55 Pieces for 55 Years…

TAG Heuer is set to manufacture a limited edition watch for the Porsche Club of America (PCA), the largest single-brand car club in the world (100,000+ members).  The watch keeps the essential elements of the TAG Heuer Monaco watch, but with a sporty,  special dial designed in red and black rally stripes and the racing number “55″, a nod to Porsche Club of America’s years since — and year of — its founding (1955).  As you can also see, the watch comes on a black leather strap with racing holes and red stitching that is exclusive to this model:

The backstory on this watch is that Vu T.H. Nguyen, executive director of the Porsche Club of America, and Georg Bartkowiak, member of the Porsche Club of Germany, decided to create a limited collector’s watch for the PCA.  Of course it only made sense to tap Bartkowiak for the prestigious project — readers of this blog will likely recognize Bartkowiak as CEO of high-end luxury watch brand GRIEB & BENZINGER (check out his handiwork here!).

The official limited edition TAG Heuer Monaco manufactured for the Porsche Club of America is available for order now, with delivery set for September.  The official retail price at launch is $5,500.  When you compare this to the nice-but-not-that-nice TAG Heuer Silverstone re-issue which was priced at $6,500, I’d have to say this is an absolute steal!

Get your order in today at www.PCA-TAG.com!

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Did You Know?

It is no coincidence that the PCA has chosen TAG Heuer as its partner for the limited edition watch, which is based on famous racing heritage. In preparing to shoot Le Mans, US actor Steve McQueen’s main source of inspiration was his friend Jo Siffert, the Swiss racecar legend who in 1969 became the first driver ever sponsored by a watch brand: Heuer (TAG, standing for Techniques d’Avantgarde, was added in 1985 as the result of a takeover). McQueen insisted on wearing Heuer’s Monaco in the film, which had just been launched. Perhaps it was McQueen’s influence, or perhaps it was Porsche driver Siffert’s, but the Monaco seemed to become the preferred chronograph of the racing and fashion worlds in the 1970s. This watch, whose unique and uncompromising geometry helped achieve its almost legendary status, is one of the most recognizable timepieces in the world.