Article Financial Times : Breitling scores big with NFL sponsorship deal
Watchmaker’s partnership with the American football league aims to transform its US market, tapping into a diverse, passionate audience with team-branded timepieces
Last week, Breitling announced a “multiyear” global sponsorship deal with America’s National Football League, the NFL, the world’s richest sports league. The Swiss watch company, which is majority owned by global private equity firm Partners Group, has not disclosed the value of the deal, but analysts suggest it could be worth as much as $30mn a year.
The deal has been coming for a while. In the spring of 2024, Breitling released a solid gold version of its Chronomat to time with Super Bowl LVIII, the sport’s season-ending showpiece. Then this time last year, it released a US-only collection of 32 watches, one for each of the NFL’s teams, and each limited to 104 pieces to mark the NFL’s founding in 1920.
Breitling chief executive Georges Kern says the NFL was one of the last unchartered territories for Swiss luxury watch companies, which have relied heavily on elite-level sport to reach consumers in recent years. “We don’t have F1 or the Olympics, but we were looking for a big property,” says Kern. “It’s just perfect, because nobody did it.”
Many of Switzerland’s leading watch brands have high-level sports sponsorship deals. Rolex, the industry leader, controls golf and tennis sponsorship; Hublot has been sponsoring the Fifa World Cup since 2010; Omega continues to time the Olympics; and in January Tag Heuer went back into Formula 1 as part of a deal reported to be worth $1bn over 10 years.
“Hublot was a pioneer in developing soccer when people said it wasn’t a place for watch brands, but they got a lot out of it,” says Anthony Schaub, founder of the Geneva-based The Consultancy Group. “The opportunity could be the same for Breitling because not a lot of brands are present there.” Schaub says Breitling’s deal would be worth $20-30mn. “A [TV] spot during the Super Bowl costs $7mn for 30 seconds,” he adds.
Written by Robin Swithinbank
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