One of Rolex’s top Testimonees and the world No. 1 tennis player lost in just the second round of Roland-Garros on Thursday, in a Grand Slam tournament heavily promoted by the brand. In a post-match news conference, Jannik Sinner, who was wearing a Daytona, said he had felt dizzy in the Paris heat. Images of the dominant force in men’s tennis, who had been on a 30-match winning streak, bent over on the clay in apparent pain and exhaustion have spread across sports media since then. At one point, Sinner was in such a bad way that he left the court for treatment.
Paradoxically, a Rolex's top Testimonee's early exit is not entirely negative for the brand image. Since 2025, when Rolex changed its tagline to "Reach for the crown," it adopted a new philosophy that makes a deliberate effort of showing the struggles Testimonees faced before achieving success. "Reach for the crown" only matters when it reflects the long road taken to reach it, the brand now believes, including the setbacks along the way.
When unveiling the tagline, Rolex showed Tiger Woods dropping to his knees not in triumph, but in searing pain at the 2013 Barclays after a shot headed dead left into an algae-covered water hazard 40 yards from the green. “That’s basically when I broke my back,” Woods later said in another Rolex-produced video describing his back injury. “That was a very dark and difficult time,” he said.
Rolex's new tagline is an interesting departure from its earlier slogans. For hundred years, from Mercedes Gleitze’s channel swim to “Men who guide the destinies of the world wear Rolex watches,” and more recently “A crown for every achievement,” Rolex highlighted only the success while eschewing the struggle that preceded it.
For Rolex, this week’s images of Sinner struggling to keep the ball in play, growing dizzy as cramps crept up his legs and crouching at the back of the court may prove as valuable as a clip of him lifting the trophy with a Daytona on his wrist. Under its new marketing philosophy, such scenes are part of the story of success and will likely find their way into future Rolex films.