One of the longest-standing sports sponsorships came to and end last year when TAG Heuer stopped its 30-year association with the McLaren Formula 1 team. The acrimonious split came after McLaren CEO Ron Dennis was unable to see eye-to-eye with Jean-Claude Biver, CEO of TAG Heuer. The La Chaux-de-Fonds brand switched its allegiance to Red Bull Racing in an intriguing deal that gives the brand extra visibility as the naming sponsor of the engine on the 2016 Red Bull TAG Heuer. On the official f1.com website, TAG Heuer is actually listed alongside Ferrari, Honda, Mercedes and Renault as the power unit supplier for the Red Bull Racing team!
TAG Heuer has not spent the winter developing a racing car engine to rival those of Ferrari and Mercedes. This is just a quirk of Formula 1 politics, since after falling out with Renault, Red Bull still gets to use their engines for an extra year while they try to find a replacement. TAG Heuer may be more interested in making Formula 1 and Red Bull Racing content accessible to the wearers of its insanely successful Carrera Connected smartwatch.
The shock news from TAG Heuer was not the only horological bombshell for the 2016 Formula 1 season, however. In early February, aviation-mad French brand Bell & Ross announced a Gallic partnership with the new Renault Sport team, which took over the former Lotus team. Later the same month came a double-whammy from Richard Mille, announcing a 10-year deal with McLaren on Friday 19th February and another deal with newcomer Haas F1 the following Monday.
Watch sponsorships can therefore sometimes be as confusing as the engine deals between the teams. Here is our overview of the 2016 horological Formula 1 line-up.
Mercedes AMG Petronas - IWC
World Champion Lews Hamilton and his team-mate Nico Rosberg will once again have the image of an IWC printed on their racing gloves. But which one?
Scuderia Ferrari
Things are clear at the Maranello-based team, which has had close ties with Hublot for a number of years now.
McLaren Honda – Richard Mille
The sporty brand will be a long-term presence on the McLaren car after the brand signed a 10-year partnership agreement with the team.
Haas F1 – Richard Mille
Is there potential for synergies between the new team and its watch partner? Team owner Gene Haas also owns Haas Automation, one of the leading US suppliers of CNC machines – a vital ingredient in watch manufacturing, especially for Richard Mille, which has to completely clean and reset its CNC machines after producing just a handful of its complicated carbon-fibre cases.
Red Bull Racing – TAG Heuer
Compared to the discreet logos of Richard Mille on two teams, TAG Heuer has a strong presence on the Red Bull car, thanks to the brand’s status as official engine supplier.
Sauber - Edox
Another long-standing watch partnership comes to a close as Edox replaces the Swatch Group’s Certina as the official watch of Switzerland’s Formula 1 team for the 2016. Certina had been a partner of Sauber for 10 years.
Williams Martini Racing – Oris
Oris is the official watch of the team, but Felipe Massa, like all Richard Mille emissaries, wears one of the brand’s high-tech models to his day job
Renault Sport – Bell & Ross
The “new” Renault team keeps the French theme with its horological association with Bell & Ross. For the Paris-based brand it’s a big departure from its traditional aviation-inspired designs. Could we see a new round chronograph in Basel this year?
Toro Rosso - Casio
Red Bull understudy Toro Rosso recovered the big team's original watch sponsor, Casio, for the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
Two teams remain without an official watch supplier for the 2016 Formula 1 season, the biggest of which, Sahara Force India, offers exposure to two giant markets: India (consistently in the top 10 countries in terms of visitors to WorldTempus) and watch-savvy Mexico, through driver Sergio Perez and the championship’s return to Mexico last year.
