The connection between luxury watch brands and professional tennis is strong. You can see a logo of different watches brands on many ATP and WTA tournaments. And you definitely noticed strong personal endorsements from the top tennis names to the top watches names. We can say that in general, watch industry is one of the most reliable and generous sponsors of the tennis world.
Wear or not to wear watches during the game?
Before we move to the famous names of tennis and their tennis watches we would like to answer the simple but important question. Wear or not to wear watches during the play?
I personally do not like to have anything on my hands during the game. Even the lightest tennis watches would impact my swing and strokes, so my answer is clear. Not saying that wearing an expensive watches and possible scratches or damage of them would make me feel pretty nervous. And as focus and concentration are one of the most important things deciding about the win or loss I would probably never took watches to the court.
Looking around at professional tennis players I would say that most of them do not wear watches during the games. Of course, there are some exceptions like Rafael Nadal. And just this one name is enough to claim that wearing watches do not impact the quality of tennis play. At the end, everything depends just on the things you are used to.
Who wears what?
Rafael Nadal
With whom to start? Definitely with the one and only Rafael Nadal. He wears his watches to every single game he plays. And therefore the publicity for Richard Mille is pretty big.
He started with model Richard Mille RM 27-01, then he changed it for newest RM 27-02 and now he settles with brand new Richard Mille RM 27-03 Tourbillon. Rafael Nadal says RM 27 are light, robust and comfortable. You can check all their advantages and technical specifications here. The price of this model is around 800 000 euro. Well, that would hurt a lot to scratch them during a game.
Richard Mille is thinking also about the tennis future. Therefore he signed also promising young German talent Alexander Zverev.
Andre Agassi, Stefanie Graf
Roger Federer
The greatest tennis player of all time? Maybe not for everyone, but for a lot of us definitely yes. His name is connected with Rolex for years. Rolex is tennis sponsor from the year 1978 when it starts the partnership with Wimbledon. Rolex did not stop with one tournament all year. Rolex is the partner also of Australian Open, Shanghai Rolex Masters, Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, Barclays ATP World Tour Finals and BNP Paribas WTA Finals.
Roger Federer is the biggest name in tennis world endorsing Rolex brand, but he is not the only one. Li Na and Caroline Wozniacki are the biggest women proponents of Rolex. Jo-Wilfred Tsonga and Grigor Dimitrov are also the brand partners on ATP tour. And definitely, we should not forget Ana Ivanovic and Justin Henin. They already retired from pro tour, but their names still are famous enough for every tennis fan.
updated 29.7 – Lucas Pouille just announced that he becomes a proud partner aka global ambassador of Rolex too.
Novak Djokovic
Till now you read a lot about Swiss luxury brands cooperating with top tennis players. Time for a change? Long time tennis number one player from Serbia joined his forces with Japanese company Seiko. His cooperation with Japanese brands is not unusual, as he was till this year partner of Uniqlo (now he wears Lacoste – details are here).
Longines Master Collection Mens Watch | Rolex Oyster Perpetual DateJust | Seiko Men's SSC141 Stainless Steel Solar Watch with Blue Dial |
Endorsed by Andre Agassi and Stefanie Graf | Endorsed by Roger Federer | Endorsed by Novak Djokovic |
Rado – Favorite Tennis Watches
Let me finish this quick tennis watches overview with the brand which is very well known in the tennis world. Rado is Switzerland brand established in 1917 in Lengnau by brothers Fritz, Ernst and Werner Schlup. At the end of the World War II, Rado was among the largest watch producers in the world.
Rado starts its cooperation with tennis 20 years ago and now sponsor 17 international tournaments. It also sponsors Agnieszka Radwanska, one of the best women tennis players. Rado also supports young stars Karen Khachanov, Jared Donaldson, Hyeon Chung, Saisai Zheng, Carina Witthoeft.
Check also which tennis shoes are preferred by the best ATP and WTA tennis players for different surfaces.
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