I’ve always been a big fan of the perfect replica TAG Heuer Monaco watches, not just because of its connection to motorsports and entertainment history, but also because it’s refreshingly brash. On paper, it’s not a particularly big watch, but because of its square case and expanse of crystal, few watches wear as big as the Monaco. It’s always been a big style statement, and as someone with big wrists, it’s always spoken to me.
Normally, big means heavy, too. But that’s what makes the new top fake TAG Heuer Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph Air 1 watches, unveiled at Dubai Watch Week 2025, so interesting. It’s the lightest Monaco ever and one of the most complex watches the 165-year-old brand has ever produced, with TAG Heuer flexing some serious materials mastery in its construction, whilst also showing off its latest high complication.
The case
The Air 1 is immediately visually distinct from any other Monaco that’s come before it, and is probably the most futuristic buy copy TAG Heuer watches has ever made. That’s saying something, considering that earlier this year at Geneva Watch Days, we saw the very sci-fi Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon Extreme Sport TH-Carbonspring make its debut – and it’s not as if previous Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph releases have been anything but futuristic-looking.
The familiar square shape is there, sure, but it’s been pared back; filleted out; contorted. Speed holes and flying buttresses in matte and DLC titanium expose honeycomb lattices in gold flanking its crystal, while the crown tapers out like an exhaust nozzle. I know TAG Heuer works with Red Bull Racing and Porsche, but the 1:1 clone TAG Heuer Monaco watches resembles the Lamborghini: all sharp angles and aggression. Indeed, TAG say that its design was inspired by the engine covers of hypercars, so that tracks.
This unusual case construction has been achieved using a manufacturing technique called selective laser melting (SLM), which, despite what its name might imply, is actually an additive process: that is, it’s a form of 3D printing. SLM has been used to great effect in a number of different industries, from making rocket engine parts to medical implants, and (you guessed it) in Formula 1 to create race car components with complex geometries. The TAG Heuer LAB, the company’s innovation department, adapted SLM for watchmaking, which has allowed the Air 1 to have such an unusual construction.
We’ve seen a small amount of experimentation with 3D printed components in the cheap replica watches industry: Dutch brand Holthinrichs is perhaps the best-known brand making 3D printed watch cases, and MING recently released the impressive, totally 3D-printed Polymesh titanium bracelet earlier this year. However, to my knowledge, the Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph Air 1 is the most complex watch utilising 3D-printed components now on the market. The result? Despite the fact that the Air 1 utilises solid 18k 2N yellow gold components in its case (notably on the split-seconds pusher and with those aforementioned honeycomb inlays), the entire watch weighs only 85 grams.
As TAG Heuer puts it, “the effect is that the AAA fake TAG Heuer Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph Air 1 watches appears to have been hollowed out, as if designed with speed and airflow in mind, so that it looks like it could have been conceived in a wind tunnel… It delivers an exceptional weight-to-performance ratio, channelling the extremely reductive design and manufacturing processes used in the parallel world of Formula 1.”
Needless to say, it’s very light on the wrist. At 41mm in diameter, 15.2mm thick and 47.9mm lug-to-lug, like other Monacos, it cannot be accused of being a small watch. Having tried it on, however, it feels like a small watch, with a disconcertingly airy quality (hence its name, I suppose) despite its thickness. That sensation is heightened by the amount of sapphire used in its design, too, with the entire caseback formed from one large piece of sapphire crystal. Water-resistance is stated at 30m, the same as existing Monaco Split-Seconds models.
The dial
While the case of the Air 1 is fundamentally different from previous best TAG Heuer copy watches, its dial design is also shared with previous Monaco Split-Seconds models: an open design with two arching structures upon which the 3 and 9 o’clock subdials sit providing the majority of the visual intrigue with the minute track atop a sapphire sub-layer. It’s appropriately airy, and while not truly skeletonised, it feels high-tech.
It’s a largely monochromatic look, too, with highlights in gold lacquer complementing the gold elements in its case and contrasting with exposed titanium and rhodium-plated elements, such as the hands. It’s somewhat hard to see in photographs, but the squares of lume on the hour markers are actually small blocks of applied Super-LumiNova.
The strap
A hybrid black rubber and Alcantara strap affixes the Air 1 to one’s wrist, with a honeycomb lattice pattern making an appearance again on the underside of the strap. Rubber and Alcantara are commonly encountered materials in the cockpit of a high-end sports car, so it’s very fitting. A customary black DLC titanium butterfly folding clasp keeps things together.
The movement
Powering the best-selling clone TAG Heuer Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph Air 1 watches is the calibre TH81-00, TAG Heuer’s first mechanical split-seconds chronograph movement, which was co-developed with respected high-end movement maker Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier. The TH81-00 is also the lightest TAG Heuer movement ever, weighing just 30 grams on account of its predominantly titanium construction.
A relatively robust rattrapante movement, it offers an impressive 65-hour power reserve with the chronograph function off and 55 hours with it on. It sports the now-signature chequered flag finish we’ve come to expect from high-end TAGs, as well as a unique rotor with that honeycomb pattern appearing along its edge in gold lacquer.
The verdict
Just when we thought high quality replica TAG Heuer watches had nothing left in the tank for 2025, they’ve gone and hit us with one of their lightest and most innovative watches ever… Bloody hell. In almost every sense, this is a Monaco on steroids; even more of a statement than your average Monaco, even more motorsports-inspired… Except steroids is perhaps the wrong word, because rather than bulking up, it’s lost weight! Forget Colin Chapman’s “simplify, then add lightness”: TAG has complicated, and then added lightness! I’m just curious to see where TAG (and perhaps its LVMH stablemates) go next with SLM in watchmaking…
TAG Heuer Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph Air 1 pricing and availability
The AAA fake TAG Heuer Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph Air 1 watches is a limited edition of 30 individually numbered pieces, and will be available from December 2025 at TAG Heuer retailers. Price: CHF 150,000