I find that Omega is at a higher echelon than Heuer. I don't like calling them TAGs since Mansour Ojeh's company Techniques D'Avant Garde had nothing to do with timekeeping before aquiring Heuer. Mansour was, and is, an extremely wealthy man that just felt like aquiring Heuer to put under his TAG group. After purchasing it, he put TAG on the dial of the watches and chronographs. Though most products stayed the same. Which was a good thing since Heuer at the time did not believe in trends. It was a serious timepiece manufacturer that did not cater to the trendy. So TAG never screwed things up too much and since the product line did not change that much, parts replacement was always easy. Then Mansour sold out to the Moet Henessy Louis Vuitton LVMH group. But he had to let go of the TAG name as well even though Heuer was only a fraction of what TAG did. Tag even had a major stake at McLaren. But since by now, most poeple were senselessly calling Heuers by the name of TAG since they knew nothing about horology, LVMH had to keep the name. Of course, calling a Heuer a TAG is the equivalent of calling a Ferrari a FIAT. So Mansour Ojeh probably had to iron out some complex deal to clear the Techniques D'Avant Garde of its holdings. Of course the end result being that TAG, became just a name. No longer this financial powerhouse.
What is my feeling after all that. For one, Heuer no longer was the serious, un-tacky, un-trendy timekeeping instrument manufacturer it used to be. A lot of curvy, flavor-of-the-month looking quartz junk started to come out instead. Not to mention lack of parts availability for the equipment that made the Heuer name famous. I grew up owning Heuers. Pre and post Mansour Ojeh. But not post LVMH. By now, the only watches they have the I care for are the Monaco, Autavia and the Carrera. Everything else they can keep. As for the Carrera, I only care for the one withouth the TAG on the dial. That particular model is the only watch in the world that possesses the same Lemania movement as the current production Omega Speedmaster. Of course, the original Carrera had the same movement as Omega's 321, but then again, so did the Speedy. So the 861 is close enough. As for the marque itself, I think it has lost all its cachet from the enthusiast's standpoint. After all, the usual buyer today erroneously calls Heuer by TAG, even though they have no idea what TAG means, and the company does not even push its real name since they don't care. This to me shows a disregard to history by both sides, which leads me to believe that the serious Heuer people no longer shop there. Unless they need an Autavia or Carrera replica.
