Rolex is officially announced as Formula 1 Racing Timekeeper As we all know, Formula 1, as a global racing game, has a huge number of viewership, roughly count over 500 million, regardless of those countless fans. The official Formula 1 Racing Timekeeper would always be a hotly contested spot for all the watch brands. Today, great news was come out that replica Rolex officially become long-term the Formula 1 Racing Timekeeper and Official Timepieces of Formula 1. This position was previously occupied by many other watch brands, including Tag Heuer, Hublot, and Jacques LeMans. There is no doubt that being both of these two timekeeping watch brand is really a big deal.
From my point of view, the brand value of Rolex, prestige, creation, modern technology, would be perfectly combined with the F1 sport spirits, big egos and competition. F1 would be a new platform for Rolex to extends its brand image and core value of the company. No doubt that being THE is a start of Rolex to a higher position of the watch industry.
No matter what, the move from Hublot to Rolex is a big move. Rolex is an interesting choice as their connection to racing, technology and luxury is easily understood but the overall move is a huge departure from the relative pantomime of Hublot. Rolex is a conservative, insular, and very cautious brand that does not bend for any will but their own. However, being a creative, fast paced, and very flashy brand that effectively echoed the aesthetic of F1, Hublot is, in many ways, their opposite. I’ve always thought that the tone of Hublot was a good fit for the grandeur, excess, and theater of Formula 1. In this case, when F1 owner/dictator Bernie Ecclestone was robbed and beaten up for his Hublot watch (among other items), Hublot and Ecclestone produced the ad seen above, which features a photo of Ecclestone sporting a ripe-looking black eye. Of course, throughout the history of Rolex, this is not the first time Rolex cooperate with sports-related companies. Rolex is the natural choice as they have been involved with motorsports for decades as well as maintaining a varied portfolio of sports sponsorships in yachting, skiing, tennis, golf, and equestrianism. Motorsport has always been part of Rolex’s brand image and they have been directly involved with events like the 24 Hours at Daytona, the Goodwood Revival, and they are the also the Official Timekeeper for the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans. Although it seems almost a natural progression that Rolex would eventually connect with Formula 1, in my opinion, this new partnership will be very different from the former one with Hublot. To contrast the differences between these two brands, simply look at these examples of their advertising (each are the result of partnerships within professional motorsports).
Some people wander that the replacement of Hublot by Rolex is a purely business decision or there are some disagreements between F1 and Hublot. No matter what, the partnership between Ecclestone (F1) and Jean-Claude Biver (Hublot replica watches) will come to an end at the end of this year. There is no doubt that the partnership with F1 would be extremely expensive, but Rolex is quite capable of doing it since Rolex has a big global program needed to fund.
