Ask H. Moser & Cie CEO Edouard Meylan how his company’s watch ended up on the wrist of BWT Alpine F1 Team driver Pierre Gasly and he will tell you a story that defies the typical path a brand takes to a major sports sponsorship. “Six months ago, we wouldn’t have thought we would be here,” Meylan told during an interview at the Miami Grand Prix in May.
In late 2023, he received a cold email from Alpine Racing executives that he thought was a joke. “It said, “We’re looking to work with you. Would you be interested in a partnership with our team?” “We get a lot of spam,” Meylan laughs.
It was funny because our father has been racing Alpine [cars] for many years and is a big collector.” After sharing the correspondence with his brother and business partner Bertrand, Meylan answered and found out it was, in fact, very real. Luca de Meo, the CEO of Renault (which owns Alpine) is a big fan of H.
Moser, an almost 200-year-old Schaffhausen, Switzerland-based watch brand, and the team sought a luxury watch partner to elevate its image. (When the motorsports giant rebranded their F1 team from Renault to Alpine in 2021, it began to onboard celebrity investors such as Ryan Reynolds, Michael B. Jordan, Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, among others.
) Before the 2024 racing season kicked into gear, H. Moser and Alpine had a deal on Formula 1 and across all categories, including the FIA World Endurance Championship and Alpine road cars, which will launch in the U.S.
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