Tag Heuer is one of the most prestigious brands of luxury timepieces in the world. Second to only Rolex in popularity, Tag is another Swiss watch brand known for its sports watches and chronographs.

It is a division of LVMH, a leading luxury goods company. The company has a motto, “Swiss Avant-Garde Since 1860.” Today, a Tag Heuer timepiece can be purchased from multiple locations. Their watch styles and models number in the hundreds, but it is a few particular types from which their popularity was born.

The watchmaking company was founded in 1860 by Edouard Heuer. He slowly built the company from the ground up, and was a very innovative watchmaker. Heuer patented the first crown-winding mechanism for his pocket watches in 1869. And then, during the Universal Exhibition in Paris, 1889, the Heuer Company won the silver medal for its collection of various pocket chronographs.

Over the next few decades, Edouard Heuer worked on different styles of chronograph watches, including a model that supposedly sit on an automobile's dashboard.

Heuer did receive a patent for the “Time of Trip,” the first dashboard chronograph in 1911. It was designed to be used in automobiles and aircrafts, and had two large hands mounted from the center which indicated the time of day. It kept up with accurate time and also kept track of the duration of a trip with a state-of-the-are counter.

It was only three years later in 1914 that Heuer introduced his first chronograph wrist watch. Basically, the design was the same as the pocket chronograph, only Heuer added the necessary bracelet. He then introduced the “Micrograph” in 1916, the first stopwatch to accurately record 1/100th of a second. The “Semikrograph” soon followed and offered an accurate reading of 1/50th of a second, as well as a split-second functioning capability.

Throughout the 1930s and 40s, the Heuer Company introduced various models, such as the “Autavia,” a dashboard timer. They also introduced the “Hervue” which is a clock that could run continuously for 8 days without being wound. Heuer put together watches for pilots in the German air force that were known as “Flieger” chronographs.

In the 1950s, Heuer's innovative timepieces caught the eye of American retailer, Abercrombie & Fitch, and he began to produce watches for their stores. Heuer created the Seafarer and Auto-Graph in the 1959s. In the next two decades, Heuer watches were popular among automobile racers, businessmen, and various retailers. Two of the most popular Heuer watches during this period were the Autavia and Carrera.

In 1969, Heuer introduced the world's first automatic chronograph at the press conferences in Geneva and New York. Heuer introduced the Chronosplit in 1975, a digital chronograph with dual LED and LCD displays - a groundbreaking watch for the time.

For the next few years, Heuer continued to produce great watches. But in 1985, Techniques d'Avant Garde (TAG) acquired Heuer and thus Tag-Heuer was born. Most today know the watches as simply “Tag.”