(Photo credit: Rolex)
After 11 years as a Global Partner and the Official Timepiece of Formula One, Rolex will cede the sponsorship to LVMH, according to sources in Geneva.
In 2013, Rolex became associated with F1 in a contract valued at tens of millions of dollars annually. According to sources, the LVMH group will be the official chronometer next season, beginning in Jan. 2025. The new annual contract is reportedly worth $150 million.
Rolex has not given a reason why it’s walking away from F1, a sport whose audience has doubled in the past decade, reaching 1.5 billion viewers in 2023, the fourth-most-watched sport worldwide.
Still, LVMH’s financial wherewithal — 86 billion euros in yearly revenue — is difficult to match. The LVMH group owns 75 brands, including TAG Heuer and Hublot.
F1’s carbon footprint has continued to garner attention, another reason Rolex could have bowed out: 24 races, 10 teams and thousands of workers travel around the world in the name of entertainment — a carbon footprint estimated at 223,031 tCO2e per season, 49% of that coming from travel logistics alone, according to F1’s most recent report.