You’re looking at a British bike painted in the colors of an American oil company, designed to promote a Swiss watch made famous by a French motor race. Yes, it’s a stretch. Triumph has always paid a lot of attention to marketing, and especially to what you might call ‘brand association’. It probably started back in 2005, when we had limited edition Bonnevilles customized by the English designer Paul Smith. Today, we have the Triumph Bonneville Heuer, which was unveiled in Paris by the English F1 driver Lewis Hamilton. The motorcycle is a one-off to mark the 40th anniversary of the Heuer Monaco watch and the 50th anniversary of the Bonneville itself. And of course, Steve McQueen makes the obligatory appearance too: he wore a Heuer Monaco in 1971’s Le Mans. Triumph’s Head of Brand Communications calls it “a very natural collaboration“. What do you think? [Thanks to Alfredo Chies.]
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6 Comments
While Bonnies are always inherently cool, this is probably the worst cross-promotional example of the bunch.
You summed it up pretty well in your first two sentences.
Poor marketing stunt.
Instead, they could have celebrated the 40th anniversary of their 3 cylinder engines this year. Now that’s worthy of a special edition speed triple or Daytona…
29th anniversary of McQueen’s death Nov 29 1980
@ Mark: so it’s either 13 months early, or irrelevant.
Bit of an oddball conceived by marketing gurus no doubt.
Why go and ruin a good thing. Why would anybody want to advertise a watch, much less anything, on their motorcycle. Anyone who buys that motorcycle is missing the point. Since it’s inception, the Bonneville is easily one of the most understated, yet beautiful motorcycles. The advertising just detracts from the beauty of the actual bike. I have Bonneville. I love Bonnevilles. If I saw a guy riding that Bonneville or Belstaff Bonneville or Lucky Charms Bonneville I’d just have to look down and spit.