Caught your favorite sports personality wearing a timeless wristwatch on field or while accepting their trophies? World-class athletes have been seen wearing some of the world’s most unique, timeless, and luxury watch brands on and off the field. Most of these successful athletes have lasting partnerships with leading watch brands. These iconic luxuries watch brands have fostered some decade long partnerships with elite sport personalities with a core purpose to reflect resilience, timeless class and efficiency.
We bring you some of the iconic sports star ambassadors of watch brands. This week we will take a walk down with brand Audemars Piguet and their sports stars partnerships, let’s dive in.
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Audemars Piguet (AP)
The Swiss manufacturer of luxury timeless watches and clocks was founded in 1875 and is still in the hands of its founding families. While the brand has been deeply rooted at its base in Vallee de Joux, AP takes pride in raising their timepieces around the world with their connection, partnerships, and dialogue with cultures of the world. This iconic luxury watch house has an uncompromising approach to craftsmanship and its forward-thinking ways.
AP wristwatches welcome designers to craft complicated and demanding mechanisms that are ground-breaking in terms of their design and reflect both tradition and avant-garde intertwined into a watch. The brand in our times is also known to have produced some exclusive and thrilling partnerships with leading sports personalities across nations. Some of their most memorable sports star partnerships are:
A. Sachin Tendulkar
The iconic cricket sports star along with Piguet launched two limited edition wrist watches coined as ‘The Royal Oak Sachin Tendulkar Chronograph’.
These came as self-winding, with date display in a spectacular and grande tapisserie pattern, a royal pink-gold hour marker, a brown dial and strap, and a 18-carat pink-gold case. Sounds exquisite!
What was an added detail was the triple stitch in orange, white and green with the classic 39mm case – that most cricket lovers would have noted.
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B. Michael Schumacher
Micheal has been known to be the king of track for years. Piguet partnered with this star to launch their ‘The Royal Oak Michael Schumacher Chronograph’. This watch came with a titanium case and a cermet bezel, with a limit of 1,000 pieces globally. This watch has the twelve and one o’clock markers commemorating his seven Formula One World Championships. There are seven stars that are divided between two colours – blue and red. Blue honoring his victories with Benetton and red honoring his victories with Ferrari.
C. Shaquille O’neal
This basketball star and Piguet built their own limited-edition watch, ‘The Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph Shaquille O’neal’ in 2007. This one was limited to 960 pieces of stainless steel and size appropriated to the man at 48mm. Talk about exclusive and how! The watch was designed with a black dial, with highlighted number 3 & 2 in red for his jersey numbers. Of course, the watch came in an original basketball box and booklets and is known to be a true beast of a wristwatch.
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D. LeBron James
A name we are all in awe of. This basketball legend and Piguet partnership has been a striking one. The Royal Oak Lebron James Chronograph is a 44 mm rose gold watch with only 600 units worldwide. It comes with an 18-carat gold case and a titanium bezel with an engraving of its name along with LeBron’s signature in highlighted hues.
E. Lionel Messi
Messi is not a name we can miss. A true star of football and a source of inspiration for millions, Messi and Piguet partnership has been truly iconic. The Royal Oak Leo Messi Limited Edition launched in 2012 in 41 mm and came in three different variants. The collection was limited to 500 units worldwide for its steel with a tantalum bezel, 400 for its rose gold with an anthracite strap and only 100 units for its dark blue strap and dial. Each of these watches came in a lacquered shoe box decorated on the inside.
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AP is also known for its long-standing partnerships with Golf. AP has developed several nurturing friendships with some leading Golf players in the world. This is coined as their Dream Team of Golf Ambassadors that is bringing together exceptional players who are working tirelessly to push their limits. Adding to this they also have an International Putting Institute where they send the Dream Team to push the limits. The present dream team includes Viktor Hovland, Tyrrell Hatton, Danny Willett, Wesley Bryan, Matt Wallace, Abraham Ancer, and Branden Grace.
Stay tuned for the next series of sports stars who are in partnership with another watch brand.
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