The 1980s and 1990s were an era when quartz-powered and digital timepieces were all the rage, while traditional Swiss mechanical replica watches were largely in hibernation, and as a result, watch design milestones were not as abundant as they were in the 1960s and 1970s. However, there have always been exceptions to this rule, one of which was TAG Heuer’s sporty model released in 1987: the TAG Heuer S/El, which evolved in 1999 into its better-known and more popular incarnation, the TAG Heuer Link.
In 2001, TAG Heuer, based in the Swiss watchmaking center of La Chaux-de-Fonds, was acquired by the Luxembourg holding company Techniques d’Avant Garde, which became the company we know today as TAG Heuer, and only a few years later, TAG Heuer launched S/El, an acronym for “Sports Elegance”. S/El is “Sport for “Sports Elegance”, the Swiss watchmaker’s new generation of flagship products under new ownership, designed to embody the six sporty characteristics of TAG Heuer products in the 1990s. These included 200m water resistance, a screw-down crown, a double safety clasp bracelet, a unidirectional rotating bezel, a sapphire crystal, and luminous details. Various incarnations of the S/El, including most quartz models, some digital models, and some automatic models, became TAG Heuer’s best-selling fake watches of the time.
Designed by prolific watch designer Eddie Schopfer, who also designed the TAG Heuer 2000 collection and created many popular models for TAG Heuer and other brands, the S/El is known for its unconventional and instantly recognizable bracelet, which consists of interlocking double “S” links, each consisting of two curved links integrated into the case steel spindles. In essence, TAG Heuer created the first watch that was instantly recognizable, not necessarily by its dial design or case shape, but by its individual bracelet links.
In 1999, when the renaissance of mechanical copy watches was just beginning, TAG Heuer revisited the S/El, renaming it “Link” to reflect the key features of the collection and making some small but important aesthetic changes. The rounded pebble-like edges of the case and bracelet links were slightly smoothed, the “Mercedes” hands of the S/El were replaced by sword-shaped hands, oversized Arabic numerals were added at 12, 6, and 9 o’clock, and baton hour markers replaced the round luminous ones of the rest of the collection. 2001 saw the launch of the Link collection, which was the first time TAG Heuer, the last new product before it was acquired by the luxury group LVMH, and the old model that replaced Carrera and Monaco as the brand’s main sports line at the end of the 20th century.
