Today Tag Heuer is probably the most widely advertised Swiss luxury watchmaking brand that focuses on sports watches and chronographs.Aggressive and ubiquitous marketing campaigns made Tag Heuer a familiar name in circles usually unfamiliar with luxury products. During the last two decades Tag Heuer became the Rolex of sports watches – many can't afford to own one, but everyone is supposed to want one.

It must be said that some connoisseurs resent this mass consumption marketing approach, and opine that the broad appeal devalues the brand, and mechanical watchmaking in general. But, regardless of what some fanatics and aficionados think, it's universally accepted that Tag Heuer make very fine watches.

Philosophy

Tag Heuer aim to balance stylish design of the highest order with latest technological achievements in the field of micro engineering. What distinguishes the brand from others who try to achieve the same is the strong tendency to keep things cool and unremarkable, almost intentionally so. This philosophy of design and manufacture is reflected in the faces of two great sportsmen: Steve McQueen and Tiger Woods.

Cool, collected, unperturbed, they project ease of style as a veritable facade – which conceals a core of pure focus and energy. Though golf and racing are relatively exclusive sports, these guys make it appear mainstream. And this is what Tag Heuer is all about: luxury products appealing to the mainstream crowd. Their marketing strategy boils down to finding the right sports person who can get this message across; a simple but brilliant strategy that works.

Website

Tag Heuer website features a black and dark blue backdrop, and a conventional navigation scheme of a main upper menu bar with more options appearing on the left bar. The dark colors project seriousness while the navigation links guarantee an effortless browsing experience. With some minor changes, the online catalogs share these characteristics.

Strangely though, what seems to be lacking is a clear sense of order: that's because the central window is governed by an array of constantly alternating images. It's a visually rather than textually guided website. Photographs and videos of changing format, colors, borders, and backgrounds determine its atmosphere. The three dimensional virtual museum is the highlight of this refreshing approach.

Collections

The majority of Tag Heuer watches were designed for land or sea racing sports. Monaco, Carrera, Grand Carrera, SLR, Aquaracer, Microtimer, and Formula 1 – these seven collections are either inspired by or intended for racing that relies on motored vehicles of varying specifications. Other two collections include the Link and the Professional Sports/Golf watch, designed mostly for tennis (represented by Maria Sharapova) and golf (Tiger Woods). Importantly, these relatively “slow” sports nevertheless involve extremely fast speeds at which the balls are travelling and the clubs and rackets are wielded.