Swiss watchmaker Breitling today announced a new three-year sponsorship deal with the NFL, the world’s richest sports league. The deal, which sees the watchmaker become the NFL’s “Official Timepiece”, is thought by analysts to be worth as much as $30 million a year.
At a launch event attended by Breitling ambassador Austin Butler, New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, Breitling also unveiled 64 watch models featuring the colours and logos of the NFL’s 32 teams, priced up to $6,600. The company said it would not be timing games or displaying its branding pitch-side, but that it had secured the licence to use NFL and team branding alongside the official watches at its points of sale.
Breitling chief executive Georges Kern said the deal would enable his company to compete with luxury watch brands whose partnerships already dominate other popular sports. “We don’t have Formula 1, we don’t have the Olympics and we don’t have football,” he said. “We were looking for a major property and now we are the first luxury brand sponsor of the NFL.”
Omega has timed the Olympics on 31 occasions, including in Paris last year; TAG Heuer replaced Rolex as Formula 1 timekeeper earlier this year; and Hublot will be pitch-side at every match during next summer’s FIFA World Cup, hosted in the US, Canada and Mexico. Rolex dominates golf and tennis with partnerships at all four of each sport’s majors.
The NFL deal seeks Breitling officialising its foray into the sport after it released a limited-edition watch collection in the US last year. Otherwise, it has no historic connections to the sport. “We partner with sports and people that fit us and that are relevant for the market,” said Kern.
Analysts said the deal would be good for Breitling. “It doesn’t get any bigger than the NFL and the US is one of the fastest growing markets for Swiss luxury watches, so it makes a lot of sense,” said Lou Kovacs, president of marketing for North America at the sports marketing agency at Octagon. “It gives Breitling a cultural stake in America’s biggest sports property and will bring it into the mainstream.”
The NFL has rocketed in value over the past decade. Forbes’ annual list of the world’s most valuable sports teams lists six NFL teams in its top 10—and 29 in the top 50—with the Dallas Cowboys topping the list for a ninth consecutive year with a value of $10.1 billion. Spain’s Real Madrid were Europe and football’s highest-placed team in 12th place with a value of $6.6 billion.
Audiences are growing, too. This year’s season-ending Super Bowl was watched by a record US audience of 128 million viewers, according to audience measurement agency Nielsen, making it the country’s most watched television broadcast this year.
The audience is also diverse and increasingly international. According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, half of all Americans watch the NFL, and 42 percent of viewers are female. The same survey reported that 9 percent of Germans and 7 percent of people in the UK watch the sport.
“Breitling gets access to affluent men in their 40s, but also to women, younger professionals and then multicultural fans, who are increasingly driving the future of luxury consumption,“ said Kovacs.
The NFL launched its global markets program in 2022 with the goal of spreading league and individual team brand awareness internationally. All 32 of the NFL’s teams are included in the program for the 2025 season.
The NFL will take seven games overseas in its International Series this year: three in London, and one each in Brazil, Ireland, Germany and Spain.
The league has also been expanding its reach in fashion over the last few years. It hired Kyle Smith as its fashion editor in 2024. The NFL has also entered into licensing partnerships with other notable brands such as Veronica Beard and Abercrombie & Fitch. Just this week, the league named Abercrombie as its official fashion partner.
These deals are all part of a push within the NFL to maintain its status as one of the most culturally relevant leagues in the world at a time when the line between fashion and sports is increasingly blurred.
“We’re not just a sport — we’re a part of lifestyle,” NFL executive vice president Renie Anderson said. “Making sure we show up in the right way is important for us.”
The league sees its partnership with Breitling as another window to access its growing global audience. “The way that they’re going to leverage the partnership, utilise our assets and players and clubs and unique experiences,” Anderson said. “We’re so excited about that in our international markets.”
Breitling’s announcement comes at a time when the Swiss watch industry is facing up to 39 percent import duties into the US. Kern said that the US was Breitling’s largest single market, accounted for “around 22 to 23 percent” of his total revenues and was growing annually by “over 20 percent”.
Last year, Morgan Stanley estimated Breitling’s annual turnover hit 850 million Swiss francs against sales of 160,000 watches, figures Kern has confirmed. That put it ahead of rivals Hublot and IWC, but still some way behind Rolex and Omega. Breitling is thought to control 45 percent of its distribution through its boutique network, with the remainder transacted through international third-party retailers such as Watches of Switzerland and Bucherer.
In July, according to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, exports to the US spiked again as brands looked to front-load inventories in anticipation of President Trump’s August tariff announcement. Exports for the month were up 45 percent compared to last July, having been up 150 percent in April, and down 25.3 and 17.6 per cent in May and June, reflecting extreme market volatility. But these figures do not reflect sell-through and retailers are said to be sitting on millions of dollars of excess stock, fuelling fears many will dump unsold watches on the grey market.
“The big risk is that if you have a price difference of 10 or 15 percent [in other countries compared to the US], you will have a gigantic grey market,” said Kern. “American consumers buying a watch abroad should declare it at customs, but nobody will. It’s like prohibition.”
Despite the cost and the climate, Kern said the NFL deal couldn’t have come at a better time. “This is a kind of perfect storm,” he said, reflecting on the headwinds facing the industry that include the rising cost of gold, the strength of the Swiss franc and the growing practice of state-funded short working hours. “But as a company, we have to deal with it and be better than the others.”
Kovacs said high-value sports partnerships offered luxury brands good value. “Brands don’t need to reach millions of viewers a week, or even the thousands going to the games,” he said. “They just need to capture a slice of that audience who can actually step into a boutique and become a collector. Even if just a fraction of NFL fans convert to buyers, the math works right.”
But one analyst warned of Breitling’s cost burden. “Each dollar spent on the sponsorship requires the same amount if not double to exploit it through events and communication,” said Oliver Müller of the Swiss consultancy LuxeConsult.
The money may be there. Breitling was acquired by the private equity firm CVC Capital Partners in 2017, before Partners Group came on as its largest shareholder in 2022 with both firms investing heavily to fuel growth. There had been rumours an IPO was being prepared for 2027, but with a depressed market and Breitling launching two new units to become what Kern called a “house of brands” next year, that now seems unlikely.
As it is, Breitling’s spend continues. The NFL will sit alongside Breitling deals with actors Charlize Theron and Austin Butler, NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo, designer Victoria Beckham, Triumph motorcycles and Six Nations Rugby. Earlier this year, the brand announced a capsule collection with British luxury eyewear brand Cutler and Gross during an event with professional surfer Kelly Slater.
Müller warned Breitling’s portfolio was becoming scattershot. “Breitling going into the NFL is understandable, but wouldn’t it be better off with fewer sponsorships and focusing more on the remaining ones?” he said. “It doesn’t make sense to be in a sport like basketball with only one player. It’s better to be number one, like Rolex in golf and tennis.”
Kern said he hoped the Swiss government would strike a deal with the US to reduce the impact of tariffs on the watch industry. “I think we have enough stock [in the US] for the next two or three months, so I really hope the solution will be found in time,” he said. “But I believe that the tariffs will not stay at 39 percent, because it just doesn’t make sense.”