Tennis Stars 2026 and the Watch Brands That Back Them
On the wrist at center court: eight watch brands, eight stories, and the players wearing them. From Roger Federer and Rolex to Flavio Cobolli and Bianchet, here is who is backing the biggest names in professional tennis right now.
There is a reason that when a Grand Slam champion raises a trophy, the first thing a watch enthusiast does is reach for the zoom. Tennis and horology have been quietly sharing a court since 1978, when Rolex took its seat as the official timekeeper at Wimbledon, and the relationship has only grown more complex, more competitive, and considerably more interesting since then. Today, the ATP and WTA tours represent something closer to a traveling exhibition of haute horlogerie than a simple sporting calendar, spanning independents, Swiss institutions, and everything in between.
What makes tennis unusual within the broader landscape of sports sponsorship is the intimacy of the relationship between player and watch. Unlike football, where a jersey patch is the only real canvas, tennis gives a watch room to breathe. Players are photographed in close-up constantly, in post-match interviews, at trophy presentations, on red carpets. The wrist is always in frame. Some partnerships have produced watches that would not exist without the specific demands of a specific player. That is a different kind of relationship entirely.
Here is a look at eight of the most significant brand and ambassador pairings in the sport right now.
Rolex
Roger Federer, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, and Coco Gauff
No conversation about Rolex and tennis begins without Roger Federer. The partnership started in 2001 and has shaped how luxury watchmaking relates to professional sport more than any other single relationship in the category. Even in retirement, Federer remains Rolex’s primary tennis ambassador, appearing at Watches and Wonders 2025 in Geneva wearing the unreleased Land-Dweller days before its official launch, and at the 2025 Laver Cup in San Francisco with a sapphire-set obsidian-dial Daytona that generated more conversation than most watch releases that year. His current contract runs to 2026, and few expect it to end there.
Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner represent Rolex’s present tense. Both are Testimonees, and the 2025 Roland Garros men’s final between the two of them, lasting five hours and twenty-nine minutes and the longest in the tournament’s history, was as much a Rolex moment as a tennis one. Alcaraz has been photographed at Roland Garros with the Cosmograph Daytona in platinum, wearing the ice blue dial the brand reserves for its platinum references. Sinner favors the Daytona on a black rubber strap, a slightly more athletic presentation of the same watch.
Coco Gauff rounds out the headline names. She became a Testimonee before her 2023 US Open win and has consistently chosen from the Lady-Datejust family, including a purple diamond dial version at Roland Garros 2025. Taylor Fritz, Holger Rune, Iga Swiatek, and Qinwen Zheng extend the roster further, giving Rolex a presence across virtually every significant match of the season.
Key watches: Rolex Cosmograph Daytona · Rolex Lady-Datejust · Rolex Oyster Perpetual Land-Dweller
Richard Mille
Rafael Nadal and Sebastian Korda
The partnership between Rafael Nadal and Richard Mille is probably the most technically consequential ambassador relationship in the history of watchmaking. Nadal has been with the brand since 2010, and together they developed a series of watches built to withstand the specific g-forces his game produces. The RM 027 collection was the foundation, and the RM 27-05 Flying Tourbillon, unveiled in 2024 and limited to 80 pieces, represents its culmination: weighing just 11.5 grams and rated to absorb 14,000 Gs, it is the lightest and most shock-resistant manual-winding tourbillon ever made. Nadal wore it at Roland Garros 2024 during his final appearance at the event.
Sebastian Korda joined the Richard Mille roster in 2022 and has regularly worn the RM 67-02 on court, an automatic piece designed specifically for athletic performance, engineered in Carbon TPT and Quartz TPT and weighing just 32 grams. The RM 67-02 represents the more accessible register of Richard Mille’s sports-watch philosophy: still technically serious, still built to move with the body, but positioned for players who are at the beginning of a long relationship with the brand rather than at the end of a 14-year one.
Key watches: Richard Mille RM 27-05 Flying Tourbillon · Richard Mille RM 67-02
Bianchet
Grigor Dimitrov, Alexander Bublik, and Flavio Cobolli
Bianchet is the most tennis-invested independent in watchmaking right now, and the depth of its ambassador relationships is something the larger brands would struggle to match on a purely qualitative basis. Founded in Neuchâtel in 2017 by Rodolfo and Emmanuelle Festa Bianchet, the maison built its identity around the flying tourbillon and the proportional logic of the golden ratio, producing watches designed to withstand the specific shock demands of professional sport.
Grigor Dimitrov joined as a global ambassador and brand partner in 2023, a distinction worth noting: he is not merely a face for the brand but holds an equity stake in it. The Bulgarian, a former world number three and a lifelong watch collector, wears the Tourbillon B1.618 Openwork in Titanium-Dust-Carbon, a limited edition presented at Watches and Wonders in Geneva. His alignment with Bianchet is driven by genuine horological enthusiasm: “What drove me to join Bianchet was the intrinsic beauty of their watches, which can be appreciated in every detail, as well as their exquisite craftsmanship,” he has said.
Alexander Bublik came on board in 2024 following his victory at the Open Sud de France, wearing the Flying Tourbillon Grande Date and the Tourbillon Openwork B1.618 on court. Both pieces are rated to 5,000 Gs of shock resistance, a technical claim the Kazakh’s aggressive game tests with regularity. “I love wearing Bianchet watches when I play because they are incredibly comfortable and don’t hinder my performance in any way,” Bublik has said, adding that watching the tourbillon rotate mid-match is something he actively enjoys.
Flavio Cobolli completes the trio. Nicknamed il gladiatore by the Italian press, the Roman player embodies a rare alliance of power, precision, and elegance, and the Bianchet partnership reflects an alignment of character as much as brand strategy. Since the Australian Open, the B1.618 UltraFino Tonneau Flying Tourbillon has not left his wrist, a shock-resistant piece and a statement of intent from a player in the middle of a remarkable rise.
Key watches: Bianchet Tourbillon B1.618 Openwork · Bianchet Flying Tourbillon Grande Date · Bianchet B1.618 UltraFino Tonneau
Hublot: Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic joined Hublot in 2021, and the partnership produced one of the most conceptually ambitious signature watches in tennis. The Big Bang Unico Novak Djokovic, limited to 100 pieces and unveiled in late 2024, was made in part from 25 crushed HEAD rackets and 32 shredded Lacoste polo shirts worn by Djokovic during his record-breaking 2023 season, in which he claimed his 24th Grand Slam title. The resulting bio-sourced composite forms the case of a watch housing Hublot’s Unico manufacture chronograph, and the choice to use Djokovic’s literal match equipment rather than merely referencing his achievements in the design is what gives the piece its meaning. He is currently the only tennis ambassador on Hublot’s roster.
Key watches: Hublot Big Bang Unico Novak Djokovic · Hublot Big Bang Integrated
Audemars Piguet: Aryna Sabalenka
When Sabalenka walked off the court at the 2024 US Open, the rainbow-colored Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph she wore went viral before the press conference was over. Audemars Piguet made the relationship official weeks later. The partnership made immediate sense: her game is physically emphatic in a way that the Royal Oak’s industrial sporting DNA mirrors well. More telling is her personal engagement with the collection, which includes a smoked blue ceramic flying tourbillon from the Royal Oak 50th anniversary series and a yellow gold piece with a turquoise stone dial, a collection that across its photographed references clears seven figures. That level of product knowledge distinguishes Sabalenka as one of the more serious AP collectors in professional sport.
Key watches: Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph · Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Flying Tourbillon Ceramic
Jacob & Co: Alexander Zverev
Zverev was announced as a Jacob & Co. ambassador in January 2025, and the New York independent brand was fast to demonstrate what the relationship would look like. He appeared at Roland Garros that year wearing the Casino Tourbillon, a rose gold piece with a black aventurine dial incorporating a functioning miniature roulette wheel, and at the 2025 US Open with the Bugatti Tourbillon in rose gold, valued at $430,000 and among the most expensive watches seen at the entire tournament. For a brand whose identity sits at the intersection of technical ambition and maximalist design, Zverev is a natural fit. He is not a subtle player, and the watches reflect that.
Key watches: Jacob & Co. Epic X Titanium · Jacob & Co. Casino Tourbillon · Jacob & Co. Bugatti Tourbillon
De Bethune: Tommy Paul and Jessica Pegula
De Bethune does not court mainstream visibility. The Le Locle independent has built technically and aesthetically singular watches since 2002 for an audience that arrives through genuine curiosity. Which makes its emergence on the ATP and WTA tours a genuinely interesting cultural signal. Tommy Paul became a brand ambassador at Wimbledon in 2023 and wore a DB28 LTC on court that stopped watch enthusiasts mid-scroll, a piece whose spherical moon phase and finishing quality belong to a very different world than most players are prepared to engage with publicly.
Jessica Pegula brought De Bethune onto the women’s tour wearing the DB28xs Purple Rain, a titanium piece with a natural purple tone that sits at the far end of accessible. Between the two of them, De Bethune has established a presence in the sport that the collector community has taken notice of, and that the broader watch press is increasingly unable to ignore.
Key watches: De Bethune DB28 LTC · De Bethune DB28xs Purple Rain
Maurice Lacroix: Marcelo Arévalo and Tomás Etcheverry
Maurice Lacroix takes a different approach to ambassador relationships than most watch brands. The ML Collective, launched in 2025, is built around one condition: the member has to genuinely love the watch. No imposed messaging, no scripted preferences, just a shared connection to the product that finds its own expression. It is a framework that suits tennis well, and the two players who have joined it so far make that case convincingly.
Marcelo Arévalo is the highest-ranked tennis player in El Salvador’s history and the current ATP World No. 1 in doubles, a position he reached in November 2024. A two-time Roland Garros doubles champion alongside Jean-Julien Rojer in 2022 and Mate Pavić in 2024, he was already wearing a Maurice Lacroix AIKON Tide in the colors of the Salvadoran flag during competition before any formal conversation with the brand had taken place. The relationship began with the brand noticing the watch on his wrist rather than the other way around, which is precisely the kind of origin story the ML Collective was designed to create.
Tomás Etcheverry brings the same authenticity from a different angle. The Argentine, nicknamed Tomy, climbed to World No. 25 in May 2026 and claimed his first ATP title at the 2026 Rio Open. A clay-court specialist with the temperament of a fighter, he has spoken about the Maurice Lacroix relationship in terms that echo the brand’s philosophy: the time you invest always pays off. On a tour where most watch partnerships are negotiated at the brand’s initiative, Etcheverry and Arévalo represent players who arrived at the watches first.
Key watches: Maurice Lacroix AIKON Tide, Maurice Lacroix AIKON
Why Tennis and Watches Make Sense Together
The connection is not a marketing accident. Tennis is one of the few professional disciplines where precision timing is both visually present and philosophically central. The wrist is always in frame, the individual always in close-up, and the camera always looking for the detail that separates the best from everyone else. What has shifted in the current generation is that an increasing number of players on both tours are genuinely interested in watches as objects. Tommy Paul wearing a De Bethune on court, Coco Gauff choosing a discontinued Oyster Perpetual at her US Open victory, Aryna Sabalenka assembling a Royal Oak collection that would be the envy of most serious collectors, Grigor Dimitrov taking an equity stake in a watchmaker: these are not brand performance moments. They are a generation of players who understand the watch conversation well enough to participate in it authentically. For anyone following both tennis and horology, that convergence is one of the most interesting things happening in either world right now.