“Their prime client in watches is Seiko and in 1997, they developed a patent for a new chronograph. “The origin of the patent was not in the original press release we sent out on the 1887, so the first thing we did on Monday was to mention that the intellectual property was from Seiko Instruments (SII), which is the engineering company under the Seiko umbrella,” Babin says. Regretting the marketing-speak of “designed 100 per cent in house,” Babin also defended how much work TAG Heuer put into the movement to bring it up to the standards the company demands, and to make it Swiss Made. Those in the know on the Internet said that it looked suspiciously like the Seiko Instruments TC78 Chronograph.īlogs and message board postings were humming and, finally, Babin himself went on the offensive, admitting the source of the movement to indeed be the intellectual property of Seiko Instruments, but clarifying how this all came to be. Bloggers and watch lovers from around the world were questioning the company’s claim that the 1887 was designed 100 per cent in house by TAG Heuer.

Shortly after the Silverstone (UK) introduction of the new Caliber 1887 chronograph movement, Jean-Christophe Babin, President and CEO of TAG Heuer, found himself under attack from an unexpected source – the Internet.

Tag heuer calibre 16 vs 1887