TAG Heuer Calibre 11
TAG Heuer Calibre 11 is a modern automatic modular chronograph movement from TAG Heuer, created as a tribute to the famous Heuer "Chronomatic" Calibre 11 of 1969.
History
The race to develop an automatic chronograph was a famous moment in the history of watches, and Heuer was one of the most initially-successful companies, marketing a wide range of popular chronographs using that movement, including the Heuer Monaco and Heuer Autavia. As the tribute trend took hold in the 2000's, modern-day TAG Heuer began creating modern interpretations of those watches, complete with newly-designed movements.
These new watches were marketed as containing a "Calibre 11" or "Calibre 12" movement, but this calibre were based on an ETA or Sellita ebauche with a Dubois-Depraz module and was unrelated to the original Chronomatic. Confusingly, these movements are marked "Calibre 11" and "Calibre 12" on the rotor and some bear a "Heuer" (rather than modern "TAG Heuer") badge.
TAG Heuer Calibre 11
The modern "Calibre 11" even appears correct, with the winding stem on the left and chronograph pushers on the right. The modern "Calibre 12" is more obvious, with all three on the right side.
Like the original Calibre 11, the modern Calibre 11 is modular, with a proven ebauche powering a chronograph module. The original Chronomatic Calibre 11 featured a Buren 1281 with a Dubois-Depraz 8510 module, but neither of these components were available in volume by the 2000's. Therefore, the modern Calibre 11 uses a common ETA 2892-A2 (or similar Sellita SW 300) base with a new Dubois-Depraz chronograph module (model 2018, 2021, or 2022).
Like the original Calibre 11, the modern interpretation rotates the base movement 180 degrees, so the crown is on the left side of the face while the chronograph pushers are on the right. Unlike the original, this movement operates at 28,800 A/h rather than the archaic 19,800 A/h.
One major departure from the original Calibre 11 is the subdial arrangement: The old Calibre 11 featured chronograph hours on the left and chronograph minutes on the right, while the new has only chronograph minutes on the left and running seconds on the right.
Applications
TAG Heuer used the modern Calibre 11 in a number of "tribute" models:
- 2009 Heuer Monaco 40th Anniversary ‘McQueen’
- 2010 Heuer Monaco Silverstone (the original Silverstone used a Chronomatic Calibre 12)
External Links
|
Description:
Functions:
Data:
Production period:
|