WatchTime - August 2012

PROFILE
TAG Heuer’s Guy Sémon
pulses − located at a major French university:
not a solution most watchmakers
would envision. “It was not a problem of
watchmaking,” Sémon says. “It was a
problem of physics. Watchmaking is mechanics,
and mechanics is a branch of
physics.” Sémon used the exotic tool to
craft extremely small belts from plastic.
The new belts – along with some
movement tweaks – solved the problem.
The first production Monaco V4 was
sold at the 2009 Only Watch charity auction
in Monaco. Today, the V4 is a commercial
success. The first 150-piece limited
edition in platinum, priced at 100,000
Swiss francs, sold out quickly. The next
limited edition in rose gold, priced at
$150,000, also sold out. The newest V4
limited edition is available now, in titanium,
priced at $65,000.
68 WatchTime August 2012
At the end of 2007, TAG Heuer proposed
that Sémon head up a new division
within the company, to be called Sciences
& Engineering. Sémon created the team,
developed the tools, and identified new
areas for innovation. The S&E group
oversees TAG Heuer’s research and development
and haute horlogerie efforts.
Today Sémon’s department can manufacture
400 to 500 pieces per year in
house. Sémon refers to it as “a small
brand inside the company.”
WITH THE V4 problems solved and the
S&E group up and running, it was time
for a new challenge, and Babin gave him
one. He told Sémon, “We need to improve
the technology inside the chronograph.
You are free to choose your own
direction.”
Drive belts inside
the Monaco
V4’s movement
The direction Sémon selected involved
pursuing two apparently inconsistent
goals: increasing the chronograph’s
frequency or speed so that it can
measure ever-smaller fractions of seconds,
and improving timekeeping accuracy
while the chronograph is engaged.
As Sémon explained, in a traditional
chronograph movement, engaging the
chronograph typically affects accuracy
by reducing the balance wheel’s amplitude.
In watchmaking circles, the
chronograph is known as a “heavy”
complication because of its power requirements.
So, creating super-fast
chronographs would seem inconsistent
with increasing timekeeping accuracy.
Sémon achieved both goals by using
what he calls a “dual architecture” approach:
incorporating two independent