From Rado to Hublot: why watch brands are finally padding up for cricket

Luke Benedictus

For most of the planet, cricket is totally unfathomable. Even in England, there used to be a common tea towel (see below) that highlighted what a charming nonsense of a game it truly was. Test cricket – the long-form version of the game played at international level – must seem particularly absurd to anyone who hasn’t grown up with the sport. A Test match can last up to five days between two teams of 11 players (both wearing the same colour shirts) and still often results in a draw. In a world with an ever-decreasing attention span, Test cricket must seem arcane and hopelessly lethargic to many bemused onlookers: another strange English eccentricity like constantly apologising or eating pickled eggs.

Yet, if you grew up in England or one of its former colonies, cricket is still the soundtrack to the summer. On the subcontinent, the sport is akin to a religion, and when India plays Pakistan, the rivalry is arguably the most passionate of any international sport. When England play Australia, meanwhile – in a Test series known as The Ashes – it’s also a massive deal. My father-in-law missed the birth of his first-born child (my wife) because it was day three of the Ashes at the MCG. Not even day one, you should note, day three!

Indeed, by the numbers, cricket is one of the most popular sports in the world, second only to soccer, boasting a global viewership of over 2.5 billion people. Yet the watch industry has long overlooked cricket: watch brands typically love getting in bed with international sports, but given that most of the world’s top watch brands are predominantly based in Switzerland – a country far too sensible and efficient to bother with cricket – they’ve traditionally been slow to get involved with the sport. But that’s finally starting to change.

The first brand to make a real commitment to the sport was serial disruptor Hublot. In 2015, the brand became the official timekeeper for the Cricket World Cup, a relationship they’ve sustained ever since. Why did they get involved? Mainly because, when it comes to brand reach, the numbers make emphatic sense. According to Nielsen figures, 1.6 billion people watched the 2019 World Cup compared to around 113 million for the last Super Bowl. Better still, the fact that cricket is a less competitive environment from a marketing perspective than other sports with a global footprint makes it relatively affordable to sponsor. Former Hublot CEO Ricardo Guadalupe admitted that the Cricket World Cup partnership cost the brand a comparatively modest figure in the “single millions” of dollars. In addition, cricket also offers a way to tap into India, now the world’s most populous country, where the sport is devoured by millions of super-fans with boggle-eyed glee. And the numbers don’t lie: since its involvement in cricket, Hublot has enjoyed double-digit growth in India.

Rado is another brand that’s padded up to get involved in the sport. Last year, the brand penned a new multi-year partnership to become the official timing partner of the England and Wales Cricket Board across all international fixtures for England men’s and women’s cricket. Rado also has eyes on Australia’s cricket stars, the brand having just unveiled Cameron Green – one of the world’s best all-rounders – as its latest brand ambassador. These partnerships should drive Rado’s brand awareness in the UK and Australia, while further cementing their position in India – their second biggest global market (Cameron Green in particular also plays for the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League). You don’t need to know your dibblie-dobblies from your Duckworth Lewis Method to appreciate that these are partnerships that make sense.

Another brand that’s getting involved in cricket is Oris, which became a partner of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and the first Official Timekeeper of Lord’s earlier this year. This is also significant as the MCC is the sport’s foundational club: not only is it the most active cricket club in the world, but it was formerly the governing body for the game, and remains the guardian of the Laws of Cricket, the game’s sporting code. Lord’s, which is also known as the ‘Home of Cricket’, is the world’s most famous cricket ground (other than the Melbourne Cricket Ground, of course). In short: a statement of intent from Oris.

But as watch enthusiasts, why should we care about brands getting in bed with cricket? It’s easy to dismiss these developments as just marketing exercises – big whoop – but the reality is that these partnerships will help draw more attention to mechanical watchmaking, keeping our hobby profuse. You might not be a cricket fan, but it’s ultimately good news if these partnerships create more watch fans.