The Monaco is probably the most iconic watch produced TAG Heuer. The watch is not only renowned for its square case but is famous for having been worn by Steen McQueen during the shooting in 1971 of the movie “Le Mans”, depicting a fictional 24 Hours of Le Mans sport car race.

The modern TAG Heuer Monaco watch has a 39 x 39 mm square case with e 15 mm height. In fact the case is not exactly square, the right and left flanks are slightly curved. The Monaco case has a 47.8 mm lug-to-lug separation, which is quite short, but square cases always look larger on the wrist than the dimensions suggest. No exception with the Monaco, the watch looks massive and quite bulky. The watch can sit on a 16 cm diameter wrist, but I recommend it for larger wrist.

The stainless steel bezel has a vertically satin-brushed finish. The bevel of the case and the top surface of the lugs are polished. The flanks of the case are satin-brushed.

The TAG Heuer may seem to adopts a compax design, or two-register layout, at first glance, with a black counter 30min-subdial at 3 o'clock and an second black counter 12h-subdial at 9 o'clock. This is not exactly the case as a quite hidden running second feature is located at 6 o'clock on the main dial. The vintage Monaco didn't have this feature. So that is the clever trick TAG Heuer used to incorporate the running second feature in the Monaco dial without affecting iconic the Monaco vintage layout. The "fake" two-register layout is visually rendered by the black subdial inlaying, whereas the running second is not located in an inlaid subdial and is laying on the main green dial. The different depth of the inlaid square subdials as well as their matt black color create the illusion that there are the only two registers on the green dial.

The TAG Heuer Monaco usually adopts a racing or blue color scheme. This new model comes with an unexpected but beautiful sunbust fumé green dial. This is not a flashy green like the Rolex Submariner Hulk or the IWC Pilot Watch Chronograph Racing Green Edition can have. The green color of the Monaco is more subtle, it fact the dial looks most of the time dark with little green color, similar to the look of a Jet 27 in fact. In contrast the two counter square subdial are matt black.

The round minute track is sprinted in white color on the green dial. The hour positions are highlighted by luminescent spots on the minute track. Additional applied hour faceted markers are located outside the minute track, except at 12 o'clock where the marker is inside the track. The hour and minute tracks of the black subdials are also printed in white color on their titled border. No second track around the running hand but a vertical and horizontal white line instead.

"MONACO" and "TAG HEUER" shield are printed in white color on the green dial below the 12 o'clock index. "AUTOMATIC" is printed in white color below the main hand axis.

The silver hour and minute main hands adopt a pen shape. Their apex is white and they are filled with luminescent material. The counter central second hand, and the two subdial hands are white. In contrast the running second hand is silver.

A date window is inserted in green dial between the 6 o'clock hour dot on the minute track and the running second.. The date is printed in white color on a black background. The date window is well integrated in the dial and is thus not too intrusive. The crown of the new Monaco is now located on the right side of the case. The crown is signed but it is not a screw-down crown. The water resistance is nevertheless 100 M, but this is not the kind of watch I would take under water to check if this claim is correct.

The watch is powered by the automatic in-house caliber 02, which is a column-wheel chronograph caliber with vertical clutch. This caliber has a 80 hour power reserve, which is at the top of actual standard.

The TAG Heuer caliber can be seen through the transparent sapphire crystal of the case back. "CAL. HEUER 02" and "SWISS MADE" are printed in green color on the skeletonized black rotor. The movement bridges are decorated with "Côtes de Genève" motifs and the "TAG HEUER" shield is also engraved. "TAG HEUER", "MONACO", "SWISS MADE SINCE 1860", "100 METERS" are engraved on the metal part of the caseback.

The watch comes on a black alligator leather strap with a stainless steel signed double-trigger deployant clasp.

The TAG Heuer Monaco is an iconic but also a polarizing watch. It has a unique style but it is big and chunky. Some loves it, so hates it. Nevertheless this is not a watch for small wrists. Otherwise I have to saw I really like the green-black color scheme of the watch. This is very different from the enormous bunch of green watched recently released. I don't consider this Monaco to be a green watch but a black watch with subtle green glints. It reminds me of a bottle of Jet 27. I also appreciate TAG Heuer painted in column-wheel in green instead of the usual red color. That makes the watch even more special. Only 500 pieces will be produced, so the watch will not be easily availabel at your AD. I think that is the right move from TAG Heueur to keep this watch as a limited edition. As I said, this is not a watch for everyone, but when people will realise how pretty is this watch it will be too late and it will become a piece for true collectors.