Rolex and The Championships, Wimbledon
Rolex first partnered with The Championships, Wimbledon, in 1978. The world’s oldest tennis tournament is the temple of lawn tennis and of the original game. It is also where athletes become legends.
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Published on December 05, 2024
Rolex is the Official Timekeeper and one of the major partners of all the leading tournaments. The story began at The Championships, Wimbledon, in 1978 when the brand first became involved with a sport that was capturing the world’s attention like never before.
The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in south-west London has hosted The Championships since the inaugural edition in 1877. The world’s oldest tennis tournament, Wimbledon is the home of the sport and its grass court temple.
A temple of tennis tradition
Above the players’ entrance to Centre Court, which seats 15,000 spectators, lines from the poem If by Rudyard Kipling read:
If you can meet with
Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two
impostors just the same
These verses encapsulate the event’s philosophy because, at Wimbledon, the greatness of the sport lies not in victory but in the humility and perseverance of the champions.
The scene of major showdowns
The intensity of Wimbledon finals on Centre Court means they live on in the memory as extraordinary moments of tennis history. Epic battles between the likes of Rod Laver and John Newcombe, Björn Borg and John McEnroe, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have been written into the legend of Wimbledon and world tennis.
This unprecedented level of sporting excellence strikes a chord with an ethos intrinsic to Rolex and a natural partnership has developed at all the major tennis events.
