The Yacht-Master is Rolex‘s collection dedicated to sailing, but its involvement in regattas like SailGP isn’t just about promoting its products. Like other sporting events it sponsors, this is part of how Rolex exerts wider cultural influence. It’s also meant to reflect the ideals imbued in Rolex watches.

How can the values of physical and technical sports or athletic excellence be represented in a wristwatch? It might sound a bit abstract. Sure, there’s an important timing element in regatta racing as well as an overlap between those involved in yachting and Rolex customers — but an experience with the yachting race SailGP and athletes with whom Rolex aligns itself was eye-opening both to the world of sailing as well as to Rolex’s wider relationships and initiatives.

Through headsets, Eilidh McIntyre narrated everything that was happening as 10 hydrofoiling catamarans whipped around the New York Harbor off the tip of Manhattan. These are some of the fastest sailboats in the world, and it was the penultimate race of SailGP 2024. Revolution was invited by Rolex to witness it all from the vantage point of a tented lounge on Governors Island as well as in the wind and spray, shadowing the fleet from a speeding hard-bottom inflatable boat.

A handful of journalists sat in the boat as McIntyre stood narrating and pointing to the competitors and buoys that marked the course, and I couldn’t help but occasionally notice the watch on her wrist. We watchnerds are wired for that, after all. Her expertise was evident but I, admittedly, wasn’t aware at first of the caliber of our guide.

After the race, we had a chance to talk to her on dry, stable land and naturally asked about the Rolex Yacht-Master 37 she was wearing. It was then that it became clear — the charming Brit we’d been talking to was herself a world-class athlete. Taking the steel-and-platinum Yacht-Master off and turning the watch over, the inscription on the caseback said it all: “Rolex World Sailor of the Year, 2021.”

Well, it didn’t quite say it all: our narrator was an Olympic gold medalist, winner of multiple sailing championships and a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE). The watch itself? You can’t buy something like it — you have to win it, and not many people in the world ever have. It was humbling to experience the race alongside Rolex and such an accomplished athlete at the top of their field.

It’s a field characterized by the likes of teamwork, timing, adrenaline, technical materials and the use of advanced data collection. No one who knows Rolex would fail to recognize the symbolic similarities between this type of sport and the brand’s watchmaking. Both represent the convergence of technology with a very human element, and the comparisons don’t have to be one-to-one for the synergy to be apparent.

Founded in 2019, one way that SailGP distinguishes itself from other global regattas is the competing crafts themselves. They’re F50 foiling catamarans, their hulls elevated above the water’s surface while the hydrofoils cut the water beneath. It’s exhilarating to witness and seems to defy physics. But more importantly, it reduces the hull’s drag on the water and results in high speeds of up to more than 50 knots.

SailGP is a spec race, meaning the participating crafts are all of the same make, and the result is down to the sailors’ skills. It also proudly champions diversity and sustainability initiatives as part of Impact League, SailGP’s secondary competition in which points go to the likes of innovations in environmental work and team composition in terms of genders, cultures, and backgrounds.

That day in New York, it was the New Zealand team that took the top spot. Sorry, Americans, but team USA has been seriously flagging this season and came in dead last. The next and final race of 2024 will be in San Francisco on July 13th to 14th, and the winning team will take home a $2m prize.

Learn more about SailGP online here

Learn more about Rolex’s sailing initiatives here