TAG Heuer’s Much-Hyped Formula 1 Watches Are Finally All the Way Back

Watches & Wonders 2025 is upon us. Click here for all our reports from the watch world’s biggest annual event.

Last May, after years of demand from fans, TAG Heuer teamed up with Kith’s Ronnie Fieg to revive its beloved Formula 1 watches. The limited-edition run of 1,350 pieces quickly sold out—even if their $1,500 price point irked some fans of the original 1980s run, whose bright plasticky aesthetic and relative affordability made them a favorite of young collectors. Well, we’ve got some welcome news for you: TAG Heuer is reintroducing the Formula 1 for good this time. Three of the nine announced references—black and white; deep blue; and bold red—will remain in the brand’s core collection. (The other six are limited editions.) What’s more? They’re all solar powered!

Coinciding with TAG Heuer’s ascension to Formula 1 title sponsor, the new Formula 1 collection celebrates all things motorsport, but in a different manner than the flagship Carrera and Monaco lines: While those classic models are informed by modernism and the late-’60s innovations in automatic chronograph technology, respectively, the original Formula 1 was all ’80s kitsch—color, new materials, and, most relevant to watch heads, quartz. Because while more modern automatic Formula 1s do exist, it was the quartz movement (and plastic housings) that allowed the roughly three million watches in the original run to be priced in such an approachable way, allowing young clients the chance to buy into the horological dream.

The new watches are much the same, although this being the 2020s—not the 1980s—they’re retailing at just under $2,000. (Don’t worry: you can still log onto eBay right now and buy an original ‘80s Formula 1 for just a few hundred bucks.) But inflation and the wild popularity of the watch collecting hobby aside, the price hike is justified elsewhere by a fresh set of high-end features: While some of the nine new models feature rubber straps, others boast a sandblasted, stainless steel multi-link bracelet with double safety push-buttons and an adjustment link extension. The case silhouette (in its familiar tonneau shape) and petal-shaped bezel remain intact, but the diameter has been upped to a slightly more modern 38mm. Meanwhile, the indices are applied blocks of Super-LumiNova, and the hands have been redesigned with better finishing.

While some of the new references feature steel construction, others are made of TH-Polylight, a lightweight material new to TAG Heuer that offers limitless color possibilities and also forms the model’s bidirectional bezel. The other big innovation lies within the collection: The Formula 1 is now powered by the brand’s Calibre TH50-00 Solargraph movement, a quartz engine that turns two minutes of sunlight into a full day’s charge, and less than 40 hours of sunlight into a 10-month charge. The movement’s battery also features a whopping 15-year lifespan, while each watch is water resistant to 100. At 1,750-1,850 CHF (roughly $2,000), this makes the Formula 1 the perfect high school or college graduation watch of the 2020s—the precise equivalent of the 1986 original.