TAG Heuer Mikrotimer Flying 1000 Is Geneva’s Sports Watch of the Year

TAG Heuer Mikrotimer Flying 1000 is Geneva’s Sports Watch of the Year

2011-11-19

Swiss watchmaking’s most remarkable mechanical chronograph creation to date ― the first ever to measure and display time to an astonishing 1/1,000th of a second ― wins the highly coveted "Best Sport Chronograph" Award at the 2011 Grand Prix de l'Horlogerie de Genève

With this 7th Grand Prix de l'Horlogerie de Genève award in just 10 years, TAG Heuer confirms its unrivalled mastery of extremely complex timepieces.

The Mikrotimer Flying 1000 ― the world’s fastest ever mechanical chronograph ― has been voted the “2011 Swiss Watch of the Year” in the Grand Prix de l'Horlogerie de Genève’s prestigious “Sport” category. This award comes just 2 months after the Mikrotimer Flying 1000 won the SIAR "Best Concept of the Year" in Mexico City. The SIAR is Latin America’s most prestigious watchmaking award.

A week ago, the Mikrograph 100, which measures and displays 1/100th of a second with a central hand — and which was the technological base for the Mikrotimer Flying 1000 — won the Montres & Passion 2011 “Grand Prix du Public.”

The Grand Prix de l'Horlogerie de Genève is the Swiss watch industry’s most important award competition. The Mikrotimer’s victory marks the 7th time in 10 years that TAG Heuer has been singled out by the Geneva jury for its engineering and design prowess. It has won in the Sports category twice: in 2006 for the TAG Heuer CARRERA Calibre 360 Rose Gold Limited Edition; and in 2008 for the TAG Heuer Grand CARRERA Calibre 36 RS Caliper Concept Chronograph.

“Our R&D team literally rewrote the book with this one,” said a proud Jean-Christophe Babin, the Swiss brand’s CEO. “The Mikrotimer goes beyond what everyone in the industry thought possible. It represents a quantum leap that pushes watchmaking into a whole new paradigm. More than ever, TAG Heuer is the leader of luxury high-end mechanical chronographs and ultra-high frequencies. Our unique commercial range of mechanical chronographs ¬— measuring 1/10th, 1/100th and 1/1000th of a second respectively — have now all won the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix. Very few Swiss watch brands have received this honor so consistently.”

500hz beating at 3.6 million beats per hour

The game-changing speed and ultra-high high frequency of the in-house built Mikrotimer shatters every record in watchmaking. The previous best-time was set in March 2005 by TAG Heuer with the modular Calibre 360, and reconfirmed in January 2011 by TAG Heuer’s integrated-central hand display Mikrograph 100, the first and only mechanical chronographs ever commercialized to achieve 1/100th accuracy. The Mikrotimer Flying 1000 is an incredible ten times faster, making it 125 times faster than a 99% of Swiss best mechanical chronographs. Its central chronograph hand completes a full rotation 10-times per second!

Patent-Pending Breakthroughs

The Mikrotimer is equipped with two escapements and has no clutch or balance wheel system. It is effortlessly easy to read — 10ths, 100ths, 1,000ths and minutes at a glance. Never-before-seen technology includes a dynamic lever/wheel transmission and a rebound-based Launcher-Hub-Brake system. Twelve patents pending covering every aspect of high frequency dual assortment time measurement protect these and nine other breakthrough innovations.

The Mikrotimer is also stunningly beautiful, with a black titanium carbide coated case, titanium horns and black ruthenium-treated movement.

“Mastering Speed for 150 Years”

“The concept stage of the Mikrotimer was a proud moment in TAG Heuer’s “Mastering Speed for 150 Years” celebrations,” said Jean-Christophe Babin. “Now we've taken the next big step, which was equally challenging and exciting: successfully commercializing this technological marvel. More than ever, TAG Heuer is the master of ultimate watchmaking precision, an unrivaled leadership and know-how started in 1916 by Charles-August Heuer when he introduced the first 1/50th and 1/100th of a second mechanical stopwatches. TAG Heuer is obsessed by precision and won't stop further innovating in this field, which is the very essence of high-end watchmaking.”

Events 2010-04-19