The jury of the 2011 Grand Prix de l’Horlogerie de Genève singled out Tag Heuer Mikrotimer Flying 1000 Chronograph, as the Swiss sport watch of the year. Tag Heuer absolutely deserved this prestigious award for developing the world’s first mechanical chronograph that measures and displays time to 1/1,000th of a second!
Just 2 months after it won the SIAR “Best Concept of the Year” inMexico City, which is the major watchmaking award inLatin America, the world’s fastest ever mechanical chronograph was honored again, this time at the Swiss watch industry’s most important competition. This is the 7th Grand Prix de l’Horlogerie de Genève award for Tag Heuer, in just 10 years, which positioned this renowned brand at the high end of haute horology.
Before its latest success with Mikrotimer Flying 1000 Chronograph, Tag Heuer won in the Sports category twice: in 2006 for Tag Heuer Carrera Calibre 360 Rose Gold Limited Edition; and in 2008 for Tag Heuer Grand Carrera Calibre 36 RS Caliper Concept Chronograph.
“Our R&D team literally rewrote the book with this one.” said Jean-Christophe Babin, the Swiss brand’s CEO. As he said, the Mikrotimer went beyond what everyone in the industry thought it was possible, representing a quantum leap that pushed watchmaking into a whole new paradigm.
Babin is very proud with the fact that Tag Heuer’s unique commercial range of mechanical chronographs (measuring 1/10th, 1/100th and 1/1000th of a second respectively) had all won the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix, which is the honor that very few Swiss brands have received so consistently.
A week ago, the technological base for the Mikrotimer Flying 1000 – Tag Heuer Mikrograph, which is the first and the only mechanical chronograph, commercialized to count 1/100th of a second with a central hand, won the Montres & Passion 2011 “Grand Prix du Public”.
If it had been almost impossible to imagine such speed, until January 2011, when the Mikrograph was released for the first time, what should we say about the Mikrotimer Flying 1000 Chronograph which is ten times faster than the Mikrograph and 125 times faster than 99% of Swiss best mechanical chronographs? Just try to imagine its central chronograph hand which makes 10 turns around the dial in a single second!
“The concept stage of the Mikrotimer was a proud moment in TAG Heuer’s “Mastering Speed for 150 Years” celebrations.” said Jean-Christophe Babin. Successful commercialization of this technological miracle is the next big challenge for the Swiss watchmaker. As it was announced earlier, we should expect that by the end of the year.
Read my full review of Tag Heuer Mikrotimer.
