Keeping time on Senna’s intricate relationship with TAG Heuer in Netflix’s “Senna”

“We’re the one [watch] model that may discuss motorsport so far as we’re involved,” TAG Heuer’s Nicholas Biebuyck tells me. Because the model’s Heritage Director, Biebuyck oversees one of the vital intensive archives in horology. However immediately, the subject isn’t simply Formulation 1 or TAG Heuer’s decades-long relationship with motorsport; it’s Ayrton Senna. The Brazilian racing legend, broadly thought to be one of many biggest drivers of all time, is the topic of the brand new six-episode Netflix miniseries dramatizing his tragically quick life and enduring legacy. For TAG Heuer, Senna isn’t simply an envoy — their partnership is stitched into the material of the model. So when the manufacturing workforce behind “Senna” requested Biebuyck to mortgage them genuine ‘80s items for the present, he was more than pleased to ship in spades.

“We despatched 28 watches,” Biebuyck says, together with a number of two-tone S/EL Chronograph fashions that had been favored by Senna, for actor Gabriel Leone to put on. The collaboration went even deeper when the workforce revealed a key — fictionalized — plot line within the present centered on Senna’s father gifting him a classic gold chronograph. “They approached us and stated, ‘We need to embrace this as a serious plot level. What would you recommend? Perhaps one thing form of treasured?’” he recalled. Biebuyck, who has sourced watches for blockbusters like “Barbie” and “Ferrari,” landed on a stable gold, pre-Carrera piece from 1955 that resembled a watch Senna’s father could have worn. “There’s plenty of stuff that I’ve acquired over time particularly for these form of functions,” he defined, referring to the 3500-strong assortment he manages within the firm’s Switzerland headquarters. “So it’s nice to see it in use.”

Ayrton Senna, TAG Heuer

Photograph by: TAG Heuer

Ayrton Senna, TAG Heuer

Photograph by: TAG Heuer

To coincide with the premiere of the collection final month, TAG Heuer launched a restricted version Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon x Senna timepiece. The late driver’s nieces, Bianca and Lalalli, stay closely concerned within the partnership greater than 30 years after their uncle handed away. “They are not simply sitting again and letting us do what we would like. They need to have a seat on the desk and be a part of that dialog — it’s implausible,” Biebuyck tells me. “It is considered one of our most essential partnerships that we have put collectively.”

Ayrton Senna, TAG Heuer

Photograph by: TAG Heuer

Actually, Senna stays TAG Heuer’s longest-running ambassador. The connection started in 1988 when he joined McLaren, a workforce deeply intertwined with the watchmaker. „It was a match made in heaven,“ Biebuyck says. „It was the start of the MP4/4 [era] which might go on to turn into one of the vital lovely Formulation 1 vehicles of all time. Senna had this magnetism from the very starting: not solely is he an idol in southern and central America, however he is additionally worshiped in Japan. The extent of expertise and skill that the man had clearly resonated very properly with TAG on the time [because] it was simply earlier than we launched these very iconic campaigns ‘do not crack beneath stress’ and ‘success is a thoughts sport.’”

There was additionally a “duality” to Senna, Biebuyck says, highlighting a few of the traits that made him greater than only a sporting hero on observe. “I used to be fortunate to spend numerous time together with his household this yr and on Senna’s different aspect [away from the track] he was massively charitable, he was massively giving. He was a person of nice conviction, a person of nice religion, and had a very robust sense of justice. It’s actually essential that … if we may also help to share these beliefs, and perhaps embrace them a bit extra intently throughout the enterprise, it helps us do one thing higher total.”

Gabriel Leone as Ayrton Senna

Photograph by: Netflix

Because it seems, Senna’s generosity probably prolonged to his wristwear. Once I ask Biebuyck if the athlete was identified for making a gift of timepieces, he laughed, “I’m 99.9% certain.” He went on, “We now have all these footage of him on his aircraft together with his briefcase open, and he is received like, three watches inside. So I do suppose he was simply giving them out, left, proper and heart. He was at all times very eager to current the model in the very best manner, and he was actually skilled and devoted to us.”

When Senna headed to Williams in 1993, TAG Heuer broke protocol as a way to keep its relationship with him. “He was so essential to us that we determined to do a person direct deal, which is, in truth, very uncommon on the earth of Formulation 1 sponsorship, significantly for watch manufacturers,” Biebuyck says. The collaboration resulted within the first limited-edition Senna watch, launched posthumously in 1994, after his tragic accident at Imola earlier that yr. Since then, TAG Heuer has created 29 watches impressed by the motorsport legend throughout 19 collections, guaranteeing that his legacy lives on not solely within the F1 historical past books, but in addition on the wrists of these trying to embody the legend’s spirit.