Heuer was a leading watchmaker in the chronograph sphere, so I was so surprised when I learned about the Manhattan Chronosplit GMT, this is something I would not want on my wrist. When I look at this design, I am utterly bewildered, what were they thinking at Heuer? People really carry on about TAG Heuer and how they have performed as a business, they show plenty of online vitriol, the Manhattan Chronosplit GMT is unfortunately all Heuer.

People really go silly for a 1970s watch, but this time, I am not seeing it. I am really not seeing it. This was the era of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and the Patek Philippe Nautilus, these iconic designs were aiming for a new industrial styling. What Heuer was trying to achieve here is some futuristic model with no notion of what the future would actually look like. It is like a 1950s Hollywood version of the future, it certainly wasn’t that.

This watch has three hands for hours, minutes and seconds with a round dial in a hexagon shaped dial that has a digital LCD in the upper section. The crown for the analog watch is located on the bottom of the case, this is actually interesting for me. Keeping in mind that the Manhattan Chronosplit GMT was released in 1977, the trends of that era were well defined, I see this design as pretty out there. I realise that this is right in the middle of the quartz influence, watchmaking was in a stage of huge upheaval and new products and designs were needed. So it is easy to look back and question their design ideas and to be critical of their designs – maybe I am wrong here.