Formula 1 cars are built around split-second timing, and that is exactly why watch brands love this sport so much. A pit stop can be won or lost in under two seconds, a race can be decided by a few thousandths at the finish line, and every lap is measured down to the smallest fraction of time possible. That obsession with precision is the same obsession that drives watchmakers, which is why nearly every team on the grid now wears a timepiece brand on its overalls, race suits, and garage walls. Some of these partnerships go back decades, while others are brand new for the 2026 season, and each one tells a slightly different story about how racing and watchmaking borrow from each other.
Nine of the eleven teams on the 2026 grid currently carry an official watch sponsor:
| Team | Watch Sponsor |
|---|---|
| Formula 1 (official timekeeper) | TAG Heuer |
| Oracle Red Bull Racing | TAG Heuer |
| Scuderia Ferrari | Richard Mille |
| McLaren | Richard Mille |
| Mercedes-AMG Petronas | IWC Schaffhausen |
| Aston Martin Aramco | Breitling |
| BWT Alpine | H. Moser & Cie |
| Williams Racing | Girard-Perregaux |
| Visa Cash App Racing Bulls | Tudor |
| TGR Haas | None |
| Audi F1 Team | None |
| Cadillac | None |
Why Do Watch Brands Sponsor Formula 1 Teams?
Watch brands sponsor F1 teams because both worlds are obsessed with the same things: precision, speed, and engineering under pressure. A mechanical watch and a race car both rely on tiny, perfectly built parts working together without failure, so the connection feels natural rather than forced.
There is also a simple business reason. Formula 1 reaches hundreds of millions of viewers across a season, and that audience skews toward people who can afford, or at least dream about, a luxury watch. Putting a logo on a car, a race suit, or a driver’s wrist puts that brand in front of exactly the kind of buyer it wants to reach, race after race, all around the world.
Many of these deals go further than just a logo. Brands like IWC and Richard Mille describe themselves as “engineering partners,” meaning their own designers sometimes work directly with a team’s technical staff, borrowing materials or finishing techniques from the car itself.
Formula 1’s Official Timekeeper: TAG Heuer
TAG Heuer is not tied to one team. It is the official timekeeper of the entire Formula 1 championship, which means its name shows up on timing towers, trackside clocks, and broadcast graphics at every single race.
TAG Heuer’s motorsport roots go back further than any other brand’s on the grid today. In 1971, it became the very first watch company ever to put its name on a Formula 1 team, more than four decades before most of its current rivals had even entered the sport. Because of it, TAG Heuer became the official timekeeper of Formula 1 again in 2025, as part of a wider partnership between Formula 1 and LVMH, the French luxury group that owns TAG Heuer.
This role is separate from, and sits above, any individual team sponsorship. A fan of any team, from Ferrari to Haas, will still see TAG Heuer branding all weekend, since it belongs to the sport itself rather than to a single garage.
Red Bull’s Watch Sponsor: TAG Heuer
TAG Heuer’s team-level partner is Red Bull Racing, a relationship that has been running since 2016. That gives the brand a rare double presence in the paddock: it supplies the sport’s official timing and also sits directly on one of the most successful teams of the last decade.
That pairing puts TAG Heuer watches on the wrist of Max Verstappen, one of the most photographed drivers in the sport right now. Every trophy photo and podium celebration becomes free advertising, which is a big part of why this partnership has stayed so visible for so many seasons.
The collaboration goes beyond just a logo on the car. TAG Heuer’s designers worked directly with Red Bull Racing to co-create the TAG Heuer Formula 1 Chronograph x Oracle Red Bull Racing, a special edition finished in the team’s navy, red, and yellow colors, with a caseback engraved with Red Bull’s branding. TAG Heuer released an updated version of the watch in 2025 to mark Red Bull Racing’s 20th season in Formula 1.
Ferrari’s Watch Sponsor: Richard Mille
Richard Mille is Ferrari’s official watch partner, a role it took over in 2021 after Ferrari’s previous nine-year run with Hublot came to an end. The fit makes sense once you look at how both brands operate: Richard Mille’s own slogan is “a racing machine on the wrist,” and the brand borrows materials and construction methods straight from motorsport engineering.
Ferrari brings over a century of Italian racing heritage and a fan base that treats the team almost like a religion. Richard Mille brings extreme, no-compromise engineering and a price tag to match. One of the most talked-about results of the partnership is the RM UP-01 Ferrari, which briefly held the record for the world’s thinnest mechanical watch and has been worn by celebrities including Pharrell Williams.
The relationship also runs deeper than a single sponsorship deal. Richard Mille first backed Ferrari’s current star driver, Charles Leclerc, all the way back in 2009, while he was still competing in karting, so the connection between driver and watchmaker existed years before the brand signed its official team partnership with Ferrari.
McLaren’s Watch Sponsor: Richard Mille
Richard Mille does not stop at Ferrari. It also sponsors McLaren, giving the brand a foothold on two of the oldest and most decorated teams in Formula 1 history, and making it the only watchmaker on the current grid tied to two separate teams.
The relationship with McLaren began in 2016, replacing a three-decade partnership McLaren had previously held with TAG Heuer, and it locked in a ten-year term that makes it one of the longest-running watch sponsorships on the entire grid. The first watch to come out of the deal was the RM 50-03 Tourbillon Split-Seconds Chronograph McLaren F1, revealed in 2017 in a limited run of 75 pieces. A second, more widely seen model followed in 2018: the RM 11-03 McLaren, an automatic flyback chronograph with a case built from Carbon TPT interlaced with Orange Quartz TPT and titanium pushers shaped after details on McLaren’s own road cars. Having two rival teams under one watch brand is unusual in F1, but it shows just how much marketing value Richard Mille sees in the sport.
Mercedes’ Watch Sponsor: IWC Schaffhausen
IWC Schaffhausen is the “Official Engineering Partner” of Mercedes-AMG Petronas, a role it has held since 2013, following an earlier commercial relationship with Mercedes-AMG road cars that started back in 2004. The partnership works because both brands share a reputation for serious, no-nonsense engineering rather than flashy design. IWC built its name on pilot’s watches and dive watches meant to survive real, tough conditions, not just sit in a display case.
That same quiet, understated confidence runs through the Mercedes team, which won eight consecutive constructors’ championships between 2014 and 2021, the longest such streak in F1 history. IWC has marked the partnership with a steady stream of team-specific watches, including the Pilot’s Watch Performance Chronograph 41 in Ceratanium in 2023 and the titanium-cased Pilot’s Watch Mark XX Mercedes-AMG Petronas edition released for the 2025 season. Even the colors line up, since the silvers, blacks, and blues of the Mercedes livery match IWC’s own restrained, cool-toned style.
Aston Martin’s Watch Sponsor: Breitling
Breitling became Aston Martin’s official watch partner in February 2026, making it one of the newest deals on the grid heading into the season. The partnership includes special edition watches such as the Navitimer B01 Chronograph 43 Aston Martin Aramco edition, which draws on the brand’s racing heritage.
Breitling made its name building cockpit instruments and chronographs for pilots long before it became a lifestyle brand, and Aston Martin has spent decades building some of the world’s most desirable sports cars. Both companies have also gone through major reinventions recently, updating their designs while keeping their heritage intact, which gives this brand-new partnership a natural sense of shared direction even this early on.
Alpine’s Watch Sponsor: H. Moser & Cie
Alpine’s watch partner is H. Moser & Cie, an independent Swiss watchmaker with a habit of breaking its own industry’s rules. It has sold pieces with nothing printed on the dial at all, and its ad campaigns often poke fun at the marketing tropes most Swiss watch brands take deadly seriously.
The partnership began in February 2024, when Moser took over as the team’s watch sponsor from Bell & Ross, which had held the role for years under both the Alpine and earlier Renault F1 names. That rebellious streak matches Alpine’s own position in F1 as a French constructor trying to carve out space in a field dominated by bigger-budget rivals. Both brands are, in a sense, underdogs, and the two brought that spirit to life fast: the first collaborative watch, the Streamliner Cylindrical Tourbillon Skeleton Alpine Limited Edition, was designed and released within about six weeks of the deal being announced, in a run of just 100 pieces finished in Alpine’s racing blue.
Williams’ Watch Sponsor: Girard-Perregaux
Williams teamed up with Girard-Perregaux for the 2026 season, pairing one of the oldest teams in Formula 1 with one of the oldest watchmakers in Switzerland. Girard-Perregaux was founded in 1791, and Williams is one of the most storied constructors on the F1 grid, having won nine constructors’ championships between the 1980s and 1990s.
Both brands have lived through periods of total dominance followed by long stretches of rebuilding, so the pairing carries a nice symmetry. The partnership is still new, and a dedicated Williams team watch has not yet launched, so the models seen so far, including a Girard-Perregaux Deep Diver produced in collaboration with retailer Bamford London, come from before the F1 deal was signed rather than from it directly.
Racing Bulls’ Watch Sponsor: Tudor
Tudor, the sister brand to Rolex, sponsors Visa Cash App Racing Bulls, which happens to be Red Bull’s junior team. The deal was announced in February 2024, timed to the team’s rebrand from Scuderia AlphaTauri to Visa Cash App RB, and it marked the first time Tudor had partnered directly with a Formula 1 team. The brand had already worked with Red Bull’s sailing team, Alinghi Red Bull Racing, in 2023, so the move into F1 followed a relationship that was already in place.
Tudor also has real racing history of its own, having supported winning teams during motorsport’s golden era in the 1970s, and it currently serves as the official timekeeper of the Dakar Rally. Drivers from the team, including Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda, have been photographed wearing exclusive, team-only editions of the Tudor Black Bay Ceramic, one finished in blue and another in a multi-colored “Chameleon” design that matched the car’s special livery. Only two of the Chameleon watches were ever made, one for each driver, and Tudor has said neither version will be sold to the public.
Teams Without a Watch Sponsor
Not every team on the 2026 grid has signed a watch partner yet. That does not mean drivers show up bare-wristed, since many still wear watches through personal, individual sponsorship deals rather than a team-wide one.
| Team | Watch Sponsor Status |
|---|---|
| TGR Haas | No official watch sponsor |
| Audi F1 Team | No official watch sponsor |
| Cadillac | No official watch sponsor (debut season) |
Cadillac is a brand new team for 2026, so it makes sense that a watch deal has not landed yet. Haas actually had a watch sponsor once before: Richard Mille backed the team from its debut season in 2016 through the 2020 championship, though the partnership never produced a team-specific watch and was not renewed afterward. Audi’s F1 project is built on the foundations of the old Sauber team, which had its own watch history too: Certina sponsored Sauber from 2005 to 2015, and independent brand Rebellion Timepieces stepped in afterward, in 2016 and again from 2022 to 2023, before the seat went empty ahead of the Audi takeover.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which watch brand sponsors the most Formula 1 teams?
Richard Mille sponsors two teams, Ferrari and McLaren, more than any other watch brand on the current grid. TAG Heuer comes close in terms of overall visibility, since it sponsors Red Bull Racing directly and also serves as the official timekeeper for the entire sport.
Is TAG Heuer the official watch of all of Formula 1?
Yes, TAG Heuer holds the title of official timekeeper for the whole championship, which is separate from its specific sponsorship of Red Bull Racing. That means its branding appears at every single race weekend, no matter which team a fan follows.
Do Formula 1 drivers actually wear the watches their team sponsors?
Usually, yes, especially during official team appearances, press conferences, and podium celebrations. Some drivers also have their own personal watch sponsorships that are separate from the team deal, so it is worth checking whether a photo shows a team watch or a driver’s individual partner brand.
Why do some F1 teams not have a watch sponsor?
Newer or smaller-budget teams sometimes take longer to attract a watch sponsor, since these deals are often tied to a team’s on-track success and overall visibility. Brand new teams, like Cadillac in 2026, also simply have not had enough time yet to finalize this kind of partnership, even though teams like Haas and Sauber have each had watch sponsors in the past.
Are the team-edition watches sold to the public?
It depends on the brand and the specific model. Some, like Richard Mille’s McLaren and Ferrari editions, are sold through normal retail channels at extremely high prices, while others, like the Tudor Black Bay editions made for Racing Bulls drivers, are produced in tiny numbers and never offered for public sale at all.
Conclusion
Formula 1’s watch sponsorships are not just logos slapped onto a car for a season. Each pairing, from TAG Heuer’s decades-long grip on official timekeeping to Alpine’s playful partnership with H. Moser & Cie, tells you something real about how a team wants to be seen. Richard Mille’s grip on both Ferrari and McLaren shows how far one brand can stretch across a single sport, while newer deals like Aston Martin’s with Breitling and Williams’ with Girard-Perregaux prove that fresh partnerships keep forming as teams evolve, and the history behind Haas and Sauber’s old sponsorships shows that even the seats without a watch brand today have a decent chance of filling up again. Watching which brand sits on which team’s overalls has become its own small tradition for F1 fans, right alongside watching who wins on Sunday.
