Almost Swiss made from every brand is an iconic piece. The real deal is far more scarce. The TAG Heuer Monaco V4, which has been around since 2004 is on the right track for bona fide icon status.
So what makes the V4 special? Well, when the watch announced as a concept watch 11 years ago it was revolutionary. The V4 looked more like a car than a watch, with its angled ‘V’ main plate and four barrels. But the V4 is more than just a regular Monaco with some automative-inspired design tweaks. Kinetic energy is not generated by an oscillating weight, but rather by a linear weight (that you can see in the centre of the movement). What’s more, this energy is not transmitted through the watch by common gears, but rather by a system of incredibly small belts. Ironing out the kinks in these 0.07mm thick belts is something that took TAG Heuer five years, when they felt confident enough make the watch commercially available. Since that time the V4 has been released in a range of variants, and the model holds a special place in the upper echelons of TAG Heuer’s catalogue.
The other big story about the V4 Phantom is that its had a significant price cut. The retail is just over $60,000 which makes it the most affordable V4 thus far, about half the price of the original release. The reason for this is tied to Jean-Claude Biver’s aggressive strategy for making the brand more accessible. In previous years, TAG Heuer, under the direction of Mr Guy Semon excelled at making some of the advanced precision timing watches ever seen, in watches like the Mikrogirder and Mikrotimer. Under Biver’s strategy the brand will not focus on this level of Haute Horlogerie timepieces, instead trickling down the technologies learned in these pieces to wider collections. This means that the V4 now represents the most advanced production piece in the TAG Heuer catalogue, and the pricing has been adjusted to keep it in line with other collections.