Photography by Ed Rhee
It’s an event that goes by many names – “America’s Longest-Running Street Race,” “The Roar by the Shore,” “The 200 MPH Beach Party,” and more – but beyond the colorful branding, the 49th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach (run on April 21, 2024) stands as a gem in the crown of American motorsports. Designed as America’s answer to the Monaco Grand Prix, this event has been run as a Formula 5000, Formula One, and IndyCar event at various points since 1975, but the spirit and prestige of the race remains the same. Other than the Indy 500 itself, this is the largest, most prestigious event on the NTT IndyCar Series calendar, with roughly 200,000 people in attendance, and a fan-friendly party atmosphere that draws in attendees from around the world. In person, there’s little that compares to it – incredibly close, highly competitive open-wheel racing featuring some of the best drivers in the world, and a level of openness and access to enthusiasts that series like Formula One don’t even attempt to match. With this level of racing competition and heritage, it’s little surprise that TAG Heuer has its own presence here. As the official watch sponsor of IndyCar and personal sponsor to Arrow McLaren driver Alexander Rossi, TAG Heuer’s racing spirit runs deep here on the streets of southern California – especially with its latest IndyCar-themed release, the TAG Heuer Formula 1 Chronograph x Indy 500.
Alexander Rossi sporting the TAG Heuer Formula 1 Chronograph x Indy 500.
Rossi’s a fan favorite here in Long Beach. An affable, determined California native, he’s a former Formula One driver (one of the few Americans to compete in the sport in the modern era), an Indy 500 winner, and a serious contender with a well-earned reputation for solid racecraft. In a way, he’s TAG Heuer’s best example of the brand’s “Don’t Crack Under Pressure” tagline, and he showed this resilience in an impressive recovery drive that stands among his finest performances. Dropping back to 27th position after Arrow McLaren teammate Pato O’Ward collided with him in the opening laps, Rossi’s tenacity, excellent pace, and alternative pit strategy allowed him to climb through the order to a solid 10th place finish and an excellent championship points haul in spite of the tight, difficult-to-pass nature of the Long Beach street circuit.
While he may not have been competing for the win this year, Rossi’s drive through the field was a major part of the spectacle of the Grand Prix – the white and orange Arrow McLaren scything through the competition amid the scream of Honda and Chevrolet V6 turbo engines, the acrid smell of burnt rubber and ethanol race fuel lingering in the pits after a blisteringly quick stop, and the hundreds of thousands of spectators in the stands made for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Through it all, there was only one watch on Rossi’s wrist: the latest TAG Heuer Formula 1 Chronograph x Indy 500.
Standing at a muscular, imposing 43mm wide, the TAG Heuer Formula 1 Chronograph x Indy 500’s stainless steel case is shared with much of the current Formula 1 line and features a squared-off, sporty form that echoes the brand’s classic Autavia racing chronographs from the 1970s. The heavy, gear-toothed tachymeter bezel is a series hallmark, and for this specialty model TAG Heuer adds crisp “Indy 500” branding to the sporty black tachymeter bezel insert. Around back, a solid screwdown caseback helps this model to achieve a hefty 200 meters of water resistance, and features a sharply rendered engraving of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s famous “winged wheel” logo against a checkered flag-pattern backdrop.
While the TAG Heuer Formula 1 Chronograph x Indy 500’s case keeps its IndyCar-themed tie-ins relatively restrained, the dial takes this theming to a different level. TAG Heuer makes liberal use of vivid, eye-catching red accents throughout this layout (particularly for chronograph elements), but the two that stand out the most on the wrist are the red outer seconds track and the unique, recolored printed Arabic hours numerals at 11 o’clock. This is a subtle, offbeat tribute to the first running of the Indy 500 in 1911, and even without this context this adds a racy, aggressive touch to the familiar Formula 1 layout. For the 1/10-seconds chronograph subdial at 6 o’clock, the brand takes things in a more overt direction, with a full-color printed winged wheel logo against a clean white subdial surface. Lastly, the matte black dial surface itself ties into the IndyCar ethos well, with a rugged asphalt texture that gives the familiar Formula 1 Chronograph design an added layer of character. With that said, many of the standard Formula 1 Chronograph’s divisive foibles are still here, including the potentially jarring white date display at 4:30.
Like much of the rest of the current line, TAG Heuer powers the Formula 1 Chronograph x Indy 500 with the Ronda 5040D quartz chronograph movement. Although it may lack some of the prestige and refinement of its mechanical counterparts, the 5040D is an impressively durable, ultra-accurate powerplant with 1/10-second chronograph capability for precise measurement. TAG Heuer’s choice of bracelet is also a familiar one here, with a sporty, straightforward brushed three-link design.
Since 1975, the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach has stood as one of America’s greatest racing spectacles, and the new TAG Heuer Formula 1 Chronograph x Indy 500 is a stylish, fitting companion for the energy, passion, and IndyCar action of this long-running event. The TAG Heuer Formula 1 Chronograph x Indy 500 is available now through authorized dealers. MSRP for this watch stands at $2,400 USD as of press time. For more information, please visit the brand’s website.
