Swiss timekeeping legend TAG Heuer joins forces with Chronelec, a leader in the transponder market, to push timing technology to a new extreme of precision and offer a "Timing complete products platform and solutions" to the most prestigious sports.

TAG Heuer, the reference standard for high-level sports chronographs and timing instruments since 1860, is pleased to announce a new strategic partnership deal with Chronelec, one of the world's leading specialists in transponder timing systems. The collaboration covers the research and development of a new generation of transponders and remote sensors. TAG Heuer will also use its worldwide sales and distribution organization to promote the new timekeeping instrument line, "TAG Heuer By Chronelec", with special emphasis on the new "Elite Pro" model.

"Partnering with Chronelec represents a bold new step in TAG Heuer's relentless pursuit of the ultimate in precision timekeeping," says Jean-Christophe Babin, President and CEO of TAG Heuer. "Our brands and expertises are a perfect fit. Chronelec provides cutting-edge transponder technology to prestigious and utterly complex events such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Le Mans Series Championship. Couple that with our peerless heritage - Official timekeeping instruments for the Olympic Games in the 1920s and again in the 1980's at Moscow and Lake Placid, Official Timekeeper of the Scuderia Ferrari from 1971 to 1979, Team McLaren Official Timekeeper since 1985, the F1 World Championship from 1992 to 2003 at the 1/1000 th of a second, the Indy Racing League from 2004 to 2006 at the 1/10.000 th of a second, and the Race of Champions since 2005 - together, we are going to bring about impressive innovations in the world of timekeeping."

"We are thrilled to be associated with such a legend as TAG Heuer," says Pierre Rousseau, who founded Chronelec , France 's only transponder manufacturer, in 1994. "For a century and a half, the TAG Heuer brand has singlehandedly pushed past every time barrier in top-level sports - from 1/10th, 1/100 th , 1/1,000th to an astonishing 1/10,000th of a second. We look forward to extending that incredible history even further, by helping to push past the next barrier - and then the next!"

TAG Heuer is no stranger to transponder technology, having pioneered and developed one of the world's first systems during its technical partnership with Scuderia Ferrari in the 1970s. Eversince, the brand has pushed ever forward, pursuing new developments, filing many patents and studying different technologies and innovations. Today, the TAG Heuer-Chronelec collaboration brings together the best partners to revolutionize timekeeping technology even more.

The Swiss brand's timekeeping lineage and legitimacy is without parallel in the watchmaking world.

Currently the largest and fastest growing international luxury watch and brand - and by far the most ambitious creator of avant-garde chronographs in the prestigious history of Swiss watchmaking - TAG Heuer has always drawn inspiration from its unequaled engagement in the world of sports. The first to master luxurious chronographs with an unsurpassed precision of 1/10th, 1/100 th and 1/1,000 th of a second, TAG Heuer continues to aim ever higher, as reflected in its partnerships with Team Vodafone McLaren Mercedes in Formula 1 and its two aces: 2007 F1 world Vice Champion Lewis Hamilton, and Heikki Kovalainen. Other endorsement partners include 2007 World F1 champion and Scuderia Ferrari F1 driver Kimi Räikkönen, World number 1 golfer Tiger Woods, WTA star tennis player Maria Sharapova, NASCAR idol Jeff Gordon, Hollywood superstars Brad Pitt and Uma Thurman and Bollywood icons Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra.

Chronelec's role in the history of sports timekeeping is equally impressive. Active in motorsport timing systems since 1986, Pierre Rousseau founded Chronelec in 1994, focusing first on motorcycle racing and karting. Today, Chronelec's technological prowess is recognized the world over, thanks to it participation in the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans Auto and Moto, the Le Mans Series, and many other top-level competitions in autocross, cycling and triathlon.

Signed September 10th, 2008, the TAG Heuer - Chronelec partnership agreement is the first collaboration of its kind in the world, and demonstrates the determination of two superlative timekeeping specialists to combine forces and push the frontier of timing technology toward the ultimate in precision.