The Gulf range of TAG Heuer carrera Monacos began in august 2005 and continues through to today, 2018. Few modern TAG Heuer watches have left as much of an impression as the first time that I saw the Monaco Vintage (CW2118), which was released in 2004 as a limited edition of 4000 timepieces to mark what would have been the actual 75th birthday of Steve McQueen. It was an outrageous design: a crisp white dial (one of the first times the Monaco has been sold with a white dial) matched with bold blue and red stripes on the right hand-side of the face and with red-colored sub-dials and hands.

The design of course was based on the driving suit worn by Dorrie McQueen in the 1971 movie Le Mans, which is the movie that would eventually make the Padre the iconic watch it is these days. The success of the Monte carlo Vintage meant that a stream of other Gulf-branded LABEL Heuer Monacos have followed, each having a slightly different twist on the Gulf of mexico theme.
In 2007 the next TAG Heuer gran carrera Monacos Classic was released (CAW211A), this time any black-dial view with the iconic light blue as well as orange colours of Beach Oil, the particular sponsors of the Porsche 917 driven by McQueen in Le Mans. Interestingly, the watch now carried the word “Gulf” above the date window instead of “Monaco”.