FEATURE: The most expensive TAG Heuer?

A thought popped into my head the other day (I know, bit of a shock to me as well)... which was 'I wonder what the most expensive TAG is?'...

Some VERY frustrating research later, it's hard to say exactly. Seemingly the best auction price was for an 's/el' that once belonged to Ayrton Senna, this sold for $55,000. But of course TAG have made more expensive watches than this like the V4 Tourbillon and some other special haute horlogerie pieces that are hard to pin down when it comes to exact pricing, which rather leaves things up in the air and without a satisfactory conclusion.

My research did turn up some more satisfactory and quite interesting results though...

I found a page on Christie's website which displayed the results for several TAG Heuer's which were sold at auction. These included...

A white gold Monaco with skeletonised hands which sold for 5,000 Euros.

A white gold Carrera 360 which sold for HKD 52,500 (approx £5510)

A standard CAW2113 'Gulf' Monaco which sold for $5625

A pink gold Carrera 360 which sold for $6875

Two Monaco V4 Skeleton Watches in Platinum which sold for HKD 450,000 (£47,260) and HKD 437,500 (£45,949) in different sales (this could possibly be the same watch sold twice).

I found these results rather surprising to say the least. On the one hand you have a bog standard (albeit limited edition) CAW2113 selling for $5600, while an 18K white gold Monaco sells for just 5,000 Euros. Try Googling CW5141 and see what you get, not a lot. The 'Gulf' edition may be limited but the white gold version is rarer than rare.

Also the pink and white gold Carrera 360s looks an absolute steal at £6900 and £5500 respectively.

In a way though, I'm not so surprised that the Gulf Monaco is holding it's value well. The whole Steve McQueen / Gulf / Le Mans thing is synonymous with Heuer (and by extension TAG Heuer) and this brings us quite neatly onto my next item...

Truly, this article would be a whole lot shorter and a lot more conclusive if we ignored the distinction between Heuer and TAG Heuer (don't get me started on that again!), because plainly the most expensive Heuer ever sold was the Heuer Monaco that Steve McQueen wore during the filming of the famous 'Le Mans' movie. This was purchased for a staggering $799,000 (plus an eye watering $150,000 additional 'buyers premium').

Personally I don't really get it. As Ariel Adams writes HERE it's an astonishing sum for a watch that was used in a film that isn't exactly a cast iron classic, by an actor who (though undoubtedly cool and famous) isn't exactly Clint Eastwood or Cary Grant. Especially as it comfortably outsold his own personal Rolex Submariner, which achieved a not inconsiderable $234,000 (which itself was a surprise). Moreover, this wasn't even the ONLY watch used in the filming, merely the one in the best condition!

In comparison it looks as though the Ayrton Senna s/el went for small change.. neither watch is of itself unique, and comparable pieces could be picked up for much smaller amounts of money, it seems bizarre that Steve McQueen wearing the Monaco in a film makes it worth fourteen times more than a watch actually owned by one of (if not the most) legendary Formula One driver of all time!

Of course, it stands to reason that by and large Heuer watches are going to be more valuable than TAG Heuer pieces, because they oldest TAGs are only 32 years old and the early models, though fun, were not exactly the most desirable. Additionally of course, TAG make watches in larger quantities and the name change provides a convenient distinction which other major watch manufacturers aren't afflicted with.

I managed to find some more Heuers whcih were sold in December 2010 by Bonhams. These came from the personal collection of Arno Haslinger (author of the book 'Heuer Chronographs').

Lots included...

A black PVD Monaco from 1974 which sold for £48,000

A white dial Jo Siffert Autavia from 1969 which sold for £30,000

A gold Carrera from 1972 which sold for £22,800 

Annoyingly there is a link to a page showing the full results, but it comes up 'page not found'.

It should be noted however, that some of the lots were bought by TAG Heuer themselves for their museum in La Chaux de Fonds, and presumably in these cases the bids might have gone higher than expected (indeed most of the pieces achieved far in excess of their estimates). This is money well spent of course, since pushing up the prices of their own vintage pieces does their reputation no harm at all.

If this article leaves you a little depressed, take heart from this, a CV2013 Carrera which looks to be in good condition (albeit with a non-original strap) with an estimate of £1000-1500 sold at Sotheby's for a measly £500! Even though it has a brown bezel, it's still a bargain. So my advice would be to look out for the watch in the sale that nobody is going to be interested in. This watch was the only TAG sold amongst over a hundred other pieces, all of which were higher end pieces like Hublots, Rolexes and JLCs. This was never going to sell well in such company and predictably someone secured a nice Carrera for pocket money.