Hold on… Haven’t we been down this road already, and seen this design less than a year ago? The Autavia Isograph was revealed in the spring of 2019, and was even featured on the cover of Calibre’s May issue. As such, it would be best to judge this new watch by its own merits, and not those of what came before. Autavia is no longer just a model, but is now a distinct, standalone collection of models within the TAG Heuer family tree. There have been heated debates on watch forums as to whether a non-chronograph can be a “real” Autavia, but it is pointless to relitigate them here. It is not a chronograph, unlike every Autavia wristwatch made from 1958 up to the chronograph reissues of 2017. To anyone unfamiliar with the myriad types in Heuer’s history, it can all be a bit confusing.Īs controversial as it may be to vintage purists, this new Autavia liberates TAG Heuer’s designers from past pressures and allows them to reinterpret the name in however manner they see fit. Subsequent models would try to fine-tune the balance between new and old, an approach best exemplified by the 2016 Monza, which fused the 1976 original’s appearance with the pre-war-inspired shape of the early-2000s Monza. Its first re-edition watch, the 1996 Heuer Carrera, was as faithful to the original as possible, given the parts available at the time. And on the other, the company has that innate desire to innovate.
On the one hand, TAG wants to appeal to the average watch enthusiast’s affinity toward old things and familiar names. It’s a tricky thing, being a brand that is avowedly avant-garde, but has such a rich back catalogue. One of TAG Heuer’s biggest challenges since its formation in 1985 is how it treats its historical models.
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