Leonardo di Caprio, new Rolex ambassador

Text by Ana Franco.

The relationship between Rolex and cinema is growing closer. One of Hollywood’s royalty, Californian Leonardo di Caprio, has just been appointed by the Crown as its ambassador urbi et orbe. And not just as an actor and producer, but as an ‘advocate in the fight against climate change’, a cause that Rolex joins by association.

Di Caprio, 50, thus follows in the footsteps of James Cameron, with whom Rolex has close ties. The director of Titanic and Avatar is also an accomplished explorer, and was the first to reach the deepest point of the oceans on a solo dive in 2012. On his adventure to the Mariana Trench, almost 11,000 metres below the Pacific, he was accompanied by an experimental Rolex that withstood the extreme pressure without flinching. In 2022, that prototype became the 50 mm diameter titanium Oyster Perpetual Deepsea Challenge.

Along with Cameron, the watchmaker’s other two cinematic ambassadors are Chinese director Jia Zhang-Ke and the master Martin Scorsese, with whom Di Caprio has formed one of the most fruitful pairings on the big screen (they have made Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, The Departed, Shutter Island, The Wolf of Wall Street and The Moon Killers, and are currently working on their seventh film). But it was not one of his films that won him the only Oscar to his credit. Nor was it James Cameron’s Titanic. The big prize went to Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Reborn (2015).

El actor ya aparece en la última campaña de Rolex, Reach for the crown, en el que comparte video con tenistas como Carlos Alcaraz y Roger Federer, con sus colegas Cameron y Scorsese, con el golfista Tiger Woods y con otros representantes de la enseña, todos leyendas en sus respectivos campos.

We imagine that Di Caprio won’t have to go out of his way to wear any model from the Swiss watchmaker’s extensive catalogue. He was already a Rolex customer before this official partnership. Earlier this year, for example, we saw him at a Los Angeles Lakers NBA game wearing a Cosmograph Daytona, reference 116509 ‘Racing’ in white gold. Of course, we have also seen on his wrist pieces from other brands such as Breitling, TAG Heuer (for which he starred in some commercials) and Patek Philippe. In addition, Leo invested in 2023 in an independent Swiss watch brand, ID Genève, for ‘its dedication to the principles of circular economy, sustainable materials and innovation’. We do not know if he will end this support after his recent agreement with Rolex.

As for Rolex, it will probably be present at the next Oscars (in the early hours of 2 to 3 March, Spanish time), as on other occasions. The brand, which supports the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the institution, the awards and the Academy Museum in Los Angeles) and the Martin Scorsese Film Foundation, is a sponsor of the ceremony.