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Revolution Interview: Antoine Pin On Returning To TAG Heuer And Why Its Future Belongs To The Fearless
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Mspeedster
·
One of the things I like about Pin is he started his career with TAG during their original era, pre-LVMH. He mentions the CEO at that time was Christian Viros.
I had always wondered who was the original TAG Heuer CEO, when the company first transitioned from being Heuer to TAG Heuer in 1985. It seems it was Christian Viros from the beginning until the LVMH acquisition in 1999. Per this article:
https://www.watchtime.com/advertisement/the-80s-a-legendary-caliber-the-lemania-carrera-chronograph/
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In 1984, Yves Piaget found in Akram Ojjeh, the president of the Saudi Arabian corporate group TAG (Techniques d’Avant-Garde), a new purchaser who had both the passion and the financial wherewithal to assure a bright future for the Heuer brand. Among the several commonalties that TAG shared with Jack Heuer were a savvy instinct for the zeitgeist and a commitment to motorsport. TAG served as a sponsor of the Williams Formula One racing stable in 1982. Together with Porsche, an engine was developed for McLaren. The group was also active in the luxury industry and in state-of-the-art technology. After TAG purchased 52% of Heuer’s shares from Piaget and Lemania in 1985, Heuer became TAG Heuer. The new management changed the model policy. The new directorship under Christian Viros sharpened TAG Heuer’s profile as a manufacturer of sporty watches.
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We always hear about former TAG Heuer CEOs like Jean-Christophe Babin, Jean-Claude Biver and Frederic Arnault. But rarely is Christian Viros ever mentioned. I wonder why, as I think he deserves much of the credit for TAG Heuer's early success during the '80s & '90s.
In fact, the first time I ever heard of Christian Viros was when I noticed his signature on the certificate of my 6000 Senna watch.
I had always wondered who was the original TAG Heuer CEO, when the company first transitioned from being Heuer to TAG Heuer in 1985. It seems it was Christian Viros from the beginning until the LVMH acquisition in 1999. Per this article:
https://www.watchtime.com/advertisement/the-80s-a-legendary-caliber-the-lemania-carrera-chronograph/
--
In 1984, Yves Piaget found in Akram Ojjeh, the president of the Saudi Arabian corporate group TAG (Techniques d’Avant-Garde), a new purchaser who had both the passion and the financial wherewithal to assure a bright future for the Heuer brand. Among the several commonalties that TAG shared with Jack Heuer were a savvy instinct for the zeitgeist and a commitment to motorsport. TAG served as a sponsor of the Williams Formula One racing stable in 1982. Together with Porsche, an engine was developed for McLaren. The group was also active in the luxury industry and in state-of-the-art technology. After TAG purchased 52% of Heuer’s shares from Piaget and Lemania in 1985, Heuer became TAG Heuer. The new management changed the model policy. The new directorship under Christian Viros sharpened TAG Heuer’s profile as a manufacturer of sporty watches.
--
We always hear about former TAG Heuer CEOs like Jean-Christophe Babin, Jean-Claude Biver and Frederic Arnault. But rarely is Christian Viros ever mentioned. I wonder why, as I think he deserves much of the credit for TAG Heuer's early success during the '80s & '90s.
In fact, the first time I ever heard of Christian Viros was when I noticed his signature on the certificate of my 6000 Senna watch.
Edited:
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Hubert
··TAG Heuer Forums ModeratorOne of things I like about Pin is he started his career during original era of TAG, pre-LVMH. He mentions the CEO at that time was Christian Viros.
I had always wondered who was the original TAG Heuer CEO, when the company first transitioned from being Heuer to TAG Heuer in 1985. It seems it was Christian Viros from the very beginning until the LVMH acquisition in 1999. Per this article:
https://www.watchtime.com/advertisement/the-80s-a-legendary-caliber-the-lemania-carrera-chronograph/
--
In 1984, Yves Piaget found in Akram Ojjeh, the president of the Saudi Arabian corporate group TAG (Techniques d’Avant-Garde), a new purchaser who had both the passion and the financial wherewithal to assure a bright future for the Heuer brand. Among the several commonalties that TAG shared with Jack Heuer were a savvy instinct for the zeitgeist and a commitment to motorsport. TAG served as a sponsor of the Williams Formula One racing stable in 1982. Together with Porsche, an engine was developed for McLaren. The group was also active in the luxury industry and in state-of-the-art technology. After TAG purchased 52% of Heuer’s shares from Piaget and Lemania in 1985, Heuer became TAG Heuer. The new management changed the model policy. The new directorship under Christian Viros sharpened TAG Heuer’s profile as a manufacturer of sporty watches.
--
We always hear about former TAG Heuer CEOs like Jean-Christophe Babin, Jean-Claude Biver and Frederic Arnault. But rarely is Christian Viros ever mentioned. I wonder why, as I think he deserves much of the credit for TAG Heuer's early success during the '80s & '90s.
In fact, the first time I ever heard of Christian Viros was when I noticed his signature on the certificate of my 6000 Senna watch.
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Mspeedster
·I liked that acknowledgement too. 👍
In looking at Christian Viros's LinkedIn page, it says TAG Heuer CEO from 1988 until1999. So not sure who ran TAG Heuer before him, perhaps it was Ojjeh himself since Heuer had just been acquired by TAG Group, or maybe there was someone else. The very early years are a bit murky.
Regardless, it seems clear that Viros was at the helm during the heyday of releases like the S/EL and 6000, and the era of Senna.
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Hubert
··TAG Heuer Forums ModeratorAntoine Pin: "Our teams tried super hard with the carbon hairspring. We couldn’t industrialize it for a long time, but we never gave up - because we had the mentality that every obstacle was an opportunity to learn. I believe we will see the fruit of all these lessons in the future.”
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babola
·Hope he doesn’t take TH too avant-garde into the future and maintains the sight of the company’s connection to the glory era of Heuer’s past.
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Anthony.
·And we'll see these back in the near future.
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Hubert
··TAG Heuer Forums ModeratorWe will definitely but only in the high end production like Tourbillon. I was in a zoom presentation with Nick last week where he mentioned that only 3% of original carbon hairspring was successful. They just didn't have the correct production methods at the time.
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abrod520
·These limited high-end pieces are not at all what Heuer was ever about. Super-expensive skeletonized garbage you can't even read the time on... what happened to the idea of an incredibly readable chronograph on every wrist, that could then look perfectly in place under a suit cuff?
Won't even go into what modern references of "molon labe" and "300 Spartans" actually translates into.