TAG Heuer’s Monaco marked its 50th birthday in 2019, however, the Swiss watchmaker is carrying on the party of its iconic square-cased chronograph into 2020 with the launching of three new models, two of them mounted on steel necklaces designed to elicit the ones utilized in the 1970s.

The Monaco Chronograph Heuer 39 millimeter Calibre Heuer 02 Automatic provides two different dial alternatives, one in bold black with a sunray-brushed finish, another in lustrous, sunray-brushed blue, with red and white particulars, to get a look reminiscent of the first Monaco from 1969. Both these versions include the iconic square subdials at 3 and 9 o’clock (for extended hours and minutes), small seconds and date window at 6 o’clock, along with a red central chronograph seconds hand, and are presented on the newest stainless-steel bracelet.

The next version pairs the black dial with with a black leather strap.
Inside the stainless steel, squared 39-mm cases of all 3 watches would be your automatic TAG Heuer Carrera watch 02 motion, beating in a 28,800-vph frequency behind a sapphire caseback and amassing a lengthy energy reserve of 80 hours. The motion, which has a pillar wheel-driven chronograph mechanism with a vertical clutch, is the first completely in-house grade to be installed at a Monaco timepiece.

The main talking point , however, is the stainless-steel bracelet, which is the first to be used on a Monaco in nearly 20 years. This one takes its cue from an H-shaped-link bracelet used on Monaco Tissot Heritage watch in the early 1970s — especially one seen among the archive pieces in TAG Heuer’s Museum in La Chaux-de-Fonds — and was refurbished to improve relaxation for and wearability.

Like its ancestor, the bracelet is broader at the lugs in order to carry the weight of the watch head and tapers at which it wraps around the wrist to improve relaxation. The three-row necklace’s horizontal bars link with smaller flat connections, and it fastens with a butterfly clasp, engraved with all the TAG Heuer shield symbol, which can be run by security push-buttons.