the movie Le Mans.

"As TAG Heuer, Gulf is passionate about performance and pushing boundaries, driven by a constant search for innovation. A commitment passed to posterity in the movie Le Mans, released in 1971, in which Steve McQueen drives a Ford GT40 bearing Gulf’s colors, blue and orange."

2. The image shown for the new Monaco Gulf at the bottom of the page is actually the previous model, the Cal 12 Monaco Gulf Grey.

El Matarife

Those are two huge errors!

Yes, recurring mistakes!
https://forums.calibre11.com/thread...cial-edition-caw211r.62217/page-8#post-950358

https://forums.calibre11.com/thread...cial-edition-caw211r.62217/page-8#post-958083

https://forums.calibre11.com/thread...op-cars-gulf-oil-int.72209/page-3#post-913761