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TAG Heuer, the leading Swiss watch brand, has added UAE rallying legend Mohammed Ben Sulayem to its sparkling array of brand ambassadors that includes superstars of the silver screen and sporting celebrities.
Announcing the deal at a press conference in Dubai, TAG Heuer General Manager for the Middle East, Eric Vergnes said: “All our brand ambassadors are world class achievers who are at the very pinnacle of their respective professions and can strongly identify with TAG Heuer’s commitment to quality, reliability and uncompromising performance and Mohammed, who has won more FIA regional championships, and more international rallies, than any other rally driver in history, is an ideal fit.”
Mr. Vergnes noted that Ben Sulayem, a sporting ambassador for the Arab world, has won the FIA Middle East Rally Championship 14 times and scored more than 60 individual rally victories in the regional series.
TAG Heuer has been manufacturing prestigious watches since 1860 and is the leading sports chronograph brand. The company has an unrivalled presence and unquestioned authority at leading sporting calendar events across the world.
“In the region, Mohammed Ben Sulayem commands instant recognition, credibility and trust and is extremely popular and more importantly he identifies with TAG Heuer’s racing heritage stretches back as far as the earliest days of sports car competition,” Mr. Vergnes observed.
Commenting on his association with TAG Heuer, Mr. Ben Sulayem said, “Last year I had the chance to join F1 drivers Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard at a three-day charity event organized by TAG Heuer for the launch of Grand Carrera Collection, and we put a series of high performance sports cars through their paces in France at the famous Paul Ricard High Tech track at Le Castellet.”
“It was then that the TAG Heuer CEO Jean-Christophe Babin and I agreed to work together as I like what the brand stands for, and I like their watches.”
“TAG Heuer is part of the history of GT motoring, which is the ultimate in high-performance, long distance driving. I’ve been aware of their involvement in the sport for a long time, and they were the first luxury watch manufacturer to provide chronographs for car dashboards.”
When asked to comment on the value of the sponsorship, Mr. Ben Sulayem announced that the entire proceeds of the deal with Tag Heuer are given to an international charity organisation, Save the Children. Founded in 1919, Save the Children is the world’s leading independent children’s rights organisation.
TAG Heuer’s racing heritage stretches back as far as the earliest days of sports car competition. Tag Heuer was the first watch brand to partner with racing drivers, the first watch brand to partner with a Formula One team and the first watch brand to crack and master the split second time barrier. TAG Heuer was the Official Timekeeper of the F1 Championship from 1992 to 2003 and the Official Timekeeper and Chronograph of IRL/Indy 500 Race from 2004 until now. The company is renowned for the production of luxurious chronographs with an unsurpassed precision of 1/10th, 1/100th, 1/1,000th and 1/10,000 of a second.
Mohammed Ben Sulayem is the Arab world’s leading motor sport figure and his reputation extends worldwide as a result of his success as a driver, his achievement in making the UAE Desert Challenge a leading international cross country rally, and his work as President of the Automobile and Touring Club for the UAE. As a driver he dominated the FIA Middle East Championship across three decades after capturing the regional title for the first time in 1986, and also enjoyed success overseas, including Group N World Championship victories in Spain and Argentina. He secured his 14th Middle East title in 2002, rounding off the year by winning his last competitive event, the Dubai International Rally, for a 15th time.
Ben Sulayem launched the UAE Desert Challenge in 1991 and has established it as the premier event in the FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup for cars and trucks and the FIM Cross Country Rallies World Championship for bikes.
In 2006 he took over as President of the ATCUAE, the officially nominated representative in the Emirates of the FIA, motor sport’s world governing body, and its motor cycling and classic car counterparts, the FIM and FIVA. On their behalf it supervises all organized motor sport events in the UAE for cars and bikes. The ATCUAE is the only FIA authorised organisation in the UAE to issue International Driving Permits, as well as Carnet de Passage en Douane (Trip Tickets) and International Certificates which simplify customs formalities for motoring tourists and travellers. It is also developing driver awareness campaigns on road safety, vehicle safety and the environment, and Ben Sulayem has been praised by the FIA for establishing the Club as a model organization in the Arab world.
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