TAG Heuer’s Entry-Level Motorsports Watch Takes on America’s Biggest Race

Is there a watch brand more tied to motorsport than TAG Heuer?

From the brand’s 1930s Autavia dash timers and its 1960s racing chronographs like the Monaco and Carrera to its decades-long relationships with Formula One and the Indianapolis 500, TAG Heuer’s connections to auto racing are hard to beat.

The brand’s current catalog is bursting with automotive-inspired watches, but its latest may be the one to rule them all, as it effectively combines the two crown jewels of TAG Heuer’s racing pedigree.

TAG Heuer

Formula 1ndy 500

Formula 1 and the IndyCar Series are natural rivals. Both are open-wheel, single-seater race series that are among the fastest in the world. While F1 cars are considered the pinnacle of racing globally, IndyCar has long dominated the U.S. market, particularly with its iconic flagship race, the Indy 500.

The rivalry has heated up in recent years, thanks to F1 encroaching on IndyCar’s territory by adding two new American races to its calendar in Las Vegas and Miami.

TAG Heuer has important partnerships with both. It’s been the official timekeeper of the Indy 500 for over 20 years, and last year, it once again became the official timekeeper of F1 after a lengthy hiatus.

That’s how we’ve ended up with the new TAG Heuer Formula 1 x Indy 500, a watch that spiritually joins two racing rivals into what just may be the coolest example of TAG Heuer’s entry-level motorsports watch yet.

TAG Heuer

The new Formula 1 leaves behind the plastic parts indicative of most of the series in favor of a sandblasted stainless steel case and three-link bracelet. The 38mm case is topped with a black rotating bezel in lightweight TH Polylight material with brown markings and a luminous pip.

The matte, opaline-finished black dial features a brown minute track and bold applied indices and hands filled with white Super-LumiNova. There’s a white-framed date window at 3:00, and the center-mounted seconds hand is finished in a bold shade of red. Speaking of bold, an oversized Indianapolis Motor Speedway logo appears on the dial above 6:00.

The watch’s solid caseback features an engraving depicting the same logo over a brick backdrop representing the speedway’s iconic “Yard of Bricks” finish line. Behind that caseback is TAG Heuer’s excellent in-house solar quartz calibre, the TH50-00, which lasts 10 months on a full charge and boasts a battery life of 15 years.

TAG Heuer

Availability and pricing

The TAG Heuer Formula 1 Solargraph x Indy 500 is a limited edition, but it’s not limited to 500 pieces, which is what I was expecting. Instead, TAG is producing 1,100 examples of the watch. Why 1,100? Because this year marks the 110th anniversary of the Indy 500, and the watch was created to celebrate that milestone.

The Formula 1 Solargraph x Indy 500 is priced at $2,250, which is a $200 premium over other full-steel F1 Solargraphs. It is available now from TAG Heuer.

TAG Heuer

TAG Heuer Formula 1 Solargraph x Indy 500

Specs

Case Size	38mm
Movement	TAG Heuer Cal. TH50-00 solar quartz
Water Resistance	100m

• $2,250 at TAG Heuer

Want to stay up to date on the latest product news and releases? Add Gear Patrol as a preferred source to ensure our independent journalism makes it to the top of your Google search results.

Related Topics