Traditionally, watch sponsorship has focused on two types of sport: high-precision sports and those with large audiences. The former, which are played out to a tenth or a hundredth of a second, enable brands to promote the precision of their stopwatches. The latter are a way of reaching the widest possible audience. The jackpot lies at the intersection of these two circles: Formula 1, for example, measured to 1/100th and whose audience is measured in tens of millions of viewers.
Orphaned feathers
But there are disciplines... that don't belong to any of these circles. Too slow? Too low profile? Not always. How do you explain the fact that badminton has no watch sponsor, even though the international federation is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year and its driving force is in China, a huge watch market? What badminton players need is a watch that is ultra-light and, above all, resistant to Gs. Perhaps the Aïkon #TIDE from Maurice Lacroix, with its foolproof recycled strap and quartz movement, could be the ideal badminton watch!
Water you doing here?
We are surprised to see the same absence for Canoeing/kayaking, which also has two events at the Olympics (sprint and slalom). The discipline has no watch sponsor. However, a brand with very high resistance to water, pressure and shocks would be most welcome. A tailor-made role for a Ralf Tech WRC maybe. What's more, with 100,000 hours of autonomy, athletes in both disciplines could compete in several editions of the Olympics... with the same watch!
Bull's-eye
The absence of a watch sponsor for archery is even more surprising: not only is it a highly precise discipline, but it also has its roots in Japan, a watchmaking nation if ever there was one. For a company like Patek Philippe, which has always maintained very close links with Japan (see the most recent exhibition there, just a year ago, which was a huge success), the link would be immediate. In the spirit of Japanese “less is more”, the sobriety of a Calatrava 6119, with its arrow-shaped hands, would be ideal for archers.
A marketing target
Finally, it is regrettable that there are no watchmakers involved in Olympic shooting sports, represented by the International Shooting Sport Federation. And yet, when it comes to ultra-precision, concentration and mastery, this discipline is king. Too sulphurous? Not for ArtyA. The Geneva workshop has already produced a number of models dedicated to the world of ballistics. The aptly named Son of a Gun seems to have been designed for the occasion. So, what about an Olympic model?
