TAG Heuer Calibre 12
TAG Heuer Calibre 12 is a modern automatic modular chronograph movement from TAG Heuer, created as a tribute to the famous Heuer "Chronomatic" Calibre 12 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. 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 12
The modern "Calibre 12" is obviously not a Chronomatic, since the crown is on the right (rather than left) side.
Like the original Calibre 12, the modern Calibre 12 is modular, with a proven ebauche powering a chronograph module. The original Chronomatic Calibre 12 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 12 uses a common ETA 2892-A2 (or similar Sellita SW 300) base with a new Dubois-Depraz chronograph module (model 2008). This makes it very similar to the ETA 2894-based TAG Heuer Calibre 17, since both share a 2892 base.
Unlike the original Calibre 12, the modern interpretation leaves the crown on the right side of the face along with the chronograph pushers. Also unlike the original, this movement operates at 28,800 A/h rather than the 21,600 A/h.
One major departure from the original Calibre 12 is the subdial arrangement: The old Calibre 12 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.
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