Fifty-five years after the launch of the TAG Heuer Monaco, the brand decided to shake things up. And it lies in the keyword: "rattrapante" (French for "catch up"). It's a chronograph movement that's difficult to manufacture. TAG Heuer's repute is built upon its split-seconds rattrapante function during the early days of motorsports. It is this complication that would lead to some of TAG Heuer's best chronograph mechanisms like its newly announced Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph.

In the early days of motorsports, TAG Heuer was hard at work in mastering the split-seconds. Introduced in 1916, its Mikrograph was the preferred timekeeping device with a recording down to 1/100th of a second. Then came the Microsplit, another rattrapante also accurate to 1/100th of a second. The iconic 11.402 model would arrive later, this time capable of measuring time with 1/10th of a second accuracy.

The 11.402 model was Jean Campiche of Scuderia Ferrari fame and then in 1989, TAG Heuer gave us a quartz split-seconds chronograph wristwatch that was popular among racing legends like Ayrton Senna, Gerhard Berger and Michael Schumacher.

This brings us to the split-seconds chronograph: TAG Heuer's Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph.

The distinctive square-shape dial, the split-seconds innovation... it's a match-up that's a long time coming. Constructed from lightweight grade-5 titanium and sapphire crystal, you can peer through the domed sapphire crystal to see its inner workings. Within the Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph is the TH81-00 calibre, that's developed with Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier. Not only is this a precision in timekeeping, it's also one of the lightest chronograph movements ever crafted by TAG Heuer. It comes in two colourways: a racing red or classic Monaco-blue.

The price tag for this is (does a spit-take) a whooping USD138,000 but with a complication like a split-seconds movement, it may be worth every coin.