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Max Verstappen might have finished second at last weekend’s Miami Grand Prix, but from a horological standpoint at least, he still walked away a winner. On Saturday, while accepting the Pirelli Pole Position Award after cruising to victory in qualifying, the three-time Formula 1 champion wore the hottest watch collab on the planet—which just so happens to celebrate Formula 1 itself.
Which watch, you ask? Only the Steel Black PVD version of the new TAG Heuer Formula 1 Kith, a brand-new collaboration between the brand and Kith founder—as well as noted TAG Heuer Formula 1 watch collector—Ronnie Fieg. Launched globally earlier this week, the series of 10 limited-edition pieces recalls the Formula 1 watches from the 1980s and 1990s, which were eagerly gobbled up by collectors and casual wearers alike. With some three million pieces produced, they remain in circulation today, with watch nerds eagerly sniping them from eBay listings in the wee hours of the morning.
The new versions, which measure 35 millimeters and retail for $1,500, are proving popular with sneakerheads, watch collectors, and curious passersby who wonder what the lines snaking outside Kith stores in Beverly Hills, New York, Paris, and other major cities might be for. Lightweight, colorful, and fun, they reflect Fieg’s passion for the original models, which stoked his nascent love of watch collecting as a child. Depending upon the reference, each comes with either a rubber strap or a metal bracelet, plus a hardy battery-powered movement, a unidirectional timing bezel, and a printed dial. The 200 meters of water resistance ensures that you can actually beat ‘em up, too.
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Though Verstappen’s Oracle team is sponsored by TAG Heuer—we’ve seen him in other TAG Heuer pieces before—the Formula 1 Kith is an interesting watch to find on the track for several reasons. It’s not a chronograph, for one thing, the classic driver’s complication for measuring elapsed time. And two, it’s a relatively inexpensive watch, even by TAG Heuer’s often more affordable standards. True, it may cost four to five times what the highly collectible MoonSwatch or Scuba Fifty Fathoms lists for, but to serious sneakerheads and dedicated watch collectors, it’s a steal at $1,500. And with TAG and Kith allocating more of certain boutique-edition references to their respective stores, collectors may need to criss-cross the world to collect the complete set, drumming up welcome attention for both brands. (To be fair, for $18,000 you can nab the entire set in a special briefcase…but what fun is that?
I, too, joined the line at Kith on Rodeo Drive on Monday morning when the Formula 1 launched, just to get a glimpse of the interest from collectors and to see the new pieces in person. About 20 people stood in the sun outside the boutique, eagerly waiting for the doors to open at 11 a.m.—each given a polite but firm allocation of one piece by the friendly Aussie security guard. There’s little doubt that Fieg and TAG took a page out of the Swatch Group’s playbook when launching their new collab—and it seems to be working well. After all, it’s tough to resist the call of a colorful pack of lightweight summer watches…especially when they’re playfully endorsed by one of the most dominant drivers in F1 history.
