“As a long-time watch collector and regular Chrono24 user, it is my pleasure to become a shareholder in the company now,” commented Cristiano Ronaldo
It seems Chrono24 and professional footballer Cristiano Ronaldo have more than a reverence for watches in common. Both also share in the success and growth of the online watch market established in 2003, with Ronaldo becoming Chrono24’s most recent investor.
“Chrono24 unites millions of watch lovers from all over the world to share their passion together: this global unification is something I know well and am delighted to be a part of”, says the footballer.
Ronaldo, 38, joins other high-profile Chrono24 investors such as Bernard Arnault’s family investment company Aglae Ventures, General Atlantic, Insight Partners and Sprints Capital who together led Chrono24’s Series C round in August 2021, with a value of 118 million dollars. —guaranteeing the status of the watch market with a current valuation of over $1 billion. The agreement between Ronaldo and Chrono24 was closed just a few weeks ago.
“No one brings the passion for luxury watches to the world stage like Cristiano,” said Chrono24 CEO Tim Stracke, alluding to the athlete’s stellar collection of watches, many of which have been created especially for him. “He has already cemented his place as one of the greatest footballers in history and, as an investor, he shows an astute knowledge of luxury and world-class technology. That, coupled with his proven, authentic passion for collecting watches, makes him the perfect teammate as our company moves toward global expansion and our next chapter.”
In our phone interview last week, Stracke made it clear that the relationship with Ronaldo is about much more than money.
“To be honest, the money itself won’t change our trajectory, but having someone like Cristiano Ronaldo as an investor shows enormous confidence,” Stracke said. And a trusted environment is important when buying a watch on a platform like Chrono24, which attracts more than 9 million unique visitors a month with its offering of new, pre-owned and vintage watches.
The portal has around 500,000 watches from more than 3,000 distributors and 30,000 private sellers from more than 100 countries. The United States is its largest market for both buying and selling.
“The key is that from the beginning we focused on making our customers happy and providing excellent service. There is nothing better than a happy customer sharing with others”, concluded Stracke, who stated that Chrono24 is constantly working to further improve the customer experience.
On your wrist
Cited as one of Forbes Highest-Paid Athletes for 2023, Ronaldo was a watch collector for several years and currently serves as a brand ambassador for Jacob & Co. As a fan of the brand, one of his favorite watches is a custom variation. . Jacob & Co Bugatti Tourbillon Baguette: An eye-catching $1.5 million watch that references the soccer player’s $3 million Bugatti. Ronaldo’s total watch collection is estimated to be around $10 million, according to Chrono24 magazine.
And for the watch-watchers among us, Stracke shared that Ronaldo was wearing a diamond-encrusted Franck Muller watch, one of his many custom timepieces, when they met.