The Tag Heuer Monaco fake watch is a legend in the vintage watch world. The most appealing design element of the Monaco 1133 is, of course, its bold square form. In a sea of round replica watches, the lines of a square-shaped case launched in 1969 really stood out. The case was actually designed and made by well-known case maker Piquerez. The size is 39mm—particularly for a vintage timepiece, which is a rather larger size—and sits quite high on the wrist due to its movement within. This replica watch surely has a presence. Look closely and you’ll see the vertical grain of the stainless steel, which adds great texture to the look of the watch. In the end, the case includes the two chronograph pushers on the right-hand side, while the winding crown sits rather unusually on the left-hand side. The 100 meters water-resistance of the square Monaco case was also hailed as a triumph during its era.
The dial of the replica Tag Heuer Monaco 1133 is beautiful as well. While McQueen’s version, 1133B, had a blue dial, this particular version is an 1133G with a gray dial. The circular minute track contrasts beautifully with its square steel house, while the pair of rounded square registers mimics the case shape. They’re also the date window at 6 o’clock for added practicality and the red details on the dial stress the sporty nature of Monaco. There has also been a handful of instances where McQueen was spotted wearing a Rolex but let’s not get off-topic.
Another significant factor of this unique vintage Heuer Monaco 1133G is its steel link bracelet. It comes equipped with a rare and original “Mark 1” bracelet made by Novavit S.A where the outside of the clasp is signed with the Tag Heuer logo and the inside includes the NSA hallmark.
On March 3, 1969, a group of brands—Breitling, Hamilton-Buren, Heuer, and Dubois-Depraz—unveiled an automatic chronograph movement that they had been collaborating on. Even though the statement claimed that this was the world’s first automatic chronograph movement, there is some dispute to this story since Zenith introduced the El Primero movement earlier that year in January and Seiko also had 6139 automatic chronograph movements produced for the Japanese market in ’69.
No matter who was first in the industry, the Tag Heuer Caliber 11 was the company’s first and arguably most popular automatic chronograph movement. While the early Caliber 11 movement did have some technical problems so the company improved upon it and quickly released variants Caliber 11-I and Caliber 12.
What are your ideas about the original Tag Heuer Monaco vintage replica watch? Do you like the shape and distinct dial design?