High-water mark
The new-generation model is called the Aquaracer Professional 300. Bold and yet elegant, highly functional and yet versatile, it’s a highly robust watch with a luxury feel that goes beyond the edge and sets a new high-water mark: for ergonomic, extreme-performance mechanical watches. Designed for work and play, and to soak up nature’s harshest challenges, it’s a pure symbol of TAG Heuer’s fearless, avant-garde spirit.
With its striking, instantly recognisable aesthetic, epitomised by the Aquaracer’s signature 12 faceted bezel, and its high specifications, it’s entirely contemporary, and yet it recalls a legacy that TAG Heuer began more than 40 years ago.
Below the surface
For the Aquaracer Professional 300 launch collection, TAG Heuer’s designers worked with a clear concept – to create a bold, high-performance, ergonomic watch for divers that was distinctively TAG Heuer. On top of that, they wanted to respect the company’s divers’ watch tradition while delivering design and material refinements that would meet and exceed the high expectations of today’s customer. No easy task!
This meant working with the Aquaracer collection’s six signature features and updating and upgrading them. Since 1983, the collection has always offered a unidirectional rotating bezel, a screw-down crown, water resistance to at least 200 metres, luminous markings, a sapphire glass and a double safety clasp – real-world functions that divers know to rely on in the deep.
To start, the team turned to the most visually arresting and immediately recognisable element of the Aquaracer’s design – its 12-sided unidirectional rotating bezel. The designers kept the basic form and evolved it, integrating a scratch-resistant ceramic insert across the collection and fluting each of the 12 facets so the bezel would be easy to grip and turn, no matter which facets the wearer is holding.
They also went under the skin, re-engineering the bezel’s internal tooth profile so that the rotating mechanism becomes smoother, quieter and easier to set. The result is a highly ergonomic device that delivers tangible improvements to the watch’s functionality.
They also upgraded the sapphire glass, integrating a magnifier over the date at 6 o’clock into the underside of the glass so that the surface is smooth to the touch. This simple but effective forward step also makes the date easier to read from wider angles.
The bezel’s silhouette was then used to inform further elements of the Aquaracer Professional 300’s design, so that it now has eight octagonal hour markers and a 12-sided crown. This elegant uniformitygives the new watch’s design language its consistency.
Further improvements were then made to the overall look and legibility of the watch. The new model has a wider, more sword-shaped hour hand (reminiscent of the last of the TAG Heuer 2000 Series, introduced in 2004) and a narrower minutes hand to create a clearer distinction between the two hands in low-light markers, and blue Super-LumiNova® for the minutes hand. The crown protection has been rethought too, and is now softer and more rounded, cupping the crown in a style reminiscent of the Ref. 844.
Combined, these small details become significant, because they deliver greater legibility, meaning a diver can refer to their watch with far greater confidence, even in extreme conditions where visibility is greatly reduced.
Beyond limits
During the conceptual phase, TAG Heuer’s designers also recognised that, as well as being a reliable instrument, the Aquaracer Professional 300 needed to be adaptable to multiple environments. More and more wearers are turning to divers’ watches for their robustness and versatility, while at the same time wanting a watch for both work and play.
With this in mind, they evolved the Aquaracer’s overall form to be thinner and lighter. The case, bezel and metal bracelet have all been slimmed down, without compromising the watch’s core performance features, such as water-resistance to 300 metres (30 bar), while also improving durability.
The new watch’s lugs are now shorter, while the case edge has been chamfered and polished to give more harmony to the watch’s visual impact and add refinement. As a result, on the wrist, the watch now has a more sophisticated profile, and is lighter and more ergonomic.
The perfect fit
Seven references, two sizes and a new bracelet fine adjustment system
The new Aquaracer Professional 300’s sophisticated dynamic isn’t limited to its design fundamentals. At launch, there will be seven references in two sizes in the core collection.
acts and figures:
Aquaracer 300 Calibre 5 Automatic
MOVEMENT
Calibre 5 Automatic
CASE
43 mm diameter
Polished and fine-brushed stainless-steel case
Blue ceramic unidirectional rotating bezel with 60-minute scale
Flat sapphire glass with double anti-reflective treatment
Stainless-steel screw-down crown at 3 o’clock
Stainless-steel screwed case back
Water-resistant to 300 metres (30 bar)
DIAL
Blue sunray-brushed
Rhodium-plated applied indexes with white Super-LumiNova®
Rhodium-plated hour and minute hands with white
Super-LumiNova®
Rhodium-plated central hand with white Super-LumiNova®
Rhodium-plated TAG HEUER sticker logo
Angled date with magnifying lens at 6 o’clock
AQUARACER AUTOMATIC 300 m / 1000 ft printed
BRACELET
Stainless-steel three-row bracelet
Stainless-steel folding clasp with double safety push buttons
and fine adjustment system; TAG Heuer shield
Aquaracer 300 Calibre 5 Automatic
MOVEMENT
Calibre 5 Automatic
CASE
36 mm diameter
Polished and fine-brushed stainless-steel case
Black ceramic unidirectional rotating bezel with 60-minute scale
Flat sapphire glass with double anti-reflective treatment
Stainless-steel screw-down crown at 3 o’clock
Stainless-steel screw-down caseback
Water-resistant to 300 metres (30 bar)
DIAL
Black lacquered dial
Rhodium-plated applied indexes with white Super-LumiNova®
Rhodium-plated hour and minute hands with white Super-
LumiNova®
Rhodium-plated central hand with white Super-LumiNova®
Rhodium-plated TAG HEUER sticker logo
Angled date with magnifying lens at 6 o’clock
AQUARACER AUTOMATIC 300 m / 1000 ft printed
BRACELET
Stainless-steel three-row bracelet
Stainless-steel folding clasp with double safety push buttons
and fine adjustment system; TAG Heuer shield
