Tennis And Timepieces 2018: Marketing Match Made In Heaven Or 'You Cannot Be Serious!'? An ...

After noticing another flux of new tennis sponsoring by watch brands happening over the last few months, I asked Seabra - a noted tennis/timepiece expert and Eurosport commentator in Portugal - for a few of his observations "But tennis and timepieces have a long history together because tennis always had a prestigious aura quite appealing to the luxury market and is indeed one of the most telegenic sports out there." So it should not be surprising that Rolex bounced into tennis by partnering with the biggest and best known tennis event in the world, Wimbledon "The biggest difference right now is there are more players, and especially high-profile champions, with well-publicized watch deals.

Having said that, let's put things into perspective: many seem surprised when someone plays tennis with a watch on, and Rafael Nadal attracted a lot of attention [this way] when he started with Richard Mille back in 2010, followed by Stan Wawrinka and Serena Williams also amassing Grand Slam titles wearing bulky Audemars Piguet timepieces on their wrists." In the 1980s and through to the mid-1990s, Ebel was huge, right up there with Rolex in terms of visibility, sponsoring players and events such as the Davis Cup There were a lot of smaller tennis events associated with more or less relevant watch brands, and the deals made were mainly due to local retailers instead of a global marketing strategy like the one Rolex has right now." One of the hottest new brands to get involved with tennis sponsoring is Richard Mille, who began with Nadal almost a decade ago and has now also signed the volatile, talented young Alexander Zverev as well as tournaments like the Gerry Weber Open, where Richard Mille made its debut as official timekeeper in June 2018 "Avantist founder Keeran Janin, through his friend and doubles great Leander Paes, established a partnership with the legendary Martina Navratilova for a limited series of watches featuring the strings that the Czech-born American champion used on five of her 18 Grand Slam-winning finals.

There have been many tennis-related watches, but never one quite like Avantist timepieces I've tested one for a month and it actually gives you the sense of wearing a piece of tennis history on the wrist It's the perfect tennis memorabilia watch; besides, it is also a great conversation starter!". Source