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- TAG Heuer has unveiled the Formula 1 Chronograph x Gulf, a 1,000-piece limited edition.
- The 44mm automatic chronograph features Gulf’s blue and orange racing livery, a black DLC-coated titanium case, forged carbon bezel and Calibre 16 movement.
- The watch continues TAG Heuer and Gulf’s motorsport story, which runs through Le Mans, Steve McQueen, the Heuer Monaco and the brands’ official partnership since 2018.
- Online sales begin 3 July 2026 at 5pm AEST, priced at A$9,500.
If you’re like me, there’s a good chance you recognised the Gulf colours before you could explain why. Powder blue, orange stripe, some half-formed thought of James May explaining motorsport history. That’s the memory TAG Heuer is tapping into with its new Formula 1 Chronograph x Gulf.
The latest limited-edition watch takes one of motorsport‘s most familiar colour schemes and puts it into a 44mm automatic chronograph with a black DLC-coated titanium case, forged carbon bezel and a Calibre 16 movement. Honestly, it sounds just as complicated and rare as the race cars it’s inspired by. It’s limited to 1,000 pieces worldwide and will set you back AUD$9,500 in Australia, which is not outrageous by limited-edition luxury chronograph standards.
But there’s a reason this watch is worth more than a straight spec-sheet preview. It’s the branding on the dial. For the uninitiated, seeing Gulf Oil and TAG Heuer side by side might seem misplaced. Until you remember how much watch culture still runs on the mythology that Gulf Oil helped build in motorsport.
In this case, the trail runs through Le Mans, Steve McQueen, the Heuer Monaco and a TAG Heuer x Gulf partnership that has now found its way onto the Formula 1 collection.
What You Actually Get With the TAG Formula 1 Chronograph x Gulf
The new Formula 1 Chronograph x Gulf is not exactly subtle. At 44mm, it looks like it wants the whole podium to itself, with a sandblasted grade 2 titanium case, black DLC coating and a fixed forged carbon tachymeter bezel. In other words, TAG Heuer hasn’t made a delicate heritage watch. This is bigger, darker and far more technical than the Monaco Gulf pieces that came before.
Across the black opalin dial, Gulf’s blue and orange racing stripes run vertically through the face. There are three chronograph counters, applied indexes, a date window, a blue lacquered track around the outside and enough orange accents to make the whole thing feel more like a full livery than a dial detail. It’s a busy dial, no question, but that’s also half the fun. If you’re going to use the Gulf colours for a modern Formula 1 chronograph, you may as well turn them all the way up.
Inside, the Formula 1 Chronograph x Gulf runs on TAG Heuer’s Calibre 16 automatic chronograph movement, with a 48-hour power reserve. You also get a 30-minute counter, 12-hour counter, permanent seconds, date window and 200 metres of water resistance. Very serious watch specs for something that, at first glance, is mostly trying to remind you of an old race car.
The watch is limited to 1,000 pieces worldwide and is priced at AUD$9,500 in Australia. Online sales begin 3 July 2026 at 5pm AEST.
Why Is Gulf Oil on a TAG Heuer Watch?
Gulf Oil’s partnership with TAG Heuer might feel like just a petrol-station logo slapped on a luxury watch dial, but it all comes down to motorsport. More specifically, endurance racing, where Gulf’s powder blue and orange livery became one of those rare colour schemes that could make a car famous before it had even crossed the line.
The Ford GT40 and Porsche 917 did a lot of that work. Both helped turn Gulf colours into part of Le Mans mythology. But the TAG Heuer connection clicked into place way back in 1971.
That was the year Steve McQueen wore a Heuer Monaco in Le Mans while driving a Porsche 917K in Gulf colours. It didn’t take long for watch nerds, racing fans and film obsessives to turn a single image into a legacy that has been running for more than 50 years.
That’s why the Gulf stripes on this Formula 1 Chronograph aren’t random decoration. You don’t need to have sat through an entire 24 Hours of Le Mans to recognise the colour story. The blue and orange already carry enough racing, film and watch history to make the branding feel earned.
The TAG Heuer x Gulf Blue and Orange is More Than Just a Colourway
You don’t need to know every lap of Gulf’s racing history to understand the appeal here. Your brain already recognises the colours, but when you follow those iconic racing stripes back through Le Mans, McQueen and TAG Heuer’s long-running obsession with timing things that move quickly, the Formula 1 Chronograph x Gulf starts to make a lot more sense.
The colours most definitely belong here. The question now is whether the watch around them does the same.
The Latest Watch in the TAG Heuer x Gulf Series
The official TAG Heuer x Gulf partnership didn’t technically begin with Steve McQueen, even if the cultural connection did. TAG Heuer dates the formal partnership back to 2018, when the two brands launched a special-edition Monaco Gulf at Baselworld. That watch used the square steel Monaco case, with the blue and orange colours tied to the 50th anniversary of Gulf’s first victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
In 2022, TAG Heuer went back to the same well with another Monaco Gulf, this time using the in-house Heuer 02 movement. If any watch in the TAG Heuer catalogue owns the Gulf story, it’s the Monaco. The shape, the film reference, the McQueen connection and the Porsche 917K all point in the same direction.
With the new Formula 1 Chronograph x Gulf, TAG Heuer shifts gears, translating the story into a more modern package. It’s still trading on the same blue-and-orange mythology, but the shape is larger, tougher and more aggressive than the Monaco. Instead of a square-cased movie watch, you get a 44mm titanium chronograph with black DLC, forged carbon and 200m of water resistance.
That gives this latest Gulf watch a different job: carrying the old racing colours into something more current, tougher and harder-edged for 2026.
Key Details: TAG Heuer Formula 1 Chronograph x Gulf
- Reference: CBZ208B.BF0009
- Case: 44mm black DLC-coated grade 2 titanium
- Bezel: Fixed forged carbon tachymeter bezel
- Dial: Black opalin dial with Gulf blue and orange racing stripes
- Movement: Calibre 16 automatic chronograph
- Power reserve: 48 hours
- Water resistance: 200 metres
- Limit: 1,000 pieces worldwide
- Price: A$9,500
- Australian release: Online sales from 3 July 2026 at 5pm AEST
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