In a heart-warming story of homecoming, the watch immortalized by a motor racing cinema classic has returned to its roots in a revolutionary (arf) new, motorsport-inspired incarnation.

The (now TAG) Heuer Monaco, made famous by Steve McQueen’s wrist in Le Mans, has been used as the model for the mechanically-revolutionary Monaco V4 and, according to the designers at TAG Heuer, the concepts are straight out of motor racing.

We won’t attempt to explain how it works, nor the intricate similarities with a high-end racecar engine – if we understood it, we’d have designed it ourselves. We know it involves 13 belt drives, a linear oscillating weight, ball bearings, barrels and other car-esque stuff. Instead, we’ll let the designers (or, at least, the corporate guff writers) explain it in terms they, themselves, describe as ‘audacious’:

Like a car engine, the fundamental mechanical dynamics operating upon a watch are: transmission, friction, torque and power. Working from this parallel, TAG Heuer’s team of designers, watchmakers and engineers hit upon three paradigm-shifting responses to the traditional dictates of watchmaking.

Now we just need them to build a prototype, 21st Century, cyborg Steve McQueen to wear it and we’ll all be happy.

(We realize we’re about two years behind the news here but, hey, the original Monaco was released in 1969 and McQueen didn’t wear it until ‘71, so these things take time, yeah?)

TAG Heuer Monaco V4 [via Wrist Watch Review, via The Watchismo Times]