While it may not be at the forefront of color trends, 2024 has been a surprisingly good year for pink watches. This punchy, rarely-seen hue has become an outsider favorite for watchmakers looking to make a splash in a landscape inundated by blues and greens, and for its latest release TAG Heuer adds one of the wildest pink colorways on the current market to its modern skeletonized Monaco collection. The new TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph in pink aims to capture the vibrance and energy of the Las Vegas strip in the brand’s most recognizable silhouette, creating one of the skeletonized Monaco’s wildest and most striking iterations to date.
Like other current skeletonized versions of the Monaco, the TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph in pink begins with a fully sandblasted, DLC-coated Grade 2 titanium case. The all-matte take on the classic square Monaco form gives this nuanced, gently arcing shape a more monolithic look in images, allowing the skeleton dial to take center stage. Everything from the short, wedge-like lugs to the distinctive faceted pushers should be familiar to fans of the brand, but despite the lack of novelty this case works well with the new colorway. Like previous iterations, TAG Heuer rounds it out with a sapphire display caseback and a respectable 100 meters of water resistance.
Naturally, it’s the dial of the TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph in pink where the largest updates lie. Although the skeleton layout here is shared with the skeletonized Monaco Chronograph first unveiled in 2023, the overall visual impression is dramatically different in photos. While the new color palette naturally has a large role in this, the use of shading goes even further. Simply put, this is a darker, blacker take on the skeletonized Monaco than we’ve seen before, with outer scales, skeleton bridges, and even a main handset in glossy, pure black. Add in matte black spacers surrounding the movement, and the stage is set for a high-impact, moody take on the familiar formula. TAG Heuer takes advantage of this with its choice of pink in images. This isn’t just pink, this is the hottest hot pink I’ve seen in recent memory, calling to mind flamingos, neon signage, and ‘80s hair metal all at once. It’s such a vibrant, aggressive pink that it sidesteps any traditionally feminine associations at first glance, instead landing in a unisex sort of rock-and-roll flamboyance. With such a powerful shade of pink, it would be easy to overwhelm the dial as a whole, but TAG Heuer is (reasonably) judicious with its use of color here. Only the luminous stripes on the skeleton bridges, the subdial hands and central chronograph seconds hand, the subdial scales, and the tiny printed hour indices use this color, allowing the black tones and exposed metal of the skeleton design to take up the majority of visual real estate. Of course, a black and pink skeleton chronograph won’t satisfy everyone’s tastes, but it’s an intriguing option for the bold and open-minded.
Like many of its stablemates, the TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph in pink is powered by the in-house TH20-00 automatic chronograph movement. As the updated version of the brand’s flagship Heuer 02, the TH20-00 is a tremendous modern contender on the performance front. A massive 80 hour power reserve, a 28,800 bph beat rate, and a crisp column wheel and vertical clutch chronograph actuation system stack up well against the competition at this price point. In terms of finishing, the view through the caseback is more reserved and traditional than the dial side’s array of angular skeleton bridges and black coatings. The view is dominated by Côtes de Genève for the bridges, alongside polished sinks and an eye-catching column wheel in dial-matching pink. TAG Heuer’s skeletonized shield-motif rotor also makes an appearance here, with a mix of black coating, linear brushing, and matte blasting. To complete the look, TAG Heuer fits this watch with a fabric-effect deployant strap in black rubber-lined leather. It’s an aggressive, modern strap option that fits the overall character of the watch well in initial images.
Pink may not be the most popular hue in the increasingly vivid modern watchmaking landscape, but several high-profile recent releases have proved that this often-overlooked color has a unique attraction for enthusiasts. The new TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph in pink delivers one of the wildest, most aggressive pink dial offerings of the current trend, combining a dark and edgy colorway with one of its sportiest, most futuristic current silhouettes. The TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph in pink is available now through authorized dealers. MSRP for this watch stands at 11,000 CHF as of press time. For more information, please visit the brand’s website.
