INTERVIEW: David Chalmers (Editor and Founder of Calibre 11)

Mr Jack Heuer and Mr David Chalmers

When I first got the idea to do a series of interviews, the first person I thought to ask was David, indeed if it wasn't for David it's possible that this blog might have floundered and died. When I started this blog I approached David to ask his permission to promote it to the Calibre 11 forum, and he was very welcoming and encouraging about my approach and later he gave me some positive words when I was a bit unsure about my writing style and my content. So it is with great pleasure that I can now welcome David to my blog in person...


Thank you for agreeing to this interview David, an obvious first question I know, but how did you get into watches?

Probably from quite a young age and through Formula 1. The first full season of F1 that I watched was 1988 and I was a big Senna fan. I remember him running the Tag Heuer logo on his cars, and it was probably around the same time that I started seeing kids at school wearing those first-generational Formula 1 watches. It wasn’t until some years later that I got my first good watch, that was a Tag Heuer 4000 quartz with a white dial, which I still have. My family bought it for me when I turned 21, so even though I don’t wear it much any more, it will be one that I keep forever.


I wish I had 'found' watches when I was much younger, I didn't seriously get into them until I was well into my 30's and even then I only had one piece for the first ten years, that piece is very special to me so I can well understand how you feel about your 4000. Aside from that do you have a favourite piece in your current collection?

Good question…it used to change quite a lot between the Monza and Monaco re-editions…but for the last year it has been the Siffert Autavia, which is a project that I did with TAG Heuer and so has special meaning, as well as being a great watch.


What a great opportunity, to get to design your own watch just how you want it. It must have been very rewarding to go through that and a relief when they all sold so quickly (since I know you had to buy all 100 from TAG Heuer themselves). A very hard act to follow, but are we likely to see another Calibre 11 watch in the future? 

I don’t think a Calibre 11 watch will be an annual event, but I’d love to do one again if the idea is right. I’ve been speaking with TAG Heuer on and off about what comes next, and while we’ve pushed around a few ideas, there’s nothing there yet that feels like a winner


One question I have to ask as it's very telling when it comes to watch-people, is there a place in your collection for quartz / how do you feel about quartz watches?

For sure. I have a couple of quartz watches, including a Tag Heuer Microtimer and a couple of G-Shocks. If you’re sitting around an office all day, then I would always choose an automatic watch, but for anything outdoors or by the pool, quartz is a better choice. They’re far sturdier and do that job better than a fancy mechanical watch

Oh yes, the famous Microtimer, I know you've bought and sold that several times. Owning that myself I can see why that might happen, I love mine but it's not the most practical of pieces and sometimes it can be difficult to find an appropriate time to wear it. I tend to only wear mine with long sleeves, so only really half the year. At least you can turn the display off to preserve the battery, haha. 

Yes, it’s a hard one to explain that. I sold the first one because I was really worried about scratching up the highly polished surface, but then the prices came down and it didn’t feel like such a big deal if it got a scratch here or there. Overall, I think it’s a brilliant piece of design. Really bold and a great change from the usual. It still looks highly modern for a 17 year-old watch.


Do you know what your next piece will be?

I do! I was lucky enough to get one of the 50th Anniversary Monacos with the red dial, so I’m picking that up in a couple of weeks.


I think you've chosen well there, there's such a sparcity of red dial watches I can't see how it can fail, and we've already seen the way the market has reacted with some crazy prices being asked. Speaking of crazy prices, do you have a ‘money no object’ grail in mind?

Not really... I find that I get as much enjoyment from a lower priced watch as I do from a super expensive one


I agree, some of my cheapest watches are actually some of my favourites... which goes down well with my wife! How does your partner/wife feel about your collection?

She doesn’t really love watches, but occasionally I’ll put one one that she’ll make a comment about. When we got engaged she bought me a lovely Carrera re-edition, so she gets me!


Sensitive question I know, but have you ever ‘sneaked’ a watch into the house?

That’s the benefit of scale. When you have one watch and buy a second, it’s pretty hard to pretend that you don’t have a new watch. But when you’ve got a larger collection, they all tend to blur a little!


That's my theory, unfortunately either my wife is too interested or I just haven't got quite enough watches to pull that off yet, haha. So how many watches would you say is too many?

Probably if you don’t wear them regularly. I’m big on wearing the watches that I have, what’s the point of having them sit in a safe? Reminds me of the old days when you parents would bring out the “good China” for special dinners that only got used a couple of times a year


I agree, I used to have a 'beater' Formula 1 and I had to sell it to force myself to wear my watches as I was just keeping everything for 'best', it's ridiculous. Now I wear almost everything day to day and I enjoy them much more. I do kind of regret selling that Formula 1 though, but it had to be done. Have you ever bought or sold a watch and regretted it?

Not really. There have been a couple where I have re-bought I watch that I previously owned, but I’ve sold some pretty special vintage Heuers and never really regretted it... there’s always something new out there.


Do you see your collection growing in the future?

No, probably not… it’s big enough as it is! I have some watches with sentimental value that I’ll never sell, but the others I am OK to trade in and out of if something new pops up

Your 'Calibre 11' Autavia was a beautiful piece, and one that changed my perspective on the Autavia Heuer 02 (generally speaking I'm not a fan). I know you thought about a phantom Monza while you were going through the process of the design, are you more excited by re-issues than the newer pieces or is it a case of liking everything?

I’m probably in the middle, heritage inspired watches tend to be what I like, but I don’t mind if they’re not true re-editions, for example the Jack Heuer 80th Birthday Carrera


Fake aged lume: Ingenious or travesty?

Travesty. It will get there in time… just let it age naturally


Which watch would you like to see TAG Heuer re-issue?

From a vintage perspective, the only real option is the Camaro. But unless it was reissued in the original size, it just wouldn’t work. The other one that is interesting for me would be to re-issue the 1000 series. Make it quartz only, reasonable price and I think it would be a big hit


I think that's a great call, the 1000 is a very cool design and it could exist without infringing on the Aquaracer. Is there something you’d like to see more of in watch design, for example a dial colour that’s under used?

I’d like to see TAG Heuer continue the path it went down with the Monaco 24 and offer modern, progressive designs for its heritage series- i.e. Carrera, Monaco and Autavia. These three series can’t last forever if they stick to pure nostalgia, and I like the contrast of some true re-editions and some bold, modern pieces. I don’t love the skeleton Carrera Heuer 01 for me, but I think its great that it exists.

What are your thoughts on the collaboration with Bamford?

Some of the designs are cool, some are not my taste…but that’s the point: people have a choice. What I can say is that George Bamford is an absolute gentleman who has a real love for watches, and Heuer/ TAG Heuer in particular. He’s doing what he does from the heart and the quality of their work is impressive. Actually, I think their best watch is the Fujiwara Zenith El Primero collaboration…that’s a fantastic design.


I agree, I don't have a problem if there's a bright purple Monaco out there with orange hands, nobody's being forced to buy it, if someone likes it why should it be an issue? Although having said that, I know I've mentioned it before, but the basketball Carrera is a disgrace. I know it's not that easy to move elements of the dial but leaving them where they were while taking away all the hour markers just came across as lazy and bad design from my perspective. Bamford still seems to generate a lot of negativity but why do you think it is that TAG Heuer itself attracts more than its fair share of negativity from within the wider watch community?

For rational and irrational reasons. I think that TAG Heuer historically were one of the first brands to market very well, which gave the brand a positioning ahead of its natural position in the eyes of the general consumer. Take Australia for example- many CEOs that I’ve met wear TAG Heuer and would consider it to be a top-end brand, whereas TAG Heuer is more mid-tier across its general range with some stand out individual pieces. So people pointing out that the weren’t a “top tier” brand did have some basis of fact, but it seems odd to punish a brand for marketing well. 

The irrational part is people who don’t really know what they’re talking about jumping on the “popular” thing to say about brands as a way of faking knowledge. Look back at the the number of people who attacked the Calibre 1887 and wouldn’t write those words without mentioning Seiko. So what does TAG Heuer do? They re-name the movement…and all of a sudden that criticism totally disappears. You never read any critique of the Heuer 01. Now some of that is because the old trope of “in-house movements are best” has fallen away, but some is because there wasn’t any real basis for the comments in the first place and people have moved on.


How do you feel about the Hodinkee 'limited edition' phenomenon, and leading off of that, would you like to see TAG instigate some sort of ‘VIP’ club for people who buy regularly with special editions offered first/or possibly exclusively to members?

It’s an interesting idea and one that I’ve spoken with TAG Heuer about in the past. The problem is that you do something to please one set of people (collectors) and you annoy another important stakeholder- the authorised dealers. They are the ones that buy volume of the Aquaracer and F1 series, and so they don’t like the idea of missing out on the limited edition watches that don’t go through their channels. 

But there is a balance in there somewhere and agree that if done right it could work for everyone. There’s been a dramatic slow-down in the number of LE watches this year, partly because the market was over-saturated. Take the Watches of Switzerland Australia Autavia LE of 150 with the blue dial. Nice looking watch, but it’s still on sale (at least according to their website) coming up to 12 months after it was launched. 

Just like online media brands think it's easy to become a retailer and find out that it's hard, the same is true for retailers looking to go the other way. There has to be a story behind why you’re making a special edition, otherwise it’s just a dial colour and hype. Hodinkee get it, but some of those LEs (and I don’t just mean the ones from TAG Heuer) lacked soul.

Yes, I have noticed they've dialed it down a little bit, last year it seemed like we were constantly getting bombarded with them. Are you personally swayed by ‘limited editions’ and the associated packaging?

Yes, I probably am! I guess that a big part of a watch is the specialness that it brings…and just by the fact that there are only 100 of something instead of 10,000 does give a watch a head-start. But it has to also have substance to it, or it just becomes a hard-to-find ordinary watch


Is there maybe a TAG Heuer / Heuer you really don’t like?

I’ve owned one of every major Heuer/ TAG Heuer series, expect the S/el. That one has never really worked for me, although I do like the current Link series


Hmm, I like my S/EL but it does look quite 'of its time' shall we say, especially in the two-tone I have. How do you feel about gold and two-tone watches, would you / do you wear them and do you feel comfortable wearing them?

Gold maybe…the issue for me isn’t the gold colour (love Rose Gold) but how soft it is as a metal, which inevitably leads to dings in the case. That puts me off more than the colour of the case. Two-tone? Definitely not for me.


I’m sure we haven’t seen everything as yet (maybe you know more than we do!), but if you were in charge of TAG Heuer, how would you have marked the 50th anniversary of the Monaco.

I would have loved to have seen a new Monaco 24, not instead of the heritage watches, but as well as. And I would have made a very exclusive 1133B Monaco re-edition, like the 40th Anniversary watch, but fitted it with a vintage Calibre 11 movement. Maybe 50 watches only…something really special that blended


Yes, I agree, I wish they would bring the Monaco 24 back. I photoshopped a Monaco 24 with a Heuer 02 movement in it once and I thought it looked pretty fantastic, I'd love to see a modern interpretation of the Monza as well. 

Just a few questions left now... like me, you're obviously a massive TAG Heuer fan or you wouldn't be doing what you're doing, but are there any other brands you appreciate / own?

Lots! Sinn is probably my second “go-to” brand, and I do like JLC and AP, but only really the Royal Oak/ ROO series.



Yes I'm rather drawn to the Offshore Royal Oak myself, maybe one day. 

At the start of the interview you explained that your interest in watches and TAG Heuer stemmed from watching Formula 1 in the 80s, and Max is obviously doing that job for TAG Heuer right now, but who (if anybody) do you think should be TAG Heuer’s next brand ambassador?

I’d love to see some of the F1 drivers from the 1980s and 90s used more, Prost and Berger for example, but I don’t see it happening as TAG Heuer’s F1 focus is rightly on the Red Bull team. Maybe someone from a different field altogether, maybe team up with Pininfarina rather than an individual. That could be something different.


Yes Prost would be an excellent choice, although perhaps a bit tricky given the ongoing relationship with the Senna family and of course Prost is part of the Renault F1 organisation now, so more likely he'd be wearing Bell & Ross. Odd though that I don't really associate Prost with any particular watch brand given his long involvement with Formula 1.

Now, before you go, I know the Calibre 11 members are interested to know about the beginnings of the Calibre 11 blog (as am I), so how did it all start and was it a quick success or a long slow climb?

Calibre 11 started back in 2009 when I realised that forums were a poor place to store information- people kept asking the same questions over and over again, but tracking down the answers was hard. I was an active contributor at Watchuseek’s TAG Heuer forum and found that formatting a nice reply, with photos scaled correctly wasn’t really what forums were best used for- and so that led to a more information website where I felt it would be easier to catalogue the articles. It took a while for things to pick up- what really changed things was the launch of the Calibre 1887 where I had posted an article saying that the movement may have actually been related to a Seiko movement (TAG Heuer’s initial media release made no mention of Seiko)- eventually, TAG Heuer’s then-CEO Jean-Christophe Babin commented on the article confirming that it was indeed based on a Seiko, and many other media linked through to this article…that was the first time that it felt as though Calibre 11 was noticed outside the Heuer/ TAG Heuer world

Ah, so it's your fault! Hahaha. What inspired you to start the blog though, was it just a lack of anything out there or something more specific?

Probably two-fold- it was the issue I noted above on it being hard to find information on forums, and secondly I had built up a reasonable collection then and so I had enough watches to photograph and write about.


It seems like you are almost the 'official' TAG Heuer blog, but then at times you say things which suggest otherwise, could you shed some light on that?

TAG Heuer has been a strong supporter from the start. I got to know their team back in 2008 when I was part of the first Heuer Vintage Collectors Summit and so reconnected with them in 2009 when Calibre 11 launched. They’ve provided fantastic support and encouragement over the years and always been very available for interviews or answering questions. Despite this, they have never given me any instructions or “direction” to write a particular article and never asked me to change a single word of anything that I have written


That's good to hear, so for some reason I assumed that you were the owner of 'Time and Tide'  but it seems that's somewhat wide of the mark...?

I was one one of the co-founders of Time+Tide back in 2014 and worked behind the scenes on the business part of Time+Tide, with the occasional article on TAG Heuer…but only very rarely. Staying involved was difficult when I moved away from Australia, so I’ve decreased my involvement there over the last couple of years and so now don’t have any formal relationship with Time+Tide; these days my main focus is telecommunications.

Well, thank you once again for your time David, it's been very interesting to hear your views and maybe we can catch up again in the future... 

I'm sure most of the people reading this are at least aware of Calibre 11, but if not you really should check it out (there is a banner link in the right hand margin of this blog) not just for the excellent and busy forum, but also for David's informative articles and wealth of information relating to all things TAG Heuer. You can also browse a huge selection of catalogues (including Heuer catalogues) which keep me entertained for hours and are extremely useful when trying to date watches and pin down catalogue numbers. Even though I own quite a few of the catalogues I still often visit David's blog instead as it's easier than getting them out from their storage box.

So thanks again to David, for taking the time to do this interview but also for giving us TAG Heuer fans a place to congregate and share our mutual passion, I'm sure Calibre 11 will be successful for a long time to come and I'm excited to see what comes next when you find another winning watch idea, although let's be honest, you're going to have to go some to beat that Autavia! :)