1. It began with the unlikely partnership of Heuer, Breitling and Hamilton/Buren
Though rivals, the three companies got together in the 1960s and pooled their resources to develop an automatic chronograph movement. Automatic watches had taken off in a big way and the race to create the first automatic chronograph was intense.
Back then, Heuer didn’t have “TAG” in its name yet, and Hamilton only came into the picture in 1966 when it acquired Buren that was already in the partnership. Known as Project 99, the collaboration also included movement specialist Dubois-Depraz.
Their collective effort yielded Calibre 11, one of the world’s first automatic chronographs. (At this point, it should be noted that Zenith also unveiled its automatic El Primero chronograph the same year but at a later date.)
All three partners debuted their respective watches endowed with this revolutionary accomplishment in 1969. In the case of Heuer, it appeared in the Autavia, Carrera and, most importantly, an entirely new model called Monaco.
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2. It broke away from conventional design codes
The original Monaco watch, the Monaco 1133, immediately stood out for its large square case paired with a blue metallic dial. A distinctive quirk of Calibre 11 was that the crown appeared on the left side of the watch although the chronograph pushers remained on the right side.