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Every Kith x Tag Heuer Formula 1 Watch, Ranked
Ten watches, all top gear. But which deserves championship title?
One thing to know about Ronnie Fieg, founder of streetwear 'lifestyle' store Kith: he's always working on a collaboration.
You might say he's the King of Collabs, since the NYC-born fashion mogul has worked with a multitude of brands and intellectual properties from a range of sectors. Some examples: Versace, Adidas, Star Wars, Peanuts, Columbia, BMW, G-Shock, Levi's, Aaliyah estate, X-Men.
That last one – a partnership with Marvel's mutants – was super personal; upon the launch of his Asics sneakers (it was a tripartite project) inspired by Wolverine and the team, Fieg broadcasted that he had grown up collecting Uncanny X-Men trading cards.
Kith's latest collab – a project with Swiss watch marque Tag Heuer – also roots back to his childhood.
“The Formula 1 was the first watch I ever owned,” Fieg recently told Esquire. “My mom [...] bought it for me for my 13th birthday.”
Formula 1 = Tag's affordable, toy-like quartz model loosely inspired by the world of motor racing. (Both Tag and Heuer – two separate entities before Techniques d’Avant Garde acquired Heuer from the Piaget family in the mid-eighties – had their own rapport with the racing world.)
So... Tag's answer to the Omega x Swatch collab, then? Yes and no.
No because the Formula 1 line pre-dates that The Swatch Group alliance by about 36 years. Yes because that's certainly the reason it's back – the luxury label has patently spotted the sudden demand for fun entry-level watches, and so, has decided to shift gears by reversing in time.
And what better way to rev things up than to call on Kith to jump-start the revival? After all, the brand/retailer has proven time and time again that it can get its cult following on board with brands that exist outside the streetwear sphere.
But what about the watch lot?
According to Julien Tornare, CEO of Tag Heuer, “The rebirth of the original TAG Heuer Formula 1 watch is something the collector community has been clamouring after for years”.
Further down the press release, he says: “It is one of the most meaningful pieces in TAG Heuer’s history. The first to wear the TAG Heuer name, it introduced a generation of collectors to our commitment to making premium timepieces at the intersection of culture and motorsports.”
Said watch enthusiasts will revel in the fact that the 35mm watches are formed from the same mould used to make the OGs. They are also sure to appreciate the improvements that have been made – namely, a plastic crystal is swapped out for sapphire and the strap is now made of rubber as opposed to plastic, unless it's made of stainless steel like the nineties models. Not to mention this little flex: the Kith x Tag Heuer F1 collection marks the first time that Tag has reworked its iconic badge to feature another brand's name.
Considering there are only a few hundred of each up for grabs – available in select Kith and Tag stores, as well as on the Kith app via raffles – we'd all be very lucky to get our hands on any one of the ten colourways. Thankfully, there are no car crashes – nothing you really need to steer clear of.
But say you were to tell us that you've been given complete freedom to pick from any of the Kith F1s (perhaps you're a friend of Fieg), we'd plead you to hook us up with one before ushering you towards our ranking below, from Nice Enough to Need Right Now.
Joseph Furness is the Assistant Editor of Esquire, covering menswear and grooming. Joseph has previously written for the likes of British GQ, Mr Porter, Highsnobiety, Footwear News and Farfetch.
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