How F1 Is Wooing a New Breed of Luxury Brands as Sponsors

Ask H. Moser & Cie CEO Edouard Meylan how his company’s watch ended up on the wrist of BWT Alpine F1 Team driver Pierre Gasly and he will tell you a story that defies the typical path a brand takes to a major sports sponsorship.

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“Six months ago, we wouldn’t have thought we would be here,” Meylan told The Hollywood Reporter during an interview at the Miami Grand Prix in May. In late 2023, he received a cold email from Alpine Racing executives that he thought was a joke. “It said, “We’re looking to work with you. Would you be interested in a partnership with our Formula 1 team?”

“We get a lot of spam,” Meylan laughs. It was funny because our father has been racing Alpine [cars] for many years and is a big collector.”

After sharing the correspondence with his brother and business partner Bertrand, Meylan answered and found out it was, in fact, very real. Luca de Meo, the CEO of Renault (which owns Alpine) is a big fan of H. Moser, an almost 200-year-old Schaffhausen, Switzerland-based watch brand, and the team sought a luxury watch partner to elevate its image. (When the motorsports giant rebranded their F1 team from Renault to Alpine in 2021, it began to onboard celebrity investors such as Ryan Reynolds, Michael B. Jordan, Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, among others.)

Before the 2024 racing season kicked into gear, H. Moser and Alpine had a deal on Formula 1 and across all categories, including the FIA World Endurance Championship and Alpine road cars, which will launch in the U.S. in 2027. When the ink dried, H. Moser immediately went into discovery mode to produce a special timepiece to mark the collaboration. “We met with the drivers to find out what they like. They gravitated toward the sporty, Streamliner collection and that’s the base of this collaboration,” he says.

The result, the 100-piece Streamliner Cylindrical Tourbillon Skeleton Alpine Limited Edition (around $102,000), features three-dimensional sculptural engineering with transparent details visible from every angle and bold pink and blue colorways that align with the team’s livery inspired by artist Felipe Pantone. The heart of this watch is the one-minute flying tourbillon fitted with a cylindrical hairspring positioned at 6 o’clock, which showcases the expertise of H. Moser & Cie.’s sister company, Precision Engineering AG. Invented in the 18th century, each cylindrical hairspring is shaped by hand, and it takes 10 times as long to produce as a traditional hairspring.

Adding to the mystique, the watch doesn’t have a visible logo or brand name; if you know, you know. “We treat every watch we create as a piece of art,” Meylan says.

H. Moser also chose Gasly as its first-ever ambassador, marking the only time it has decided to partner with an individual. Like many drivers, he is a watch collector.

“Timing is my life — chasing time, on and off the track,” Gasly says. “I love skeleton watches, the design, and all the mechanisms that go into the piece. I have been very emotional in the way that I choose my watches. It’s really to connect a specific moment in my life, whether career-related or personal.”

Affinity for timepieces and racing is something the Meylan brothers understand very well. In addition to being a car collector and F1 fan, Edouard and Bertrand’s father, Georges-Henri Meylan, was the CEO of Audemars Piguet for many years. They bought H. Moser, founded in 1828, over a decade ago when it was on the brink of bankruptcy. Over its storied history, H. Moser developed 18 in-house calibres and manufactures parts including regulating organs and balance-springs, which are used not only for its production but also to supply 35 partner companies. In its new life under the Meylans, H. Moser produces about 3,500 watches known for minimalistic design and specialized movements to build a bridge between traditional and modern watchmaking.

H. Moser, Alpine and F1 have big ambitions as the race comes back to North America in the coming months.

“America is a major target for F1. The big picture is to come to the States and have very attractive products for Americans,” Gasly says.

With a global audience of affluent and aspirational fanatics and enthusiasts, Formula 1 racing has become an undeniable force in the sports world. With that comes diversification of viewership and sponsorship — independent brands like H. Moser and those with female appeal find themselves in a pole position alongside legacy luxury brands like Rolex.

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During the Miami Grand Prix, an average of 3.1 million viewers tuned in for the race, with a peak of 3.6 million, setting a record for F1 live TV viewing in the U.S., according to numbers reported by ESPN. In 2022, the previous record average was 2.6 million viewers (and peaked at 2.9 million). With all eyes on Miami, it welcomed the only U.S. F1 Academy race this year, now in its second season and headed by former race car driver Susie Wolff.

F1 Academy increases representation and diversity in the sport, bringing female drivers onto the track and helping them progress to higher levels of motorsport competition. Five teams participate in the series, featuring three racers between 16 and 25. The drivers compete in 15 identical Formula 4 cars, which go up to 150 mph and 0-60 mph in 3.6 seconds.

In 2024, F1 Academy will feature seven rounds worldwide, broadcast in more than 160 territories and streaming on YouTube and via F1 TV. Ten of the 15 drivers’ cars showcase liveries sponsored by the teams competing in Formula One. Like Netflix’s Drive to Survive , which has driven the sport’s popularity, F1 Academy will get its show on the streaming service courtesy of Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, which shared plans that the docuseries currently in production will launch globally in 2025. Fans will get behind-the-scenes access to the all-women driving category, complete with drama, personal stories and high stakes.

This isn’t the first time F1 has tried to make the sport more female-friendly. In 2004, it launched Formula Woman and then in 2019, the W Series but neither took. In 2023, only one F1 Academy race, Circuit of the Americas, was broadcasted. Still, with the show’s filming casting it into the spotlight, along with Wolff’s presence and major brands, it’s an entirely different prospect.

American Express, QVC, Charlotte Tilbury and Tommy Hilfiger have attached to F1 Academy. According to stats shared by Formula One, around 40 percent of F1 fans are now female, up eight percent from 2017, and more women are attending races, too.

At the Miami Grand Prix, American Express unveiled a global partnership with F1 Academy, including a custom car livery and race suit worn by British driver Jessica Edgar.

The Tommy Hilfiger brand, which has collaborated with racing teams since the 1990s, sponsors Spanish driver Nerea Martí, who debuted a red, white and blue car and race suit in Saudi Arabia pre-season testing. Hilfiger is also working with the Apple Original Films Formula 1 movie starring Brad Pitt alongside Hilfiger menswear ambassador Damson Idris, slated for 2025. Hilfiger grew up in Elmira, New York, just 30 minutes away from Watkins Glen, the original home of the US Grand Prix from 1961 to 1980. His early business partner, Lawrence Stroll, is the father of Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll.

In May, QVC and Prema Racing backed the Wild Card entry that put American driver Courtney Crone on the F1 Academy grid. The California kart racer, who started at three years old, had never driven an F1 Academy car.

“F1 Academy is giving drivers a huge opportunity through Wild Card entries, especially in America,” Crone says. “It can be difficult for young girls from outside Europe to know how to get into international series like this, and the support that I’ve been given by F1 Academy and the Prema Racing team has been hugely positive for me.”

Adds Wolff, “The Wild Card entries are designed to promote regional talent and show young women in all our race locations that there is a clear pathway into our sport for anyone who is committed and talented.”

Charlotte Tilbury jumped in with its first-ever global sports sponsorship as the first female-founded — and the first beauty brand — to sponsor F1 Academy. The Charlotte Tilbury, operated by Rodin Motorsport car, has a livery, helmet and racing suit bearing the makeup maven’s Hot Lips icon and empowerment mantra: “Makeup Your Destiny!” Eighteen-year-old Lola Lovinfosse from France drives the Tilbury car. Her “get ready with me” videos showcasing the makeup products she uses are a complete departure from the hyper-masculine DNA of motorsports and F1 in general. Four Academy races will be held this year in the Netherlands, Singapore, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

Formula 1 heads back to the U.S. with races in Austin in October and November in Las Vegas.

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