TAG Heuer Celebrates Oracle Team USA Win at America’s Cup

Luxury watchmaker TAG Heuer is celebrating the victory of Oracle Team USA in the 34th America’s Cup. Oracle made headlines last week with one of the greatest comebacks in sports history.

TAG Heuer, which is an Official Partner of Oracle Team USA, offered their congratulations to the team for for its thrilling come-from-behind victory in the winner-take-all final last Wednesday.

Stéphane Linder, TAG Heuer CEO and President, said, “We are extremely proud of every member of this extraordinary crew and every component on this incredible boat. ORACLE TEAM USA showed amazing drive and guts, overcoming incredible adversity – losing boat one, getting docked two races and having to give up their star wing trimmer, but they kept their nerve, worked harder, and plowed on. And they pulled it off. It was a great and glorious moment, unprecedented in the world of competitive sailing, and we are very grateful to have been a part of it.”

Oracle came back from an 8-1 deficit to beat Emirates Team New Zealand in the best-of-17 regatta. The team was led to victory by helmsman Jimmy Spithill, 34 – the youngest skipper in America’s Cup history. Spithill, along with tactician Ben Ainslie and strategist Tom Slingsby, pushed Oracle’s AC72 to its fastest recorded speeds in the regatta, despite adverse weather.

The technology behind Oracle’s real-time tactical decision-making included onboard connectivity equipment and intelligent smartwatches co-invented by the R&D departments of TAG Heuer and ORACLE TEAM USA. According to TAG Heuer, the embedded system uses special editions of the Aquaracer 500M Calibre 72 Countdown chronograph.

Customized for each sailor’s specific tasks and wirelessly linked directly to the boat’s computers, the extremely resilient and waterproof Aquaracers (impact resistant to 5,000 G) gave the crew constantly updated information on how the boat and its sails were behaving, including boat speed, foil balance, sail pressure, true wind speed, true wind direction and true wind angle.

“This has been a great learning experience,” said Linder. “Together with ORACLE TEAM USA – a group of dedicated we’ve put together something that has the potential to change the face of competitive sailing. It’s a first for sailing and a first for Swiss watchmaking. We can’t wait to get back to the labs – and then back out on the water.”

Photos courtesy TAG Heuer and Oracle Team USA.