Fake Watches TAG Heuer Superdiver with Kenissi caliber TH30-00

While the mechanical fake watches TAG Heuer chronographs are almost exclusively equipped with the in-house Heuer 02 caliber,

the Swiss luxury watch manufacturer’s three-hand models are primarily off-the-shelf products from Sellita or ETA – more or less “camouflaged”, for example under the name Caliber 5 in the Aquaracer, Autavia or the three-hand Carreras models. On the one hand, the use of standard calibers ensured that three-hand models from fake watches TAG Heuer are still reasonably affordable. On the other hand, off-the-shelf goods don’t quite do justice to TAG Heuer’s image.

And TAG Heuer knows that too, which is why the manufacturer, which belongs to the LVMH Group, heralded a change of course at Watches & Wonders 2022: In the new TAG Heuer Aquaracer Superdiver, the new caliber TH30-00 ticks for the first time with a significantly increased 70-hour power reserve (for comparison: Standard caliber SW200 from Sellita = 38 hours), a stable balance bridge, chronometer certificate from the COSC and a significantly extended maintenance interval of 10 years.

Wait a minute – the numbers look familiar to a watch lover, don’t they? And indeed: TAG Heuer is cooperating for the first time with Kenissi SA,

which is backed by prominent names: Rolex, Tudor and Chanel.

A few years ago, Tudor spun off watch movement production to Kenissi SA and brought Chanel on board as a shareholder in order to put a lot of horsepower on the road and create a counterpoint to the powerful market players Sellita and Swatch Group/ETA. After all, Chanel spent 20 million francs for 20% of the shares. This financed, among other things, a brand new, 150 meter long factory in Le Locle. Chief of Kenissi is a household name: Jean-Paul Girardin, former vice president of Breitling. Kenissi’s customer base is now quite prominent: In addition to (logically) Tudor and Chanel, Fortis (see Fortis Flieger), NORQAIN and Breitling (Caliber B20) rely on Kenissi calibers – and now TAG Heuer too.

Now, of course, one can critically question why a heavyweight like fake watches TAG Heuer (part of the LVMH group; in the top 10 Swiss watch brands with a turnover of CHF 682) does not manage to develop a “simple” three-hand manufacture caliber in-house . After all, it also worked with the chronograph calibers with an in-house development in the form of the caliber Heuer 02.

Apparently, TAG Heuer has had good experiences with cooperation: Before TAG Heuer used the Heuer 02 in its chronographs,

the Swiss used the Heuer 01 – although it was produced in Switzerland, the construction is essentially based on the Japanese Seiko 6S37 chronograph movement (also known as the Seiko TC78). In other words, TAG Heuer recreates the 6S37 based on a purchased license and simply names it differently. I’ve had good long-term experience with the Heuer 01 myself, so who am I to condemn this strategy?

Incidentally, TAG Heuer is also relying on a cooperation for the Solar Aquaracer launched in 2022: the TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 200 Solargraph with caliber TH50-00 is also based on Japanese technology:

the solar module is owned by La Joux-Perret, a Swiss movement specialist by the Japanese company Citizen, based on the well-known “Eco Drive” solar technology.

The Isograph project may also have played a role: Various research projects were pushed ahead at the TAG Heuer Research Institute,

which was founded in 2018 – one fundamentally exciting development, for example, was the spiral spring made of carbon composite material. The crux of the matter: as it became known in an interview, there were problems in series production. Therefore, the fake watches TAG Heuer Autavia three-hand version was relaunched at the beginning of 2020 – but without a carbon spiral spring. Since then: radio silence. The project seems to have failed (for the time being?), but it has certainly devoured one or two million dollars that are now missing elsewhere (e.g. for the development of an in-house three-hand caliber).

But back to the cooperation between TAG Heuer and Kenissi: Various magazines like to argue that it’s really great that TAG Heuer doesn’t want to reinvent the wheel, but instead relies on the tried and tested through the cooperation with Kenissi – so TAG Heuer ultimately saves the high ones Investments, which also benefits the customer, who would indirectly support these investments when he buys a watch.

Yes! Basically I see it the same way. Unfortunately, you don’t actually notice anything: the Kenissi cooperation entry-level model TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 1000 Superdiver WBP5A8A.BF0619 with the TH30-00 is anything but a snapper at €6300 – titanium case and 1000 meters water resistance (which almost nobody needs anyway ) or not. For comparison: The Tudor Pelagos, which also has the Kenissi caliber with a 70-hour power reserve and titanium case/strap on board, is almost €2000 cheaper.

In view of the self-confident price,

in my opinion it doesn’t help that fake watches TAG Heuer emphasizes that (how could it be otherwise) the TH30-00 is exclusively manufactured by Kenissi for TAG Heuer. Because one can confidently assume that the basic construction of the TH30-00 largely corresponds to the Tudor caliber series MT5000 (e.g. caliber MT5612).

The official TAG Heuer newsletter states: “With a new manufacture movement that is COSC-certified and produced exclusively for TAG Heuer by Kenissi Manufacture,

it is a certified chronometer, as indicated on the watch dial. This new movement project represents an important milestone for TAG Heuer in term of reliability and quality.”

In short, TAG Heuer’s change of strategy to work with Kenissi on the three-hand calibers is understandable and makes sense in principle – the Aquaracer model series will be significantly upgraded. From the end customer’s point of view, however, one can only sincerely hope that fake watches TAG Heuer does not overly strain the cooperation or the charisma of the cooperation partner Rolex/Tudor or use it as a lever to ask for unrealistically high prices…

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