In the evening of 22nd of November, Sönke Rothenberger got up on stage at Prince Park Tower in Tokyo to be presented the Longines Rising Star by Juan-Carlos Capelli, Vice President of Longines and Head of International Marketing. The dressage rider received the Conquest Classic watch fitted with a self-winding caliber.
Sönke Rothenberger has been gathering medals and champion titles since almost 10 years, including the 2016 Olympic Team Gold in Rio. The rookie talent of steely nerves and his mount Cosmo were the youngest couple at the Olympic Dressage Competitions in Rio, with a combined age of 30.
Longines is particularly pleased to participate to the FEI awards, which were set up in 2009 to acknowledge the contribution of personalities and organizations to progress in equestrian sports, both indoor and outdoor. The Longines Rising Star rewards athletes between the ages of 14 and 21 who demonstrate outstanding sporting talent. On a larger scale, the Swiss watch brand wishes to encourage youngsters to practice sports.
This year, the watchmaker is celebrating its 105th year of commitment to the discipline of show jumping as it was associated for the first time to an international competition in 1912 in Portugal. To mark this anniversary, Longines presented the FEI with a timepiece of a very limited series of its equestrian collection, The Longines Equestrian Pocket Watch Horses Trio 1911. The 18-carat rose gold pocket watch decorated with an engraving of a trio of horses takes inspiration from a metal Lépine pocket watch produced in 1911 and kept at the Longines Saint-Imier museum. The piece will be permanently showcased at the museum of the FEI in Lausanne, Switzerland.
