If anyone’s to blame for creating a yachting competition that hardly anyone knows, which just billionaires can input and which frequently contributes to disagreements of apocalyptic proportions, then it’s Henry William Paget, first Marquess Of Anglesey.
But six years later, a lot of upstarts from the fledgling New York Yacht Club turned into a 101-foot schooner and beat the house teams palms down. The boat was called America, the cup was first re-named after it along with the crew took it home — where it remained in the NYYC’s trophy cupboard for a remarkable 126 years, testament to the longest winning streak in the history of game.
It wasn’t until 1983 the Royal Perth Yacht Club’s Australia II — with its high tech winged keel — wrested the celebrated”Auld Mug” out of its long-standing holders after a thrilling match against Dennis Conner’s Liberty, since as soon as the trophy has been won a further four times by America, twice by Switzerland and three occasions from Emirates Team New Zealand, competing under the flag of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.
The latter’s most up-to-date victory was at the 35th running of this event in 2017, which means it will be the”defender” when the 36th America’s Cup occurs in Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour from 6-21 March next year.
Despite the America’s Cup’s exclusive nature and arcane, ever-changing rules, it is something that luxury brands — and luxury watch makers specifically — have long wanted to be part of.
Louis Vuitton was first to get in on the action, sponsoring the 1983 occasion to launch a partnership which lasted over 30 decades and led to some long-standing set of sideshow regattas.
Along the way, many watch manufacturers have joined the party as backers of the various teams, with TAG Heuer, Hublot, Ulysse Nardin, Panerai, Bremont, Audemars Piguet, MAT, Girard-Perregaux, Zenith and Louis Vuitton itself supporting individual ships at one time or another with varying levels of success.
The long-standing and consistent however, has been Omega — it has sponsored the New Zealand teams in each America’s Cup since 1995, when the Kiwis were led to success by the late yachtsman Sir Peter Blake.
The venture continues for its 36th America’s Cup but, additionally, Omega watches will also be the event’s official timekeeper — a role it has held twice before, first in 2000 and in 2003.
To indicate this latest occasion, the brand has launched a special version of its Seamaster Planet sea dive watch. Measuring 43.5millimeters in diameter, the”36th America’s Cup Limited Edition” gets a suitably yachtie makeover using a blue porcelain bezel emphasized by red and white sections that serve to time the five-minute regatta”pre-start” period.
A white porcelain dial is marked”36th America’s Cup” and a tiny cut-out of the Auld Mug functions as the hand counterweight. The AC logo and name attribute back on the sapphire crystal case back, while the ring is made of red and blue rubber with white stitching.
