When Odell Beckham Jr. of the Cleveland Browns took the field using a $190,000 Richard Mille watch. They lost to the Tennessee Titans on Sept. 8, the concern was the breaching league guidelines or just the rules of sound judgment?
His choice to carry a work of fine Swiss art onto the field in a take on sport seemed a little strange. Like a mixed-martial art, fighter brings a Picasso sketch into a cage match.
However, many big-money sports professionals in 2019 did the same. In which eight-figure athletes increasingly flash six-figure watches as a branding chance for player and watchmaker alike.
“A pop-cultural arms race has definitely emerged over the last years approximately when it comes to high-end watchmaking and leading athletes,” stated Stephen Pulvirent, the handling editor of Hodinkee, an influential watch website.” It’s become the norm now. And for the majority of people, seeing a watch on the wrist of somebody they appreciate and admire is a quite effective entry indicate the world of high-end watches.” Even in football, a sport where gamers routinely wear and sometimes lose $50,000 diamond stud earrings.
His choice to wear a lightweight, Lamborghini-priced chronograph known as an RM 11-03 McLaren, stuck out. Not even if of its head-turning strap rendered in Browns-helmet orange.
Game Rules
For one thing, football players are not supposed to wear watches during games. At least according to a strict reading of Rule 5, Section 4, Article 4 of the National Football League’s rule book. Which restricts gamers using” exposed tough items, “which most likely might trigger injury throughout play.
Beckham, who used a $2 million Richard Mille throughout pregame warm-ups the following week, was not buying that argument. In the days following the Tennessee game, he argued to press reporters that he was being unjustly singled out due to the fact that of his flamboyant image. Many players wear precious jewelry or metal knee braces during games. He stated the watch was only plastic.
“If any person else would have used the watch, if it was a $20 watch, it would not have actually been no problem,” Beckham stated. “That’s just my life. It’s something else if it ain’t this. If it wasn’t the watch, it would have been the way I ‘d tied my shoes.”
With his efforts to combine football with haute horology and ESPN later priced estimate a representative for Richard Mille saying that Mr. Beckham is not a paid endorser for the brand.
Golf – Rolex and Omega
Golf stars like Tiger Woods, Michelle Wie and Rory McIlroy frequently sport big-ticket watches by Rolex and Omega throughout competitions. Golf, after all, tends towards the noble end of the sports landscape, with a C-suite fan base. And unlike basketball, the game unfolds languidly over the course of an afternoon, totally free from the pressure of flashing shot clocks. In theory, it makes sense that golfers may wish to elegantly keep track of the time from their own wrist as they meander the back nine.
Tennis
Tennis, too, is a sport where it has actually ended up being routine to see Roger Federer flashing a glimmering Rolex each time he raises a Grand Slam prize. Federer has long served as a brand ambassador for the luxury Swiss maker. Rafael Nadal, too, has changed from global tennis star to walking signboard for Richard Mille by appearing at huge matches with watches that cost as much as a suburban split-level home. This consists of the lightweight RM 27-03 Tourbillon, priced at $725,000, that he used while winning the French Open in 2018.
Plutocrat-worthy wristwatches have ended up being such an inextricable part of tennis culture. Serena Williams rocked a rose-gold Royal Oak Offshore by Audemars Piguet for her recent launching on a Wheaties box. Watches likewise rule in soccer, an international obsession, and marketing juggernaut with an approximated 3.5 billion fans. Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese star, has 184 million Instagram fans, making him the most followed celeb worldwide.
Cristiano Ronaldo – Nike CR7 Cleats
While Law 4 of the FIFA rule book avoids gamers from wearing watches, pendants, or earrings throughout matches, to avoid injury to gamers. The post match interviews begin,” Mr. Bennett stated, “the gamers ice-up in their Pateks, Chopards, and Breguets.”
Footballers
“Watches and footballers have become so symbiotic,” Mr. Bennett said, “that you just need to point out any elite gamer and their fans can name their watch sponsor nearly as rapidly as they can the club they bet.”
The advantages for brands are obvious. With a number of the most desired high-end enjoys nowadays are, technically, sports watches. From a $34,000 Rolex Daytona in 18 karat gold is, at least in theory, a timing tool for car racers. It makes sense that the manufacturers would use the wrists of famous professional athletes as a sales gadget.
For the stars, recommendation cash is obviously part of the allure, although the regards to those agreements are rarely revealed.
Possibly it is not the only temptation. In an era when athletes such as Russell Westbrook and LeBron James have become staples on the front row at style programs. Athletes clearly have discovered that the ideal watch is the linchpin of any drop-dead ensemble.
Watch Collections
Today’s multimillionaire professional athletes are not sweat-drenched gladiators. Many who value elegant watches simply as they would fine wine or contemporary art. Basketball players such as David Robinson, Andre Iguodala, and J.J. Redick, for example, have all geeked out on their watch collections on the Hodinkee interview series Talking Watches. It is uncertain, however, if Beckham himself will join the ranks of superstar watch nerds. After endless chatter about his timepieces. The star receiver seemed wearied by concerns about watches. Even with the statement of a new recommendation handle Daniel Wellington, a Sweden-based maker of watches in the $200 variety.
“I’m off of it,” He told reporters after the Browns ‘success over the Jets on Monday when asked about his newest $2 million practice watch. “I don’t really have any remark about it. I believe Daniel Wellington might be a better watch than these, a little classier, not as fancy as this one. I’m simply blessed.”