Tudor Hits the Trails

First luxury watch brand to enter the trail running space. From their official announcement:

It already seems impossible to run 100 kilometers, much less 171km with over 10,000 meters of elevation gain, and that’s to be taken literally. To anyone “normal”, it’s unthinkable. But for Courtney Dauwalter, Miao Yao, Rémi Bonnet, and Baptiste Chassagne, it’s what they were born to do. It’s where they find meaning and purpose.

The announcement clearly is aimed at UTMB and the athletes are carefully chosen to create global appeal.

Elite athletes typically don’t wear mechanical watches, but that’s not the point. The point is to celebrate the win. To memorialize the finish. To commemorate the achievement. That’s the point.

I find this sentence surprisingly honest and to the point. Tudor admits here (and avoids brand partner confusion – Courtney is still sponsored by Suunto for example) that their watches aren’t meant to be the tool “on the trail” while running, but rather the gift one buys themselves for having completed their epic adventure and fulfilled their dream.Train years, collect stones, travel around the world, race UTMB, finish and buy yourself a $4,000 watch. Seems like the rest of the world is waking up the reality of who trail runners are = affluent global citizens who can make the pilgrimage to Chamonix once a year to race around Mont Blanc.

Well then, now I gotta pick my next watch, I guess. Aspirationally of course.