FLOAT 100 · Watches · No. 89

TAG Heuer Monaco

Heuer gave up on its square chronograph in the mid-1970s; a generation later the company brought it back as a 5,000-piece reissue, and fifty years after the original it finally gave the Monaco a movement of its own.

Year: Current production (ref. CBL2111-series)
Maker: TAG Heuer
By price in watches: 87 of 100

Market asking price, not a sale · Oct 4, 2026$8,300This is not a sale. It is an asking price, and no transaction is recorded at this figure.

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Maker: TAG Heuer, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland
Reference: CBL2111 (e.g. CBL2111.FC6453 on blue alligator strap)
Introduced: 2019, closing the Monaco's 50th-anniversary year
Movement: In-house automatic Calibre Heuer 02: column wheel, vertical clutch, 33 jewels, 28,800 vph, 80-hour power reserve
Case: Square stainless steel, 39 mm x 39 mm, 15.1 mm thick; sapphire front and back; 100 m water resistance
Dial: Blue sunray-brushed, silver opaline 30-minute and 12-hour counters, small seconds at six
Crown: At 3 o'clock, unlike the left-crown McQueen-style Calibre 11 model
Launch price: $5,950 (EUR 5,400, CHF 5,800)
Ancestor: Heuer Monaco ref. 1133, launched March 3, 1969, worn by Steve McQueen in Le Mans (1971)

The square that came back

The Monaco began on March 3, 1969, when Heuer introduced the reference 1133B with the Chronomatic Caliber 11, one of the first automatic chronograph movements, developed with Breitling, Hamilton-Buren and Dubois Dépraz. Its water-resistant square case, made with the case maker Erwin Piquerez, was a first for the industry. Steve McQueen wore one in the 1971 film Le Mans.

The original was not a commercial success, and Heuer stopped making it by the mid-1970s, around 1974 to 1975. In 1985 the TAG Group (Techniques d'Avant-Garde) took a majority stake in Heuer, creating TAG Heuer, and the company began to mine its back catalog.

In 1998 the Monaco returned as the reference CS2110, with a 'Heuer'-only flat black dial and an outsourced automatic movement, an ETA 2894 with a Dubois-Dépraz module, limited to 5,000 pieces. It sold well enough that TAG Heuer followed it in 1999 with the CS2111, which had a tri-compax layout and recessed sub-dials.

Twenty years of borrowed movements

The modern classic Monaco took shape in 2003 with the reference CW2113, the first Monaco made under LVMH ownership. It was the first truly square 39 mm x 39 mm case (the 1998 and 1999 models measured 40 mm by 38 mm), the first to carry the TAG Heuer logo, and it brought back the blue dial. Inside was again a modular ETA 2894-2.

In 2009 that watch became the CAW2111, with the Calibre 12, a sapphire caseback and 100 m water resistance. The same year TAG Heuer marked the 40th anniversary with the CAW211A, limited to 1,000 pieces. Alongside it, the company kept a vintage-styled Calibre 11 Monaco, the McQueen-inspired model with a matte blue dial, horizontal markers and its crown on the left, such as the reference CAW211P; by 2022 that Calibre 11 model was described as running on a modified Sellita SW300.

For more than two decades, then, the modern Monaco ran on outsourced, modular chronograph movements. TAG Heuer's own integrated chronograph, the Calibre Heuer 02, first appeared in 2017 in the Autavia and then spread to the Carrera.

2019: fifty years, and a manufacture movement

TAG Heuer spent 2019 celebrating the Monaco's 50th anniversary with a series of limited editions, one for each decade of the watch's life. It closed the year by changing the regular-production watch: the blue-dial, crown-at-three Monaco Calibre 12 was replaced by the Monaco Heuer 02, reference CBL2111.FC6453, priced at EUR 5,400, CHF 5,800 or $5,950. The discontinued Calibre 12 model had cost EUR 4,900.

Elsewhere that year, scientists published the first image of a black hole, Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris burned, and the last Volkswagen Beetle rolled off the line in Mexico, another design icon from the same era as the original Monaco reaching the end of its first life.

What changed and how to spot it

From a distance the CBL2111 looks like the Calibre 12 model it replaced: the same 39 mm square case with a vertically brushed bezel, polished lug tops, a chamfered sapphire crystal and 100 m water resistance. The differences are in the dial. The new movement made it a tri-compax watch: the two white sub-dials now record elapsed minutes and hours, and a small seconds hand, marked only with a crosshair, sits at six o'clock, sweeping across the date window once a minute. The 'Automatic' text moved up between the two registers.

The Calibre Heuer 02 is an integrated automatic chronograph with a column wheel and vertical clutch, 33 jewels, a 31 mm diameter, a frequency of 28,800 vibrations per hour and an 80-hour power reserve, nearly double the original 42 hours. It can time intervals up to 12 hours rather than 30 minutes, and it is visible through a sapphire caseback with a red column wheel and black rotor.

One magazine test found the watch gained just 2 to 3 seconds a day, but noted that the 15.1 mm height and square shape made it less comfortable than it could be, and that the unidirectional rotor was audible. It listed the price at $6,150, the same as the left-crown Calibre 11 model at the time.

Where it sits today

The CBL2111 is the everyday modern Monaco, distinct from the McQueen-style Calibre 11 model that keeps the crown on the left and from the many limited editions in other colors and materials. On October 3, 2026, a U.S. jeweler listed the CBL2111.FC6453 at $8,300.

Its value comes from the same place as the 1969 original: the shape. The vintage 1133B worn by McQueen in Le Mans has sold at auction for as much as $2,208,000, and that story is what TAG Heuer is selling every time it makes another square blue chronograph.

The numbers

Reference: CBL2111 (FC6453 strap; other strap and bracelet suffixes exist)
Caliber: Calibre Heuer 02, automatic, column wheel, vertical clutch, 33 jewels, 31 mm, 6.95 mm high
Frequency / reserve: 28,800 vph / 80 hours
Case: Stainless steel, 39 mm x 39 mm, 15.1 mm, 122 g, sapphire caseback with 4 screws
Water resistance: 100 m
Production: Regular production since 2019

Timeline

Mar 3, 1969
Heuer launches the Monaco 1133B with the automatic Chronomatic Caliber 11.
Jun 23, 1971
Le Mans, with Steve McQueen wearing the Monaco, is released in the United States.
1975
Production of the original Monaco ends around 1974 to 1975.
1985
The TAG Group takes a majority stake in Heuer, forming TAG Heuer.
1998
The Monaco returns as the CS2110, limited to 5,000 pieces.
1999
The CS2111 follows with a tri-compax dial.
2003
The CW2113 introduces the 39 mm x 39 mm case, the TAG Heuer logo and the blue dial, the first Monaco under LVMH.
2009
The Calibre 12 CAW2111 arrives; the 40th-anniversary CAW211A is limited to 1,000 pieces.
2017
TAG Heuer's in-house Calibre Heuer 02 debuts in the Autavia.
2019
Fiftieth-anniversary limited editions, one for each decade of the Monaco.
Nov 2019
The Monaco Heuer 02, ref. CBL2111.FC6453, replaces the Calibre 12 model at $5,950.
Feb 11, 2022
A magazine test lists the Monaco Calibre Heuer 02 at $6,150.

The world in 2019

Apr 10, 2019
The Event Horizon Telescope project releases the first image of a black hole.
Apr 15, 2019
Fire destroys the roof and spire of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.
Jul 7, 2019
The United States wins the FIFA Women's World Cup in France.
Jul 10, 2019
The last Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the line in Puebla, Mexico.
Jul 24, 2019
Boris Johnson becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Sep 20, 2019
An international youth-led climate strike is held ahead of the UN Climate Summit.

Price record

$1,000$10,000

Date	Price	Kind
Nov 2019	$5,950	Asking price, not a saleManufacturer list price at launch for the Monaco Heuer 02, ref. CBL2111.FC6453 (EUR 5,400, CHF 5,800).
Feb 11, 2022	$6,150	Asking price, not a saleList price for the Monaco Calibre Heuer 02, ref. CBL2111.FC6453, as stated in a magazine test.
Oct 3, 2026	$8,300	Asking price, not a saleNew CBL2111.FC6453 on blue alligator strap, listed by a U.S. jeweler.

This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.

By reference price, TAG Heuer Monaco is number 87 of 100 in the watches entries of the FLOAT 100. 54 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (89 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

For more than 20 years after its 1998 return, the Monaco ran on outsourced modular movements.
The first modern Monaco, the 1998 CS2110, said only 'Heuer' on the dial and was limited to 5,000 pieces.
The 1998 and 1999 reissues were not quite square: they measured 40 mm by 38 mm.
On the Heuer 02 Monaco, the small seconds hand sweeps across the date window every minute.
TAG stands for Techniques d'Avant-Garde, the group that bought into Heuer in 1985.
The Heuer 02 runs for up to 80 hours, enough to take the watch off on Friday and put it back on Monday.

How this page is made

The figure: One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
Realized or not: A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
The story: Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 3, 2026.
Archive: Oct 5, 2026