Formula E and Tag Heuer: racing toward a better world

Uber-cool Swiss watch brand TAG Heuer marked the start of the world’s first ever 100% electric championship on 31st August with a king-sized VIP party at the JE Cultura Conference Center, in Beijing, home of the new racing electrifying season opener.

The talented singer G.E.M., a rising star on the Chinese music scene, charmed the crowd at the event, which was also the occasion for the announcement of TAG Heuer’s partnership as official watch of the China Racing team, who will wear the pioneering Swiss brand’s colors during the championship. The China FE team driver Ho-Pin Tung on live to tell the story about him and TAG Heuer, and he was proudly wearing his TAG Heuer CARRERA 1887 43mm chronograph. Also on hand were Brand Director of TAG Heuer China Ms. Rane Xue, CEO of Formula E Mr. Alejandro Agag, Vice Director of FASC Mr. Wan Heping, and the President of China Team Mr. Liu Yu and for the first time ever in China, the incredible Formula E racing car.

Official sanctioned by the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the FIA Formula E championship will start in Beijing on September 13th, on a specifically design track around the bird nest. With 10 races, 10 professional teams and 20 recognized drivers, Formula E will then travel the world with races in major cities such as Los Angeles, Miami, Buenos Aires, London, Berlin or Monaco.

“An intense passion for cars and racing has fuelled our technical innovation and performance since the earliest days of the brand. We patented the first dashboard chronograph in 1911, pioneered driver ambassadorship with Jo Siffert in 1969, signed on as the first ‘“non-technical” partner of a Formula One team with Ferrari in the 70s, and continued that tradition with McLaren and its drivers from 1985, Indy 500 and Monaco Grand Prix today. With this new partnership, TAG Heuer is writing a new page of its motor racing history” said Benoît Toulin, Head of TAG Heuer Great China.

In 1887, Edouard Heuer changed the watch-making history by inventing oscillating pinion. In 1963, Jack Heuer launched new racing watch and chronograph collection Carrera, which is named after the legendary Carrera Panamericana. With great passion and experience in racing, he had the greatest view to design a racing watch: wide and readable dial, anti-resistance and water proof case to survive in the worst condition, the legendary collection was born. In 2010, the first in-house chronograph movement by TAG Heuer Calibre 1887, which was equipped with the famous oscillating pinion, was installed into the new Carrera Calibre 1887 chronograph. After half-century, Carrera still remains timelessly passionate for racing and leading in racing history.

As the most historical and classic collection, Carrera Calibre 1887 chronograph still remains its iconic elegance, clearance and readable. Wide dial design brings great visual impact, the eye-catching satin polished case fringe, and whole black dial design can instantly create the feeling of noble racing heritage of Carrera collection.

Over the last 150 years TAG Heuer has established a reputation as the unrivaled pathbreaker of Swiss watchmaking, an avant-garde brand of the highest artisanal pedigree that pushes harder for technological perfection and never cracks under pressure.

Faster, smaller, stronger, more precise: TAG Heuer chooses its challenges, then sweeps past them, driving watchmaking into new, uncharted territories. Founded in Saint-Imier in 1860 by Edouard Heuer, it has marked the history of luxury watchmaking by being so innovative that is its only competitor, with a roster of world watchmaking firsts beyond compare: the first oscillating pinion in 1887, still a key component of contemporary chronographs; the Mikrograph of 1916, the first stopwatch accurate to the 1/100th of a second; the first automatic chronograph movement with microrotor, in 1969; and the first tourbillon driven by belts in 2014, the Monaco V4.

A proud member of the LVMH Group, TAG Heuer has consistently pushed the mastery of time to new levels of luxury performance and precision. This design and engineering talent has earned it full membership in the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH), the most exclusive circle of the Swiss watchmaking elite, and a Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix “Aiguille d’Or”, the watchmaking world’s highest honor with the Carrera Mikrogirder, which measures 5/10,000th of a second,.

TAG Heuer partners with people and projects who, like the brand, have changed their times and made their mark: 2 times Ballon d’Or winner and 2014 Best European Player Cristiano Ronaldo; F1 Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and its World Champion Jenson Button and young talent Kevin Magnussen; five-time Grand Slam tennis champion Maria Sharapova; the new FIA Formula E Championship, the world’s first electric car racing series; World Rally Champion Sébastien Ogier and his Championship team Volkswagen Motorsport; the Automobile Club of Monaco and the Monaco Grand Prix; actor-driver Patrick Dempsey; and legendary film superstars Cameron Diaz, Steve McQueen and Shahrukh Khan. Like these exemplary men and women, TAG Heuer never follows. It leads. It doesn’t keep time. It changes it.

Formula E is a new FIA championship featuring Formula cars powered exclusively by electric energy. It represents a vision for the future of the motor industry over the coming decades, serving as a framework for research and development around the electric vehicle, accelerating general interest in these cars and promoting sustainability. Commencing in September 2014, the championship will compete in the heart of 10 of the world’s leading cities – including London, Beijing and Miami – racing around their iconic landmarks. For the inaugural season, 10 teams, each with two drivers, will go head-to-head creating a unique and exciting racing series designed to appeal to a new generation of motorsport fans. Operating as an ‘open championship’, the series gives car manufacturers and constructors the opportunity to showcase their electrical energy innovations in a racing environment, designing cars to the technical specifications set out by the FIA.