One of the most striking and popular variations on the classic dive watch formula is the ultra-high-visibility fully luminous “night diver.” Often paired with blacked-out cases to maximize contrast with their lume-coated dials, night divers are a fan-favorite staple for brands throughout the industry, particularly TAG Heuer. For its latest release, TAG Heuer takes its decades of night diver experience to the heart of its brand identity: chronographs. The end result is the new limited-edition TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph Night Driver, a striking monochrome take on the modern Monaco look that trades in some of the base model’s ‘70s-era swagger for clean ultra-modern aesthetics and high-impact spectacle in low-light conditions.

The TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph Night Driver’s 39mm wide case should feel largely familiar to enthusiasts, but its black DLC-coated Grade 5 titanium case alters the wearing experience significantly. Both titanium and black-coated versions of the Monaco were real scarcities until the last few years, and it’s still a rare occasion when these two material treatments coincide in the same model. Black coatings do have a tendency to hide some of the visual nuances of a case design, at times, and while the Monaco Chronograph Night Driver does sport a complex mix of brushed and matte surfaces, the overall impression on the wrist is more monolithic, with a strong outer silhouette that only reveals its full details on close inspection. This stealthy presentation alongside the lightweight titanium construction gives the watch a far more modern feel on the wrist than most of its stablemates, but the fundamentals of the right-hand-crown Monaco design are still present in the background. Like all modern Monaco iterations, TAG Heuer rates the Monaco Chronograph Night Driver with a sapphire display caseback and rates the watch for a respectable 100 meters of water resistance.

Like the case, the dial of the TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph Night Driver takes the core Monaco style in a more modern, monochromatic direction, but here the watch offers two wildly different presentations. In normal lighting conditions, the Monaco Chronograph Night Driver is subdued and stealthy, with a matte battleship gray main dial surface contrasted by subdials and an outer dial in dove gray Super-LumiNova. When combined with the dark-coated applied indices and baton hands, it’s a moody, surprisingly muted look, one that feels more like a Bamford custom piece than a traditional first-party release.

When the lights go down, however, the Monaco Chronograph Night Driver shows its wild side (unfortunately, we were unable to capture lume shots during our limited time with this press sample, but we’ve included a press image to illustrate the effect). The amount of illumination cast by the outer dial, subdials, hands, and even the main dial’s seconds scale is a far cry from most racing chronographs and should allow for accurate split-second low-light chronograph readings if used in short bursts. Admittedly, the utility behind this addition is rather limited, but in terms of pure visual impact, it’s a bombastic new avenue for the familiar Monaco formula.

Inside the TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph Night Driver beats the in-house Heuer 02 automatic chronograph movement. The Heuer 02 has become the backbone of the brand’s upper-echelon chronograph offerings in recent years, and its hefty 80-hour power reserve and 28,800 bph beat rate remain near the front of the field for this price segment. Apart from a few splashes of vibrant turquoise on the rotor and column wheel, the movement is more or less in standard form here, with Côtes de Genève across the bridges, crisply modern skeletonization, and a multi-spoke racing wheel-inspired rotor in case-matching black. To complete the package, TAG Heuer fits the Monaco Chronograph Night Driver with a surprisingly old-school multi-hole rally strap in black calfskin. This retro racing-inspired strap does help to root the watch more firmly into its ‘70s-era lineage while remaining versatile enough not to clash with the more modern elements of the design.

Night divers have been a popular staple of the dive watch community for decades, and while the ultra-high-visibility illumination these models provide is certainly useful underwater, the underlying aesthetic behind these designs has an appeal that stretches beyond anything aquatic. The new limited edition TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph Night Driver proves this concept dramatically, offering a punchy monochrome reimagining of the world’s most famous square chronograph with spectacular low-light charm. Only 600 examples of the watch will be made, and it is available now through select authorized dealers, TAG Heuer boutiques, and the brand’s e-commerce platform. MSRP for the TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph Night Driver stands at 9,300 CHF. For more information, please visit the brand’s website.