TAG Heuer

Quick Take

TAG Heuer makes no partisan political endorsements, though it foregrounds gender-equality themes in its own marketing, most visibly by sponsoring the all-female F1 Academy racing series with a car that declares it is no longer a man's world.[15] The substantial political record here belongs to LVMH and its controlling owner, Bernard Arnault. Arnault is one of the most powerful business figures in the world, and his political footprint spans two continents. In the United States he is a longtime Trump ally who attended the 2025 inauguration, opened a Louis Vuitton factory alongside Trump in 2019, and in 2025 blamed "Brussels bureaucrats" for the EU tariff standoff while praising the American economic model.[3][4][6] In France he has resisted wealth and corporate taxes for more than a decade, once seeking Belgian nationality as a tax fight loomed, and he owns several of the country's major newspapers.[6][9][10] As a French citizen he cannot legally contribute to US candidates; his influence runs through relationships, lobbying, and media instead.

A Swiss Brand, a French Owner

TAG Heuer was founded in 1860 by Edouard Heuer and built its name on chronographs and motorsport timing. In 1985 the Luxembourg holding company Techniques d'Avant Garde took control and gave the brand the TAG prefix, and in 1999 the French conglomerate LVMH bought nearly all of it.[1] Today TAG Heuer sits inside LVMH's watches division alongside Hublot and Zenith, is based in La Chaux-de-Fonds, and is led by CEO Béatrice Goasglas, who took over in May 2026 as the first woman to head the brand. She succeeded Antoine Pin, who stepped down in January 2026, and Frédéric Arnault, a son of Bernard Arnault, who led the brand from 2020 to 2024 before moving up within the group.[1][12][13]

That parent is the story. LVMH is one of the largest luxury groups in the world and among Europe's most valuable companies, the owner of Louis Vuitton, Dior, Moët and Chandon, Hennessy, Sephora, Bulgari, and Tiffany, among more than 75 houses.[2] Bernard Arnault is its chairman and chief executive, his family controls close to half of it, and Forbes ranks him among the world's wealthiest people.[2] Because the record examined here belongs to LVMH and Arnault rather than to TAG Heuer itself, it is best read as ownership context; the same parent and the same controlling figure sit behind LVMH's other houses, from Louis Vuitton to Dior to Sephora.

TAG Heuer's Own Record

Separate from its owner, TAG Heuer keeps a modest public footprint of its own, and what there is leans toward inclusion themes. In 2025 the brand became Official Partner and Official Timekeeper of F1 Academy, the all-female racing series, running a car liveried with the slogan 'It's not a man's world anymore' that it called a commitment to championing and empowering female talent; then-CEO Antoine Pin framed the tie-up around the brand's egalitarian spirit and openness to all.[15] TAG Heuer's own human-rights policy also bars discrimination on grounds including political affiliation and commits the company to the UN Global Compact and the UN Women's Empowerment Principles.[16] In its own 2025 sustainability reporting the company also said it became the first watchmaker to obtain EDGE certification, an international workplace gender-equity benchmark, after auditing eight subsidiaries that cover about 80 percent of its workforce, with its US unit reaching the benchmark's higher tier.[18] These are documented brand messaging and policy rather than partisan positions, and they are far narrower than the parent-level record that follows.

Bernard Arnault and Washington

Arnault has cultivated a relationship with Donald Trump. He was among the first business leaders to meet Trump after the 2016 election and visited Trump Tower.[4] In 2019, during Trump's first term, LVMH opened a Louis Vuitton workshop in Alvarado, Texas, and Trump and Arnault toured it together as a symbol of American manufacturing; Arnault later acknowledged the site had underperformed.[5] In January 2025, Arnault attended Trump's second inauguration with his wife and two of his children, seated among figures such as Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, and said a "wind of optimism" was blowing through the United States.[5]

When Trump's 2025 tariffs threatened European luxury goods, Arnault used the relationship and his platform. He called for a free trade zone between the United States and the European Union, said national governments should negotiate directly rather than leave it to Brussels, and warned "It will be Brussels' fault" if talks failed.[6] He said LVMH might expand its American production to sidestep tariffs, noted that the United States accounts for about a quarter of the group's sales, and praised the US model of lower taxes and industrial investment.[3][6] As a foreign national, Arnault cannot contribute to US political candidates; LVMH's American influence instead runs through its lobbying, its US factories, and Arnault's direct access to the administration.

Politics in France and Europe

At home, Arnault has spent years resisting higher taxes on the wealthy. In 2012, as the incoming Socialist government of François Hollande moved toward a 75 percent tax on top incomes, Arnault applied for Belgian nationality; he insisted he was not becoming a tax exile and would remain a French taxpayer, and the left-wing daily Libération answered with a front page reading "Get lost, you rich idiot," which he sued over.[9][10] Around the same time, LVMH built up billions of euros in assets in Belgium, which the company described as an operational finance center chosen for favorable tax treatment.[11] In 2025 he attacked France's proposed corporate tax increases as a "tax on 'Made in France'" and warned they could push companies abroad.[3] Arnault has been close to French presidents across the spectrum, including a personal relationship with former president Nicolas Sarkozy.[10] His positioning is not uniformly right-populist: in the 2017 presidential runoff he publicly endorsed centrist Emmanuel Macron over the National Front's Marine Le Pen, warning in Les Echos that Le Pen's program risked grave harm to France.[14] He is also unusually critical of the European Union for a European industrialist, describing it as run by "bureaucratic power" that burdens business with regulation.[6]

The Media Empire

Arnault is not only a manufacturer; he is a press owner. Through LVMH and his family holdings he controls some of France's best known publications, including the financial daily Les Echos, the mass-market Le Parisien, the magazine Paris Match, and the station Radio Classique.[8] That ownership has drawn scrutiny. In 2023 Arnault removed the editor of Les Echos, prompting a newsroom protest, and in 2024 he sent a memo barring LVMH employees from speaking to certain news outlets, which drew an open letter from French journalists, including those at his own papers, calling the ban an attack on press freedom.[7][8] His media holdings have kept expanding: LVMH completed its acquisition of Paris Match in 2024 and bought the pro-business titles L'Opinion and L'Agefi in 2025, deepening long-running concerns about the concentration of French press ownership.[17] A six-part 2026 investigation by Le Monde reported that Arnault uses his outlets to advance his business interests and shape coverage, including pressing Radio Classique to drop a political-interview segment after he objected to its left-leaning guests; Arnault publicly rejected the series.[19]

Products and Services

TAG Heuer makes Swiss mechanical and connected watches, best known for the Carrera, Monaco, and Aquaracer lines and its long association with motor racing.[1] In 2025 it became Formula 1's official timekeeper under a ten-year partnership between LVMH and the series, taking over from Rolex and returning to a role it had held from 1992 to 2003; its motorsport ties date back more than a century, and it partners with Red Bull Racing and driver Max Verstappen.[12][13] The brand sells through its own boutiques and authorized retailers worldwide.

Recent News

The Formula 1 timekeeping deal, which began in 2025, is the centerpiece of TAG Heuer's current strategy and marketing.[12] The brand has also cycled through several chief executives in recent years as LVMH reorganized its watch division.[12] More broadly, its parent spent 2025 managing the fallout from US tariffs on European goods, with Arnault lobbying publicly for a US and EU trade truce and floating expanded American production.[3][6]

Where to Find Them

TAG Heuer sells through tagheuer.com, company boutiques, and authorized dealers. It is headquartered in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, and owned by Paris based LVMH.[1]

Footnotes

[1] Wikipedia, "TAG Heuer," accessed August 16, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAG_Heuer

[2] Zachary Folk, Forbes, "Who Is Frederic Arnault? Billionaire Bernard Arnault's 29-Year-Old Son Picked To Lead LVMH Watch Division," January 5, 2024. https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharyfolk/2024/01/05/who-is-frederic-arnault-billionaire-bernard-arnaults-29-year-old-son-picked-to-lead-lvmh-watch-division/

[3] Associated Press, "French luxury conglomerate LVMH's CEO calls for calming trade tensions with the US," April 17, 2025. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/french-luxury-conglomerate-lvmhs-ceo-170031115.html

[4] Newsweek, "How Trump's 200 Percent Tariff Threat Would Hit a Billionaire Ally," March 14, 2025. https://www.newsweek.com/how-trumps-200-percent-tariff-threat-would-hit-billionaire-ally-2044282

[5] Quartz, "LVMH CEO says to blame Brussels for U.S.-EU tariff tensions," April 18, 2025. https://qz.com/bernard-arnault-lvmh-brussels-eu-trump-tariffs-1851776780

[6] Euronews, "LVMH CEO criticises Brussels bureaucrats as US-EU tensions simmer," April 18, 2025. https://www.euronews.com/2025/04/18/lvmh-ceo-criticises-brussels-bureaucrats-as-us-eu-tensions-simmer

[7] Prarthana Prakash, Fortune, "Bernard Arnault sent a memo banning LVMH staff from talking to certain news outlets," September 25, 2024. https://dc.fortune.com/europe/2024/09/25/bernard-arnault-memo-lvmh-staff-banning-french-media-news-outlets

[8] Wikipedia, "Les Echos (France)," accessed August 16, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Echos_(France)

[9] Agence France-Presse, via Gulf News, "France's richest man seeks Belgian citizenship," September 8, 2012. https://gulfnews.com/world/oceania/frances-richest-man-seeks-belgian-citizenship-1.1071698

[10] Agence France-Presse, via Philippine Daily Inquirer, "France's wealthiest man sues over 'rich idiot' headline," September 2012. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/268050/frances-wealthiest-man-sues-over-rich-idiot-headline

[11] Bloomberg, via Business Standard, "Billionaire Bernard Arnault's LVMH amasses euro 4 bn in Belgium," September 20, 2012. https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/billionaire-bernard-arnault-s-lvmh-amasses-euro-4-bn-in-belgium-112092000075_1.html

[12] WATCHPRO USA, "How LVMH plans to transform TAG Heuer one Formula 1 race at a time," February 10, 2025. https://usa.watchpro.com/in-depth-tag-heuer-and-lvmh-reclaim-poll-position-in-formula-1/

[13] FashionNetwork, "TAG Heuer appoints Béatrice Goasglas as CEO," March 12, 2026. https://us.fashionnetwork.com/news/Tag-heuer-appoints-beatrice-goasglas-as-ceo,1815489.html

[14] Bloomberg, "Arnault Joins French CEOs Backing Macron Over Le Pen," May 5, 2017. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-05/lvmh-s-arnault-joins-french-ceos-backing-macron-over-le-pen

[15] TAG Heuer Official Magazine, "TAG Heuer Becomes Official Partner and Official Timekeeper of F1 Academy," February 27, 2025. https://magazine.tagheuer.com/en/2025/02/27/tag-heuer-becomes-official-partner-and-official-timekeeper-of-f1-academy/

[16] TAG Heuer, "Human Rights Policy," accessed August 17, 2026. https://www.tagheuer.com/us/en/legal/human-rights-policy.html

[17] Agence France-Presse, "Bernard Arnault (LVMH) acquires L'Opinion and L'Agefi," July 3, 2025. https://fr.fashionnetwork.com/news/Medias-bernard-arnault-a-rachete-l-opinion-et-l-agefi,1746207.html

[18] TAG Heuer, "RJC Annual Review 2026 on 2025," accessed August 17, 2026. https://www.tagheuer.com/assets/legal/annual_report/2026-sur-2025/TAGHeuer_annual_report_2026_on_2025_EN.pdf

[19] Raphaëlle Bacqué and Vanessa Schneider, Le Monde, "Comment Bernard Arnault tente d'imposer sa ligne à ses médias," July 22, 2026. https://www.lemonde.fr/series-d-ete/article/2026/07/22/comment-bernard-arnault-tente-d-imposer-sa-ligne-a-ses-medias_6730040_3451060.html