Gerhard Berger is one of the more engaging Formula 1 personalities of the last
30 years. A very fast and capable driver in his own right, Berger always seemed
to have the right balance between being 100% focused while in the car and being
100% focused on enjoying life when he was out of the car. After his driving
career finished, he moved on to a senior role with BMW Motorsport (having driven
Touring Cars for BMW back in the ’80s while already an F1 driver) and at one
time owning 50% of Toro Rosso. While he is not involved in Formula 1 at the
moment, you feel that it’s only a matter of time before he finds his way back.
Berger spent three seasons at McLaren (1990, 1991 and 1992), out-qualifying
Senna eight times, including in his first race for the team. Like many McLaren
drivers, Gerhard wore a TAG Heuer watch during his years at McLaren and, as
we’ll see, continued his association with TAG Heuer even after he left McLaren
at the end of 1992 www.busimate.co.uk
.
We know
that Ayrton Senna wore a TAG Heuer as his daily watch- so what about Gerhard
Berger? Well, a little detective-work is required. The photo above shows what is
almost certainly a TAG Heuer S/el on a leather strap- the gold/ stainless steel
combo, metal bracelet link between the case and the strap and the shapely case
being the clues. And thanks www.dgzst.com
to the clearly visible
pushers, we can conclude that this is an S/ el Chronograph- just like Senna
wore.
The watch above was one of around 20 that Berger commissioned and
gave to Ferrari team members after the 1994 season and is inscribed “Grazie
Gerhard Berger” on the caseback. The watch above was sold by a specialist
Formula 1 and motor racing memorabilia shop. I don’t know whether the F1 drivers
of today make the same gestures to their mechanics, but let’s hope so. There are
a number of TAG Heuer watches with real Formula 1 provenance (such as Senna’s
own watches and the Red TH Formula 1 worn www.jinglebelljewelry.com
by all McLaren mechanics), and the watches worn by Gerhard Berger add to that
list. There are several watch brands who like to associate themselves with F1,
but in reality do nothing more than write Bernie a cheque. TAG Heuer is
fortunate that its history with Formula 1 and leading drivers extends a lot
deeper than that.
The watch dials that the students created are
interesting, but don't really do it for me. They really seem a lot more like
design concept than something a watch maker would be serious about. The black
sliding shield over the top watch makes no sense to me. Looks like when closed
it just offers a view of one of the subdials. From a design perspective that
might be cool - but it offers nothing of practical interest. Tag Heuer just
might use some of these ideas for future watches, but I think that for Tag Heuer
to produce any of these watches will be a long shot. They might, but I am not
sold on it. Tag Heuer's intentions in this design experiment were good. I think
that ideas like this do in fact help reveal great concepts and design
directions. Though you can just give watches models to design students and hope
for them to design "the next best thing. " When it comes down to it, watch
design required repetition, skill, maturity, and lots of experience. Novice
designers who lack a foundation in watch design just might not be the best
suited to help a landmark name in the watch industry improve or modernize a
classic. Overall, I think that the new design is superior to the 2010 model,
even though it is less distinctive- a similar view to one held on the changes to
the Calibre 5 model.