The last straw? What put you off a watch brand and made them dead to you?
I'm off the Rolex bandwagon, but not for the reasons you may think. I have one, a current Air-King, but I'm not getting any more. Actually there are several brands I will not buy anymore. All because of Formula 1.
Before I was a Hollywood Fashion Stylist and Olympic Rifle/Pistol shooter, I did quite a bit of racing. I grew up in Long Beach, California and each spring the IndyCar Series would come to race in the streets of Long Beach, our version of Formula 1's Monaco Street race.
Open wheel racing (F1 and IndyCar) have always been my favorite forms of racing. But now that F1 has rejected the entry of the Andretti Global team, I am done with F1 and the companies sponsoring these multi-million dollar teams.
So no Tag Heuers for me because they're partnered with Red Bull Racing. No IWCs since they're with Mercedes. No Tudors now that they're partnering with the Visa Cash App RB team (terrible team name by the way). And no more Rolex (the official timepiece of Formula 1).
Will my refusal to buy these brands affect the bottom line? Of course not. But it is a personal thing for me having raced and worked with people from the Andretti team and others who have been working hard to put a true American team on the F1 grid (Haas doesn't count).
Colton Herta would have been one of the drivers for Andretti's F1 Team, so long as he had enough Super License points. I was first introduced to Colton when he was just 8 years old. His father, Bryan Herta, was a successful IndyCar driver finishing his driving career with Andretti and now still working for the team on the pit box for driver Kyle Kirkwood. Bryan's strategy won two Indy 500s with the late Dan Wheldon and Alexander Rossi (who I raced against back in the day).
Here is Bryan Herta driving my go kart for a spread in Racer Magazine about 20 years ago.
Anyways, if you still love F1 and the watch brands associated with it that's OK. I just won't be watching or buying anything F1 related for a long while. Now I can explore other brands and even more of the microbrand space. Have a great day!
Professional Hollywood wardrobe stylist. Amateur watch collector. I'm also an Olympic Rifle and Pistol Shooter.
Only time will tell, but after being insulted on the global stage in such a manner, would you even still want to participate? Thankfully I'm not making the decisions.
And Andretti should partner with an American microbrand. 😉 I'd definitely buy one of those watches.
Formula One is not about racing anymore, it‘s just about money. I used to watch the races every sunday since i was 6 years old but i can‘t stand it any longer.
Loving F1 is not incompatible with being extremely critical with how things are run and call the bs when we spot it.
Andretti hasn’t been allowed into the good old boys club because they all would have to renounce to a chunk of their earnings to pass them on to Andretti. Short term decisions prevailed, as I think with Andretti in, a real “all American” F1 team, 3 GPs in American soil and maybe one more to come, this money they’d be losing in the short term would pay for itself in the longer term when Andretti would be the force behind generating much more revenue.
In the meantime, Red Bull is allowed to have 4 cars in the grid out of historical reasons I guess? And Haas dragging their cars down the bottom of the grid just because their owner doesn’t want to invest more money on them, being a ghost team occupying a valuable “slot” in the grid…
I surprise myself time and time again thinking “god, I miss Bernie”.
Interesting correct me if I’m reading this wrong. You are boycotting all watch brands associated with F1 because your favorite racer/ team wasn’t admitted? So if they do get admitted again eventually would this bring back a Rolex spark?
Loving F1 is not incompatible with being extremely critical with how things are run and call the bs when we spot it.
Andretti hasn’t been allowed into the good old boys club because they all would have to renounce to a chunk of their earnings to pass them on to Andretti. Short term decisions prevailed, as I think with Andretti in, a real “all American” F1 team, 3 GPs in American soil and maybe one more to come, this money they’d be losing in the short term would pay for itself in the longer term when Andretti would be the force behind generating much more revenue.
In the meantime, Red Bull is allowed to have 4 cars in the grid out of historical reasons I guess? And Haas dragging their cars down the bottom of the grid just because their owner doesn’t want to invest more money on them, being a ghost team occupying a valuable “slot” in the grid…
I surprise myself time and time again thinking “god, I miss Bernie”.
I think Andretti on the grid wouldn't be a question if Bernie were still in charge, despite his dislike of the American IndyCar series. The fact that Liberty Media (an American company that owns F1) didn't get this done is just unbelievable to me.
Interesting correct me if I’m reading this wrong. You are boycotting all watch brands associated with F1 because your favorite racer/ team wasn’t admitted? So if they do get admitted again eventually would this bring back a Rolex spark?
I don't think I would buy another Rolex even if in the future an American team were added to the grid. Only time will tell.....
Fine, I'll have to pick up the slack you have now created by your boycott, by buying all of those brands, just to be safe. Thanks a lot.
Fine, I'll have to pick up the slack you have now created by your boycott, by buying all of those brands, just to be safe. Thanks a lot.
That's OK. If you still enjoy them, that's all that matters.
It is an interesting question. Going away from F1 there are certain celebrities I just cannot stand, thankfully few. I do not sent hate mail or post negative thoughts, life it too short and who cares anyway, but I am sure everyone has somebody that when they come on the TV we either swear at, or turn to another channel. Some of them are brand ambassadors as it were, and I can't bring myself to buy one of their watches. The truth is though for the majority I could not afford them anyway 😂
It is an interesting question. Going away from F1 there are certain celebrities I just cannot stand, thankfully few. I do not sent hate mail or post negative thoughts, life it too short and who cares anyway, but I am sure everyone has somebody that when they come on the TV we either swear at, or turn to another channel. Some of them are brand ambassadors as it were, and I can't bring myself to buy one of their watches. The truth is though for the majority I could not afford them anyway 😂
I work in Hollywood, so avoiding celebrities, even the ones I dislike, is sometimes quite difficult. But again it's all a very personal thing. If you still enjoy F1 and everything associated with it, or anything else outside of F1, that's a-ok!
I don't think I would buy another Rolex even if in the future an American team were added to the grid. Only time will tell.....
Ohh got it! So the boycott isn’t necessarily the team or racing, it has more to do with patriotism
my iwc predates iwc’s sponsorship of mercedes and nearly predates F1. can I get an exemption from the boycott?
Formula One is not about racing anymore, it‘s just about money. I used to watch the races every sunday since i was 6 years old but i can‘t stand it any longer.
I enjoyed F1 for the engineering and technology. They are amazing machines. IndyCar being a spec series is more about the driver and the racing has been better in IndyCar than F1 for many years now.
I work in Hollywood, so avoiding celebrities, even the ones I dislike, is sometimes quite difficult. But again it's all a very personal thing. If you still enjoy F1 and everything associated with it, or anything else outside of F1, that's a-ok!
I am more a 80's and 90's era F1 fan. We didn't realise we had it so good back then !
Andretti had failed to secure an engine supplier and Cadillac/GM had not made any commitment to build one. Cadillac would pretty much be a sponsor only - just like Alfa Romeo had been for the past few seasons.
And unfortunately, Michael Andretti failed to make any friends with the other teams.
Not very wise. I feel sorry to Mario though - a class act.
This said, I avoid watch brands that use Glashütte as part of their name. It's utterly pretentious, like fashion brands adding cities such as Paris, Milano or London to their branding.
There may not have been an official deal in place for an engine, but Renault was open to it if Andretti got approval. Even without a deal, FIA rules oblige a manufacturer to provide engines to customer teams. If not Renault, it would have been someone else. In November, GM registered as a power unit maunufacturer that would be supplying PUs to Andretti in 2028.
The set up as a team using customer engines in the interim would be no different than McLaren using Mercedes engines and Haas using Ferrari. McLaren is showing how a customer team can still fight at the sharp end of the field.
The whole Red Bull Ford deal is pretty much a badging exercise as RB Power Trains is making the PUs and slapping a Ford oval on them.
Yeah, it's a shame that F1 rejected Andretti's team. He is such a legend of the sport! Still, I'll be watching this season as I hope someone will put a fight to RB and Verstappen.
With Verstappen (and now Horner!), RB and therefore Tag are dead to me.
I could still get behind vintage Heuer..
Sorry for your frustration but don't understand why the hate towards watch brands? It is not like they had anything to say who gets in to F1 and who doesn't.
Andretti had failed to secure an engine supplier and Cadillac/GM had not made any commitment to build one. Cadillac would pretty much be a sponsor only - just like Alfa Romeo had been for the past few seasons.
And unfortunately, Michael Andretti failed to make any friends with the other teams.
Not very wise. I feel sorry to Mario though - a class act.
This said, I avoid watch brands that use Glashütte as part of their name. It's utterly pretentious, like fashion brands adding cities such as Paris, Milano or London to their branding.
The use of Glashütte, as I understand it from my academic background and personal life experience (studying/living in Germany), is used more to denote regional excellence in an industry - which the city is for East German watch manufacturing. Pforzheim has similar cache for the watch brands of West Germany - or Solingen for knives or Jena for optical technologies.
Sorry, I don’t know anything about racing, but so I understand, you’re boycotting these brands because Andrettis team is not allowed to race? Why isn’t he allowed to race? Are you boycotting every other brand partnering with F1? American Express? DHL? Heineken?
Yeah, it's a shame that F1 rejected Andretti's team. He is such a legend of the sport! Still, I'll be watching this season as I hope someone will put a fight to RB and Verstappen.
That's ok. I hope you enjoy the season and I hope it's McLaren that's at the front. At the McLaren Team Principal, Zak Brown, is American and they also are the only organization running an American IndyCar series team concurrently.
With Verstappen (and now Horner!), RB and therefore Tag are dead to me.
I could still get behind vintage Heuer..
Heuer without the Tag is ok by me. 👍
Sorry for your frustration but don't understand why the hate towards watch brands? It is not like they had anything to say who gets in to F1 and who doesn't.
The watch brands may not have had anything to do with the decision, but these brands prop up the teams and the organization (F1) and perpetuate a system that is now rigged to deny entry to a legitimate team that has met every requirement and overcome every hurdle place in front of them.
It works both ways too. Why was there a mass exodus of advertisers from X (formerly Twitter) when Elon Musk took over and basically said anything goes on the platform? The advertisers had nothing to do with Musk's decisions to allow users to post just about anything on X. Yet they proceeded to cancel their ads and withdraw from the platform to not be associated with it and not be boycotted. Millions boycotted and cancelled their Twitter accounts and the trickle down would have gone to the companies advertising also.
My boycott of luxury watch brands won't have thr same effect, I know. But it's my choice and as I mentioned in several responses I spent a lot of time in racing in the USA so it's more personal for me.
Sorry, I don’t know anything about racing, but so I understand, you’re boycotting these brands because Andrettis team is not allowed to race? Why isn’t he allowed to race? Are you boycotting every other brand partnering with F1? American Express? DHL? Heineken?
There's a lot to unpack for someone that doesn't currently follow F1 or racing currently. It's a story decades in the making. In F1, which has been dominated by the Europeans, there have only been a handful of American teams and American drivers.
The last American F1 champion was Mario Andretti in 1978. The last American to stand on an F1 podium was Michael Andretti in 1993. The Andretti name has a long history of success in racing all over the world.
They applied for a spot on the Formula 1 grid as the 11th team in the series. F1 basically said no, we don't think the Andretti name means anything and an Andretti team would be slow and uncompetitive, a true insult to legends in the history of racing.
If you have time to watch this video they pick apart many of the reasons Andretti was rejected. They are dubious, some down right absurd. It was basically an FU to Andretti and American fans.
https://youtu.be/jN2wCtWCWaU?si=2e2TAIEvf9TGL3If
Sorry, I don’t know anything about racing, but so I understand, you’re boycotting these brands because Andrettis team is not allowed to race? Why isn’t he allowed to race? Are you boycotting every other brand partnering with F1? American Express? DHL? Heineken?
And I am boycotting other brands in F1 as much as I can.
There's a lot to unpack for someone that doesn't currently follow F1 or racing currently. It's a story decades in the making. In F1, which has been dominated by the Europeans, there have only been a handful of American teams and American drivers.
The last American F1 champion was Mario Andretti in 1978. The last American to stand on an F1 podium was Michael Andretti in 1993. The Andretti name has a long history of success in racing all over the world.
They applied for a spot on the Formula 1 grid as the 11th team in the series. F1 basically said no, we don't think the Andretti name means anything and an Andretti team would be slow and uncompetitive, a true insult to legends in the history of racing.
If you have time to watch this video they pick apart many of the reasons Andretti was rejected. They are dubious, some down right absurd. It was basically an FU to Andretti and American fans.
https://youtu.be/jN2wCtWCWaU?si=2e2TAIEvf9TGL3If
Appreciate the color. As mentioned, I don’t know anything about racing but I do know the Andretti name and little about history. Seems like a snub. I will watch the video.
I guess you have run out of crypto exchanges to buy on as well?
I didn't really think about how many watch brands are associated with F1, good point
I guess you have run out of crypto exchanges to buy on as well?
Thankfully never got involved in crypto at all.