Yahoo Lifestyle The 8 Best Watches of the U.S. Open, From Jannik Sinner’s Rolex to Serena Williams’s Audemars Piguet
Watches and tennis are a match made in heaven. It likely comes as no surprise that players past and present would have some major wrist game at the Grand Slams. Each year, the U.S. Open closes out the season with a bang, and everyone seems to pull out all the stops for the occasion. Fans have set a new record booking the infamous suites (which can cost up to $100,000), and luxury brands like Tiffany & Co. have firmly planted their presence on the grounds with pop-up activations. As a major sponsor, Rolex, of course, is omnipresent. Come August, Flushing Meadows is the place to see and be seen, and with the close ties between timepieces and tennis, the watch spotting never fails to disappoint on and off the court. Here are eight of the coolest watches we’ve seen at the 2024 U.S. Open.
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Roger Federer in a Rolex Le Mans Daytona in Yellow Gold
Last year, Rolex dropped a watch that made major waves. In honor of the 60th anniversary of the beloved Daytona and the 100th anniversary of the iconic 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race, the Crown unveiled a special edition model: the Cosmograph Daytona Celebrating 100 Years of Speed. Just shy of a year after its debut, Rolex announced it’d be discontinuing the model at Watches & Wonders 2024, while quietly replacing it with a yellow gold version. This illusive yellow-gold replacement has left much to the imagination, barring some texted contraband images we saw at Watches and Wonders in April, but now it’s plain as day. At the quarterfinal matches, Tennis legend and longtime Rolex collector Roger Federer was spotted wearing the coveted model.
Jessica Pegula in a De Bethune DB28XS Purple Rain
Number six ranked Jessica Pegula has held her own for the U.S.A in this year’s U.S. Open. The New York native has made it to the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows for the second time in her career but is still yet to land a Grand Slam win. Off the court, it’s yet to be seen how deep Pegula’s watch collection goes, but one thing is for certain: She has a particular affinity for one brand, and it shows the young player has interesting taste in timepieces. Her brand of choice? De Bethune. Pegula has been spotted wearing various models from the brand, including the DB28xs Starry Seas. However, this year, she’s been rocking the DB28XS Purple Rain that debuted at Watches & Wonders earlier this spring.
Jannik Sinner in a Rolex Submariner Date
With major upsets for Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic early on in the tournament, this year’s U.S. Open is Jannik Sinner’s to win. The young Italian player is currently ranked number one in the world ahead of Djokovic, Alcaraz, and Alexander Zverevs. Luckily for Sinner, he has Rolex on his side. At last year’s U.S. Open, Coco Gauff won in women’s singles, proudly accepting her trophy with the discontinued Rolex ‘Red Grape’ on her wrist, so perhaps the luck will wear off on Jannik. Sinner has been a Rolex ambassador since 2020, and his current model of choice is a classic two-tone Submariner Date with a blue dial.
Andrey Rublev in a Bulgari Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Skeleton Ceramic
Russian tennis pro Andrey Rublev was knocked out of this year’s U.S. Open in the round of 16 by the Bulgarian player Grigor Dimitrov, who later went on to lose to American tennis star Frances Tiafoe in the quarterfinals. Despite the upset, Rublev came to the tournament with a major wrist flex. Back in 2021, Rublev became Bulgari’s first-ever tennis ambassador, and since then we’ve seen him sport a number of models from the Roman Maison. For this year’s Grand Slam at Flushing Meadows, he opted for a pretty unique iteration from one of Bulgari’s most beloved collections. In the past decade, the brand has become synonymous with its Octo Finissimo line thanks to models shattering a whopping nine world records. Withing the collection, Rublev chose a ceramic version with a skeletonized dial and a tourbillon.
Tommy Paul in a De Bethune DB28XS Starry Seas
Who knew that De Bethune’s unconventional designs would be so popular among tennis pros? American player Tommy Paul became an ambassador for the brand just last year, with the pair announcing their official partnership during the 2023 Wimbledon tournament. Paul got knocked out by number one ranked Sinner in the round of 16 at this year’s U.S. Open, but he did so in style, of course, rocking a model from De Bethune. The DB28XS Starry Seas appears to be one of his particular favorites, and for good reason. When the model debuted last spring, it marked the world’s first random guilloche pattern along with new sweet-spot sizing at 39 mm.
Naomi Osaka in a TAG Heuer Aquaracer Limited Edition Naomi Osaka
Like Alcaraz and Djokovic, the young Japanese tennis pro Naomi Osaka was upset in an early round at this year’s U.S. Open. Despite her run being short lived, she still had a chance to put her collaboratively designed timepiece on full display. The four-time Grand Slam winner has been a TAG Heuer ambassador since 2021. A year later, she partnered with the brand to co-design her own watch, resulting in the TAG Heuer Aquaracer Limited Edition Naomi Osaka. We know green dials have continued to be all the rage the past few years, and Osaka was early to catch on to the trend, which started gaining traction three years ago. For the customized Aquaracer bearing her name, she chose light green for the dial and a darker green for the rubber strap.
Donna Vekic in a F.P. Journe Elegante 40
Croatian tennis pro Donna Vekic may be a lesser known player on the circuit. Back in 2019, she notched her career-high singles ranking just cracking the top 20 in at number 19. That same year, she made it to the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open. While she wasn’t as successful at this year’s tournament, losing to the Chinese player Zheng Qinwen in the round of 16, she certainly took her defeat in style. We’ve yet to see the full breath of Vekic’s watch collection, or perhaps she’s simply devoted to one brand—but a killer brand at that. She’s been spotted on countless occasions on and off the court wearing every color of the F.P. Journe Elegante 40 under the rainbow. At Flushing Meadows this year, she opted for the gorgeous turquoise blue version.
Serena Williams in an Audemars Piguet Code 11.59 Blue Tourbillon
Like Federer, Serena Williams has been enjoying this year’s U.S. Open from the sidelines, cheering on the current players. It’s no secret Williams is a longtime ambassador and fan of Audemars Piguet, sporting countless models over the years from the tennis court to the red carpet and beyond. The former number one player and 23-time Grand Slam winner never ceases to keep us on our toes with which model from AP she’ll choose, sometimes opting for an ultra-sporty look and other times rocking a fully blinged out gem-set model. In the stands at Flushing Meadows, Williams chose the Code 11.59 Blue Tourbillon. The model came in 2022 featuring a fully blued-out design, from the ceramic mid-case to the hand-wound, open worked caliber 2948.
