TAG Heuer Pink Monaco Chronograph Roars Out of the Gate Ahead of Vegas Grand Prix

Once almost solely the purview of female-targeted watches, and the occasional special edition in the Breast Cancer Awareness month of October, pink has become undeniably hot as a go-to dial color for all styles, shapes, and sizes of timepieces, many of them speaking to decidedly unisex or even masculine audiences. One need only look at the stunning success (and instant collectibility) of timepieces like Tudor’s Black Bay Chrono Pink, rocked by none other than sport-and-fashion icon David Beckham; Grand Seiko’s Four Season’s “Shunbun;” and Zenith’s Defy Skyline Pink Edition, to name just a few, to conclude that the color of carnations, rosé wine, and cherry blossoms has come of age as a watch-dial standard. The latest example comes from TAG Heuer, which today unveiled its Pink Monaco Chronograph ahead of the upcoming Las Vegas Grand Prix.

The TAG Heuer Monaco, by just about anyone’s estimation, has long been regarded as a “guy’s guy” watch, forever tied to its presence in the world of 1970s motorsports and particularly its longtime association with one of the baddest, coolest dudes ever to grace the silver screen, the late Steve McQueen. More recently, the Monaco acquired even more badass pop-culture cred when “Breaking Bad’s” Walter White used one to time a series of jailhouse assassinations in a classic scene from that award-winning TV drama. Released in 1969 and named for the Monaco Grand Prix by its creator, Jack Heuer (a huge racing fan and scion of the brand’s founding family), the Monaco was historic even before the general public discovered it. It was the first wristwatch with a square case that was also water-resistant, as well as one of the first chronograph watches to be equipped with a self-winding mechanical movement, the groundbreaking Caliber 11. It was also noteworthy for its unusual design, with chronograph pushers on the right side of the case and a crown on the left, and two squared subdial counters echoing the geometry of the case and dial. Now more than half a century on the market, the Monaco has offered an array of colorful interpretations, perhaps none more eye-catching than this new edition outfitted with the skeletonized Caliber Heuer 02, whose mechanisms are on display behind the bright pink-accented dial.

According to TAG Heuer, the pink elements — such as the borders of the squared, opaline subdials, the lacquered central chronograph seconds hand, and the exposed bridges along the periphery that serve as hour markers — are meant to evoke “the iconic neon of the Las Vegas Strip” as well as “the unique aura of sunsets in the American Southwest.” To the eye of this frequent Vegas visitor, the former comes to mind more than the latter, particularly the blazing pink of one particular venue on the Strip, the legendary Flamingo (above). The juxtaposition of pink with the watch’s darker elements, including the black sandblasted finish on the openworked dial, blackened indexes, and black-gold-plated faceted hour and minute hands, can indeed evoke bright neon lighting up the warm desert night. When the watch is actually worn at night, you can also read the time and date thanks to the application of light blue Super-LumiNova on the hands, markers, and 6 o’clock date disk. 

The case is made of black DLC-coated titanium, with the same sandblasted finish as the dial and movement (which, of course, here are kind of the same). It measures 39mm in diameter and 15.2mm thick, with a lug-to-lug span of 47.4mm — traditional dimensions for a modern Monaco — and resists water to 100 meters of pressure. Its sapphire crystal over the dial is beveled and domed, while an additional sapphire pane in the screwed caseback offers a rear view of the automatic, in-house movement, Caliber Heuer 02. Its main talking points include an integrated chronograph powered by a column wheel, here finished in pink, and a vertical clutch; a hefty 80-hour power reserve, and a pink-accented, skeletonized rotor. Caliber Heuer 02, which debuted in 2016, has also also been built to position the crown and pushers on the same side of the case — perhaps a turnoff for purists who love the vintage Caliber 11 model's quirky design but definitely a plus in the user-friendliness column.

The TAG Heuer Pink Monaco Chronograph fastens to the wrist with a matching strap that combines an embossed black calfskin leather surface with a rubber lining. The strap closes with a double-push-button safety clasp, made from the same sandblasted DLC titanium as the case, and features the iconic TAG Heuer shield embossed into its topside. Despite the watch’s launch coinciding with the aforementioned 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix event, TAG Heuer hasn’t indicated that the watch will be a limited edition, so it appears that this pink-detailed version of the historical racing chronograph is headed for a pole position in the regular TAG Heuer collection. The price is estimated at 11,000 Swiss francs, or about $12,400.