Matt Clymo 
TAG Heuer has unveiled its latest creation in the form of the Monaco Split Seconds Chronograph, a tribute to racing heritage and avant-garde watchmaking.
It is one of the great Formula 1 races – Monaco. And this year, for the very first time in history, the race has a naming rights sponsor in the form of TAG Heuer. To celebrate, TAG Heuer has released one of its most complicated pieces, with the most complicated chronograph function you can have in a watch, the TAG Heuer Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph (or Rattrapante in French) in a very unique, texturised Titanium case. And let me tell you, in person, this is a very cool piece in the hand and on the wrist!
We saw the first iteration of this watch come out for Only Watch 2023, and last year, we got to see the prototype on the wrist of TAG Heuer’s Movement Director, Carole Forestier-Kasapi. It was one of those nerdy watch moments that you don’t have every day, to see the watch that has set a new benchmark for a brand on the wrist of one of the great movement designers in the industry today.
Last year, TAG Heuer released a commercially available Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph in Titanium at Watches & Wonders and followed up this year with a very limited edition (10 pieces) in white ceramic, celebrating the new timing partnership with Formula 1 and a heap of nods and references to the motorsport. And ahead of this year’s Monaco Grand Prix, as has become somewhat of a tradition for the brand, TAG Heuer has released a new Monaco (well, three actually, but more on that to come!)
The case is made from TH-Titanium. Developed entirely in-house over four painstaking years at TAG Heuer’s special R&D institute, the TAG Heuer Lab in La Chaux-de-Fonds, this isn’t the standard Grade 5 Titanium. Through a proprietary thermal treatment that rearranges the alloy at the atomic level, TAG Heuer has drawn out a texture that’s as raw and organic as hammered meteorite – each case is a fingerprint of the forge and as a result, totally different.
According to TAG Heuer: “To create this one-of-a-kind faceted effect on the metal’s surface, the TAG Heuer Lab has developed a series of specially designed thermal treatments, reorganizing the alloy’s atomic structure.”
At 41mm and a thickness of 12.2mm, the TH-Titanium case wears surprisingly well, and it is light thanks to its aerospace-grade build, tipping the scales at a mere 86 grams with strap and buckle included. The visual language of the Monaco – crystalline sapphire bezel, sandblasted lugs, and the ghostlike Rattrapante pushers conjures something simultaneously brutal and futuristic. Blade Runner meets Monza, or should I say in this case, Monaco.
Split Form, Unified Performance: The Calibre TH81-00
At its core is the Calibre TH81-00 split-seconds chronograph movement crafted in full titanium, including the bridges and plates. This means it is also light, weighing just 30 gms in total. Developed in collaboration with Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier, it’s a technical flex as much as it is a design statement. The movement beats at 5 Hz (36,000 vph), which translates to high-frequency accuracy ideal for motorsport-level timing.
The column wheel and horizontal clutch architecture have been fine-tuned to ensure tactile, instantaneous chronograph operation. But the real star here is the Rattrapante mechanism. Housing two central chronograph seconds hands – one hidden beneath the other, it allows the wearer to split time. Need to time two events simultaneously? Or starting at different times? Hit the split pusher at 9 o’clock and watch one hand pause while the other races on. Hit it again, and the paused hand leaps forward to catch up. Watching this in person is cool, and fun to do, but underneath there is some very serious mechanical science happening in the movement!
Despite its complexity, the movement delivers a 65-hour power reserve with the chronograph disengaged (55 hours with it running), thanks in part to a high-efficiency mainspring and reduced energy loss through titanium construction. The choice of material here is not cosmetic – it actively reduces inertia and boosts longevity by minimizing friction. TAG Heuer hasn’t skimped on the finishing of this piece either with sandblasted and hand-bevelled edges, a floating TAG Heuer shield-shaped rotor with racing-stripe paint, and a hand-engraved checkered flag pattern on the bridges. All this is visible via the full sapphire case back, which, when we spoke to both Carole last year and also TAG Heuer’s Heritage Director, Nicholas Biebuyck, tell us this alone is a mammoth effort. This has to be cut and shaped in a very specific way, and if not done properly, the risk of damaging the crystal is high, so the process to create just this part alone is around four months. That’s right, four months for a single caseback!
Initial Thoughts
The 2025 Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph isn’t just a timepiece—it’s a flex. Not in a gold-and-diamonds sense, but in the most authentic way possible: through technical audacity and material innovation. It captures what the Monaco has always represented—disruption—and hurtles it into new territory for the brand and collection. And what isn’t to love about this?
Take away the specs and materials, visually speaking, the Monaco Rattrapante is a cool-looking piece on the wrist. The pops of yellow give it a vibrancy that contrasts with the more industrial look of the case and the dial, and the unique nature of the TH-Titanium is like bringing all school material science into the digital world, which is a slight paradox or contradiction in terms, but I’m sticking with it. It is not a piece that will be for everyone, but a piece everyone should consider if they have the means to. The local Australian pricing is still to be confirmed, officially as Price On Request, however at around 145,000 CHF, expect it to be somewhere in the A$250,000+ range depending on currency variations and duties etc. All in all, it shows that TAG Heuer is just revving up their watchmaking engine, and this once again helps set a standard for the Swiss brand, and hopefully in the not-too-distant future, more complications across more of the collections.
Reference: CBW2185.FC8350
Specifications:
- Case: 41mm x 41mm x 15.2mm thickness
- Case Material: TH-titanium sandblasted case with polished sapphire fixed bezel.
- Dial: Sapphire dial with white and lime markings, fine-brushed, polished black DLC-coated grade-5 titanium bridges and white Super-LumiNova® applied indexes (blocks)
- Crystal: Beveled, domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating
- Water resistance: 30m (3 Bar)
- Movement: Calibre TH81-00 Automatic Split-Seconds Chronograph
- Movement Frequency: 5Hz (36,000 VpH)
- Power reserve: 65 hours (chrono off) / 55 hours (Chrono on)
- Strap: Black calfskin strap with textile embossing and black & lime hand stitching. Grade-5 titanium butterfly folding clasp and safety push-buttons with fine adjustment and TH-Titanium pin buckle
