The luxury Swiss sports watch leader, already onboard with 34th America’s Cup defender ORACLE TEAM USA in the main sailing event, partners with Swiss national team in first-ever Red Bull Youth America’s Cup
Swiss watchmaking legend TAG Heuer, the Official Partner of ORACLE TEAM USA, the 34th America’s Cup defender at this year’s 34th America’s Cup, will join the young Swiss sailors of TEAM TILT in their bid to win the newest addition to the world’s most prestigious sailing season: the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup.
The Red Bull Youth America’s Cup is scheduled for August/September 2013, in San Francisco, during the peak moment of the America’s Cup racing season. The final will be held a week before the Cup itself. Ten national teams of six sailors, aged 19 to 24, will participate in the race, on the same platform of wing-sailed AC45 catamarans used throughout 2011 and 2012 in the America’s Cup World Series events.
“It’s the perfect match–a Swiss brand and a Swiss team, working side by side at the highest level of competitive sailing,” said TAG Heuer President and CEO Jean-Christophe Babin. “We are very proud and excited to be partnered with this next generation of racing talent. TAG Heuer and Team Tilt are driven by the same values: high-tech, precision, tradition and 100% passion for competition. We hope that this exciting experience will stimulate future Swiss projects. We would be very proud, for example, to be associated with a Swiss bid for the 35th America’s Cup.”
Led by project leader Alex Schneiter and skipper Lucien Cujean, TEAM TILT is already actively training onboard Décision 35 monotype catamarans on Lake Geneva. They will be competing on the lake, starting in May 2013.
“This is a huge boost,” said Schneiter. “TAG Heuer has been intensely involved in America’s Cup since the 1960s, and they’ve been creating sailing and yachting timepieces since the 1930s. Having them onboard is an honor, and it’s going to seriously improve Switzerland’s chances of bringing home the Cup.”
TAG Heuer will provide technical support during TEAM TILT’s America’s Youth Cup bid, along with special TAG Heuer eyewear and chronographs, including the brand’s new AQUARACER 500M Calibre 72. The watch, a regatta countdown version of the iconic Aquaracer 500M (‘72’ refers to the foot-length of the America’s Cup catamarans) celebrates two benchmarks in TAG Heuer’s on-going commitment to professional aquatic sports: the Aquaracer’s three decades at the luxury helm of sailing excellence, and the brand’s Official Partnership with ORACLE TEAM USA in the 34th America’s Cup.
TAG HEUER — Since 1860 — Founded in Saint-Imier in 1860 by Edouard Heuer, TAG Heuer has marked the history of luxury watchmaking, especially in the fields of chronographs and ultimate precision. A legend in prestige Swiss watchmaking and one of its most innovative brands, TAG Heuer has built on its active commitment in the sports world to create the most accurate timing instruments and wrist timepieces in the world. TAG Heuer is the world leader in high precision luxury chronographs with an unequalled mechanical accuracy of 1/10th, 1/100th, 1/1000th and even 5/10,000th of a second. In 2012, thanks to the lessons learned through these achievements, TAG Heuer won the world’s most coveted watchmaking award, the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix «Aiguille d’Or». From the Olympic Games in 1920 to its role as official watch and chronograph for the legendary Indy 500 race today–for which it has developed instruments with a precision of 1/10,000th of a second–TAG Heuer is unrelenting in its quest for innovation, excellence, performance and prestige. This ambition is reflected in its partnerships with F1 Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team and its World Champion Jenson Button, with Audi Sport in the Le Mans 24 Hours and endurance races, and with the Automobile Club of Monaco for the prestigious Monaco Grand Prix. TAG Heuer is also a partner of Oracle Racing, the 34th America’s Cup defender and winner of the America’s Cup World Series 2012-2013. More than ever, the brand epitomizes prestige and performance through active and socially responsible partnerships with actress Cameron Diaz, actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Shah Rukh Khan and Chen DaoMing, and WTA tennis champion Maria Sharapova. Today, TAG Heuer develops and manufactures its own movement, the Calibre 1887, a chronograph with an oscillating pinion invented by Heuer in 1887. It also produces the Monaco V4, a movement driven by belts, the Carrera Mikrograph, accurate to 1/100th of a second, and the Carrera MikrotourbillonS, a stunning double tourbillon on a 50Hz movement developed on the Mikrograph platform. This exceptional level of watchmaking excellence has earned the company membership in the most exclusive circle of the Swiss watchmaking elite, the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH).