Zandvoort hosts its final Formula 1 weekend, and TAG Heuer has marked the moment with two limited editions of the Formula 1 Solargraph in a 38 mm case. Both run on the light powered Caliber TH50-00, wear a grey opalin dial beneath an orange TH-Polylight bezel, and carry the shields and daisy motif that have defined the collection since 1986.
One arrives on orange rubber in 1,500 pieces, the other on a sandblasted steel bracelet in 1,000. The Swiss watchmaker, led by Béatrice Goasglas, ships both from August 2026.
Those who have stood at Zandvoort knows the place delivers something television can only hint at. The wind comes in off the North Sea with real character, the dunes throw engine noise straight back at the grandstands, and the crowd sits close enough to the barriers to feel every car go past. Orange does most of the talking on both of these watches, which will delight anyone who has seen a Dutch hillside on race day.
Born in 1986
TAG Heuer has been counting laps since long before hybrid power units and pit wall telemetry. Edouard Heuer founded the brand in the Jura Mountains in 1860, and the 166 years since have gone into solving the timing problems that mattered most at the sharp end of the sport. The oscillating pinion for mechanical stopwatches arrived in 1887, the Mikrograph in 1916, and Calibre 11, the first automatic winding chronograph movement, in 1969.
Formula 1 launched as a collection in 1986 and opened up something rather wonderful. Colour, attitude and an open racing reference went into a watch built for daily wear, at a price that put it on plenty of wrists. That thinking still guides the line today, and these two sit right at the heart of it.
The dial is grey opalin, wrapped in an orange and red flange carrying a 60 second and minute scale. Colour works here as a signal rather than as decoration, guiding the eye exactly where it needs to go. Red lacquered hour and minute hands follow the shape of the 1986 design, and the hour hand in particular is a lovely nod to the original.
Applied indexes and hands are filled with eggshell Super-LumiNova, which sits cream in daylight and glows green once the sun drops. The signature shields hold their positions at six, nine and twelve o’clock, the red TAG HEUER logo prints above centre, and the date takes three o’clock. On the rubber strap version it sits in a red window, while the bracelet edition angles it.
Around the dial runs the bidirectional turning bezel with its daisy motif, cut from orange TH-Polylight. The material keeps things light and gives the fingers proper grip, and the rotation carries enough weight to remind you this is an instrument for measuring things. Flat sapphire crystal with anti-reflective treatment sits above it, the steel crown is at three o’clock, the screw-down caseback is steel, and water resistance runs to 100 metres.
60 Seconds to Power Up
Caliber TH50-00 drives both watches and feeds happily on daylight, lamplight and everything in between. Sixty seconds of direct sunlight buys a full day of running.
A complete charge takes under 40 hours of light exposure and holds up to ten months of autonomy in total darkness. Leave it resting long enough to stop and ten seconds of light brings it straight back. The accumulator carries a lifespan of up to fifteen years, putting the next battery conversation somewhere pleasantly far away.
Rubber or steel
The first edition comes on an orange rubber strap with a steel pin buckle and TAG Heuer engraving, limited to 1,500 pieces. It reads as the most direct answer to the brief, and it looks exactly right on a wrist halfway up a dune-side grandstand.
Second is an e-commerce exclusive, limited to 1,000 pieces, and arrives on a sandblasted steel three row bracelet. Its folding clasp carries double safety push-buttons and an adjustment link extension, so the fit lands where you want it. Both come in dedicated packaging with TAG Heuer Formula 1 Limited Edition printed inside.