Background:

The Heuer Autavia has been a long standing icon for the brand. Despite it’s lack popular during it’s time under the Heuer brand, the Autavia has developed a large collectorship since it’s initial discontinuation in 1986. After Heuer merged with the Tag Group, formally making the brand Tag Heuer, there have been a few special releases of the Autavia that utilize both the original “Heuer” only logo and the modern “Tag Heuer” logo. The sequence of Tag Heuer era Autavia’s are below:

The re-issues from Tag Heuer have been sporadic at best, offering the consumer limited run pieces that payed homage to the original Autavia’s. That is until the most recently where Tag Heuer officially re-instituted the Autavia lineup with an array of 3-handed pieces in 2019. That being said, the re-instituted lineup felt incomplete with 3-handed pieces, missing the iconic chronographs that had been an integral component to the Autavia name.

Thanks to consumer demand, Tag Heuer’s most recent release to the Autavia lineup is a proper chronograph. Lets take a closer look at the two variants offered of the new Tag Heuer Autavia Flyback Chronograph.

The Specs:

This watch gets the updated HEUER02 automatic chronograph movement which is a COSC (Controle Officiel Suisse Des Chronometres) certified movement. This movement oscillates at 28,800 Vph, has an 80 hour power reserve, and has the level of durability and precision you expect from a COSC tested movement. The complications of this movement include time on center with small seconds at the 6 O’clock sub-dial, a date register at 6 O’clock, and a chronograph function with hours to 12 at 9 O’clock, minutes to 30 at 3 O’clock, and seconds on center.

The HEUER02 movement is held inside a 42mm stainless steel or stainless steel black DLC coated case (depending on the variant) with a stout thickness of 15.7mm. Thanks to the screw-down pushers and crown this piece claims a water resistance rating of 100 meters, making it a practical daily wear. The bezel is classic to the Autavia name with it’s bi-directional rotating capability and is scratch resistant thanks to the inlayed ceramic material. Additional specification on the piece are shown below:

The Details:

There are many details to uncover on this piece thanks to the display back case showing the HEUER02 movement and the various points of contrast seen across the dial surface and on the encasement. We will cover some things that are done well and others that could have been done without. Lets take a closer look into some of the details, starting with the front face.

The Dial/Bezel:

This Autavia chronograph released two different variants, both of which are stainless steel with one being coated in a black DLC. The stainless steel variant features a silver sunray brushed dial with white numerals/hands, black indices, and contrasting black sub-dials. The stainless steel black DLC coated variant features a black dial with black sub-dials and matching seafoam colored indices, hands, and numerals.

Both variants have nearly identical underlying characteristics with slightly different color schemes and dial/case finishes. Starting at the dials surface, the sub-dials are laid out in such a fashion that chronograph hours are at 9 O’clock, minutes are at 3 O’clock, and small seconds are at 6 O’clock. The chronograph sub-dials are slightly larger than the small second sub-dial and feature a raised and radially grooved inner surrounded by a flat outer chapter ring. The indices on the sub-dial chapter ring are color matched to the numerals in white and are tracked by the white sub-dial hand.

The smaller seconds sub-dial at 6 O’clock is variant dependent, the stainless steel variant gets a dial-matched silver color with black markers/hand, whereas the PVD black version gets a dial-matched black color with white markers/hand. The small second sub-dial has a flat surface unlike the grooved design seen on the chronograph sub-dials; this helps further distinct them, keeping the chronograph features and standard time features separate. The last register on the dial happens to be the date register which interrupts the 6 O’clock sub-dial at the bottom taking the place of the 30 second indicator.

Looking to the outer perimeter of the dial, the numerals and indicators on the watch feature an interrupted design due to the chronograph sub-dials and dial insignia taking the forefront. The 12, 3, 6, and 9 O’clock numerals are missing from the dial and replaced with smaller hour indicators or in the case of the 12 O’clock position, the Tag Heuer logo. All hour numerals that are present are written in an oversized font so they standout among the other bold chronograph features. Just beyond the hour markings is of course the outer chapter ring which has various dashed graduations decreasing in boldness from 1/12th markings, to 1/60th markings, to the finest being 1/300th markings.

One of the most iconic features to an Autavia watch sits just beyond the outer chapter ring, that is the bi-directional rotating bezel. The bezel on this piece is made of ceramic, giving it a higher level of scratch resistance in comparison to standard steel bezels. The bezel features a 0-60 scale with numerals every 10 units, dashes every five, and dot indicators in-between for singular units. This bezel allows the user an array of added functionality in conjunction with the standard time features and the watches chronograph function. This bezel is also easy to adjust thanks to the heavy knurling on the outer circumference, giving the user a solid point of contact when rotating the bezel.

The Case/Case-Back:

This piece utilizes an array of finishes, contrasting from one surface to another. Starting at the front of the watch, the top of the lugs get a linear brushed finished extending from lug end to lug end. This surface is interrupted by a sweeping chamfer that is largest at the lug end, transitioning into a standard radius at the centerline of the case. This chamfered surface gets a polished finish, allowing it to pop with it’s sheen against the adjacent brush surfaces. Transitioning to the side of the case, the finish shifts back to a linear brushed finish extending from lug end to lug end. Being a chronograph piece, the case is disrupted on the right hand side by two screw-down pushers and a screw-down crown which have a mixture of polished and machined finishes. The crown gets a black endcap which has the Tag Heuer Logo in a silver color on it.

The case-back of this watch has a copious amount of detail thanks to the sapphire display back case peering into the HEUER02 automatic chronograph movement. Looking under the hood we see a beautiful HEUER02 movement with Geneva stripe finishing across many of the major components and the Tag Heuer logo on the bridge. The various contrasting colors between the purple jewels, the stainless colored components, the black rotor, and the red text/ components offer a level of conspicuous detail that is unmatched. The rotor on this piece features a skeletonized design and is finished with Geneva stripes on the skeletonized surface. The outer perimeter of the rotor has the red text stating the movement name “Cal. HEUER 02”, the Tag Heuer logo, and “Swiss Made”, all of which is color matched to the components in the movement and the strap backing.

The last item on the case back and one that is well executed is the finishing. The screw-down case-back gets a radial brushed finish only to be interrupted by the ratchet points which feature a receded section which have a grain type finish. Just outboard of that a chamfered surface features a polished finish leading down to the case lugs which have a radial finish concentric with the case diameter. This finish is interrupted slightly at the lug ends with an angled chamfer featuring a polished finish. These numerous points of finishing contrast paired with the depth of detail seen on the HEUER02 movement will have you taking the piece off just to show others it’s details.

The Strap:

The last point of contention on this watch is of course the strap, which is rather unique. The topside features a black crocodile patterned leather with a red leather underside. Interestingly enough the stitching is not a thru-stitch as the topside stitch color differs from the bottom side stitch color with the topside color varying depending on the variant. The stainless steel version has a white colored stitching on the top surface while the DLC black version has a black colored stitching for the top surface. The backing of the band on both pieces feature the red leather with a matching red stitching color. Both bands also get a black colored edge coat, giving the strap a refined edge finish.

The straps used on both pieces utilize a pin buckle style mechanism and feature a rather unique quick disconnect strap system. As can be seen on the image above, near the spring bar where the band connects to the lugs there is a button. By simply pressing this quick-release button the spring bar disengages allowing you to remove and change out the strap without the need for a spring bar tool.

What do you think of this Tag Heuer Autavia chronograph? Are you glad that Tag has released a chronograph to the Autavia lineup? What would you like to see next from the Autavia lineup? Let us know in the comments below.