Over the span of a year or so, I realized that the Renault F1 Team was an unusually crowded place during the 2005 season when it came to watch partnerships and releases.
I had first landed on Chronotech, which was the team’s watch sponsor. Some releases were tied to wins and podiums, which meant that the names of Fernando Alonso and/or Giancarlo Fisichella would periodically appear on the caseback.
Nothing terribly unusual about that, except I later discovered that Alonso also had a separate watch deal with Sandoz that year.
This meant that the Spanish driver’s identity was appearing on watches made by two different brands at the same time. And while the Chronotech logo featured prominently on his Renault R25, Alonso’s racing suit was advertising Sandoz.
And then there was the team boss.
In the very same year, Flavio Briatore also had a collaboration with de Grisogono to develop the Power Breaker. The model was produced in different combinations of materials, with the first 500 examples of each version featuring Briatore’s engraved signature on the caseback. What struck me as truly strange was that the rubber straps were also stamped with the official F1 logo.
That’s quite a lot of watch activity within one team.