Tag Heuer Revs Up Glamour and Ambitions for First Turn as Monaco F1 Title Sponsor

If you want to invoke the glamour of motorsports, all it takes is three words: Monaco Formula 1.

“The name comes out, the magic happens,” said Tag Heuer chief executive Antoine Pin on the eve of a race that had even more va-va-voom than usual for the Swiss watchmaker, for the first time the sporting event’s title sponsor.

The 2025 weekend of the “Formula 1 Tag Heuer Grand Prix de Monaco,” as it is now formally known, was one for the books — for the brand as much as the tens of thousands who descended on the city for the three-day sporting event.

Writ large across the city were Tag Heuer’s latest campaign message and advertising for the square-shaped timekeeper named after the city-state was splashed across billboards.

Its “We Are Back” slogan announcing its return as the official timekeeper of the elite motorsport in January as part of a 10-year deal with parent LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton could be seen from across the harbor, particularly at night.

On race day, Tag Heuer’s name was everywhere around the race track and paddocks, visible to a star-studded crowd that included Naomi Campbell; Dua Lipa; Amazon mogul Jeff Bezos and fiancée Lauren Sanchez; French soccer star Kylian Mbappé; actress Simone Ashley, who will soon star in the “F1” movie led by Brad Pitt, and designers Matthew M. Williams and Simon Porte Jacquemus, to name a few.

Celebrations also kept the brand top of mind in town.

Held on the Bougainville, a 430-foot luxury ocean liner that usually tours the Mediterranean and moored in the Monaco harbor for the weekend, a pre-race evening event drew a crowd that included long-standing brand ambassador Patrick Dempsey, “Squid Game” star Lee Jung-jae, Kelly Rutherford, Spanish actor Maxi Iglesias and racing driver-turned-TV host Naomi Schiff, who also served as emcee for the evening.

There was even a visit by Prince Albert of Monaco, who exchanged bons mots with Tag Heuer’s Pin, Oracle Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner, reigning world champion Max Verstappen and teammate Yuki Tsunoda on stage.

Campbell took over the turntables for a rousing DJ set that had guests dancing the night away, while British singer-songwriter Lola Young and French musician Kavinsky bookended the night.

And that’s not to mention viewership figures in the upper range of the 70 million to 100 million bracket, with additional branding for the Swiss watchmaker displayed in broadcasts and social media postings around a weekend that also included other races for other motorsport categories.

It’s the kind of all-encompassing exposure that most brands can only dream of.

For Tag Heuer, its new position in Formula 1 since the beginning of the year is already paying off, starting with increased footfall that chief marketing officer George Ciz described as “more than double-digit.”

The name sponsorship is expected to supercharge its effects, not least by lending “gravitas” to the brand, he said. Although it was too soon to measure the echo resulting from the race weekend, Ciz estimated it would be “minimum four times bigger” compared to the previous year.

But more exposure means a need to ensure genuine stories rather than “cheap clicks,” he cautioned, lest these efforts fail to create lasting impact.

With F1 as a lightning rod driving its storytelling around heritage, product history, drivers and teams, “there is so much in this onion you can just peel one after another and keep telling great stories,” he said. “And within that, we are able to weave in beautiful product stories.”

Case in point: the trio of Monaco timepieces released on the occasion of the 82nd Grand Prix that had collectors jockeying for viewings over the weekend almost as hard as drivers competed on Sunday for the race trophy, which was contained in a bespoke Louis Vuitton trunk.

Another payoff as far as Pin is concerned was the return of a cohort of enthusiasts aged between 40 and 60 years old who had outgrown the brand.

Exposed afresh to it thanks to the “We Are Back” campaign around official F1 timekeeping, they found a watchmaker that’s grown in technical sophistication and is now offering the likes of split-second chronographs — and nostalgic pieces like the recently relaunched Formula 1 line.

Plus they’re often initiating younger family members into the Tag Heuer world, according to Pin.

“These clients are what is in my opinion the fundamental goal of this house: a capacity to be universal and accompany people throughout their life,” the CEO said. “That’s great from an economic standpoint, obviously, but also fantastic from a relational and emotional side because we have incredible stories.”

But that doesn’t mean the watchmaker is going to crank up production of its timepieces any time soon.

While the LVMH-owned brand strives to keep its production as flexible as possible “within the limits of a watchmaking industry that isn’t flexible” as Pin put it, the executive favored “being able to react but anticipate too much.”

The company would rather bank brand equity and favors becoming a top-of-mind reference across a price range that starts just shy of 2,000 euros and goes up well into six-figure territory over immediate sales.

“We are in a world that is so unstable that we need to work on fundamentals that are stable,” he continued. “For us, that’s our history and our ability to be in control of our reality, not our potential because that is linked to an environment that can vary rapidly.”

Case in point: on Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened 50 percent tariffs on European products, with an application postponed on Saturday until July 9 to allow room for negotiations.

“Choosing to guarantee the industrial and economic perennity of the house means giving up on being commercially opportunistic when demand explodes,” said Pin.