Williams announces multi-year watch partnership with Girard-Perregaux

Williams Racing has secured a new multi-year partnership with Swiss luxury watchmaker Girard-Perregaux, naming it the team's Official Watch Partner and Chronograph starting with the 2026 Formula 1 season. The announcement is part of a recent flurry of new commercial deals for the historic team, which is also navigating a tightly packed midfield as pre-season testing concludes in Bahrain.

Why it matters:

For a team like Williams, which operates under a budget cap, securing strong commercial partnerships is vital for funding its competitive development on track. This deal with a prestigious brand like Girard-Perregaux underscores the team's commercial appeal under James Vowles' leadership and provides crucial financial stability as it aims to climb the grid. The partnership also aligns the values of precision engineering and timing that are fundamental to both F1 and high-end watchmaking.

The details:

• The partnership with Girard-Perregaux is multi-year and will commence officially for the 2026 F1 season.
• Williams highlighted the shared values of "precision, creativity, and relentless focus" in its announcement, drawing a direct parallel between engineering a race car and crafting a luxury timepiece.
• This deal adds to a series of recent partnership announcements from Grove, including agreements with Barclays, Anthropic, BNY, Wilkinson Sword, and Sparco.
• On the sporting side, Team Principal James Vowles commented on the competitive landscape emerging from testing, noting his drivers—Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon—are consistently extracting more performance from the FW46.
• Vowles suggested the midfield behind the clear top four teams is "very tight," with mere tenths of a second potentially separating several squads, including Williams.

What's next:

The team's immediate focus shifts to the season-opening double-header, where the true competitive order will begin to crystallize.

• The championship kicks off with the Australian Grand Prix (March 6-8), followed immediately by the Chinese Grand Prix (March 13-15), which will also host the season's first Sprint race.
• Williams will be looking to convert its testing learnings and newfound commercial strength into tangible points on the board, aiming to solidify its position in that ultra-competitive midfield group from the very first race.