Tag Heuer Revamp Formula 1 Chronograph in Titanium for 2025

If I’m being honest with myself, I often overlook the Tag Heuer Formula 1 collection. It’s predominantly a quartz collection with an uber sporty design philosophy that frankly doesn’t appeal to me. I much prefer the cleaner design of the Carrera or retro influence of the Monaco. However, now that Tag Heuer have become the official timing partner of Formula 1, they’ve expanded the limited number of mechanical automatic models in the collection with five new references in titanium called, quite simply, the Tag Heuer Formula 1 Chronograph Automatic.

First things first, the Formula 1 is a big, big watch. It measures 44mm in diameter with a thickness of 14.1mm, making it an imposing wrist monster. But don’t let that deter you immediately because now that the case is made from titanium for the first time, it’s much lighter than previous models, improving its ergonomic performance. Of course, if you’re worried about being dwarfed by your watch, no material is going to change that.

Alongside the change in metal, the design of the case has been tweaked as well. The lugs are much shorter, giving the watch a much squarer silhouette that pairs with the new cushion shape of the piece. Shorter lugs will also help it sit well on slimmer wrists. Another part of that square silhouette is the addition of broad, flat chronograph pushers as opposed to circular pushers. It makes for a chunkier, angular aesthetic, which are not necessarily adjectives that come to mind when you think of F1 cars. But look at the front wing or rear spoiler and you can see that they do in fact share some aesthetic similarities.

Looking at the five individual references there’s the standard titanium model with black DLC tachymeter bezel, three full DLC coated models and finally an Oracle Red Bull Racing special edition in exposed titanium with a forged carbon bezel. The standard model has a black dial with vertical tricompax chronograph display and red accents for the chrono hands and hour scale ring. The full DLC models have the exact same dials, but the accent colours are in a choice of red, blue or lime green.

The Oracle Red Bull Racing edition is markedly different from the other editions because it does away with the somewhat minimalist two-colour scheme in favour of something a bit bolder. The plain black dial has been replaced by a blue checkerboard design with alternating empty and crosshatched squares. The central chronograph hand is yellow but the 30-minute and 12-hour subdial hands are red. On top of that the small seconds hand has a red tip whereas it has no colour on the standard editions. There’s also the added visual texture of the carbon bezel.

It’s the busiest of the five watches by a wide margin but at the same time, I can imagine it looking good on the wrist of an Oracle Red Bull race engineer in a team shirt. Personally, I’d opt for one of the black dial options because I like the flashes of high contrast from the coloured accents. It makes the colours feel luminous even though the actual luminous areas of the watch are the hour and minute hands as well as the indexes.

Turning the watches over does not reveal the movement as the watches all have solid casebacks, each with the checkerboard pattern of the Oracle Red Bull Racing edition. If they had exhibition casebacks instead, you’d see the Tag Heuer Calibre 16, the same movement used in the previous automatic Formula 1 Chronographs. It’s based on the ETA 7750 with 42-hour power reserve.

As for price, the plain titanium case version is £4,100, the three DLC coated editions are £4,300 and the Oracle Red Bull Racing edition is £4,750. While the Red Bull watch is a special edition, it’s not limited. Though a big, 44mm case like this might limit who can actually wear one.

More details at Tag Heuer.

​Oracle Time 

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