zelin0802 / April 10, 2023

From Rolex to Richard Mille, some of the best watches from past Masters champions.

Masters Sunday is one of the best days in the entire sports calendar. I grew up playing golf, watches are my job now, and there’s another sport on Masters Sunday: finding the winner’s watch. Watch brands fully support golf. Rolex sponsors all four of the men’s majors, and brands from Rolex to Audemars Piguet to Hublot have a roster of ambassadors who don their watches quickly after a round and show up at post-match events, interviews and Wear them in front of the camera at trophy awards.

With the storm delaying the end of this year’s Masters, we decided to take a look back at some of our favorite watches from past Masters champions. We’ve been looking for watches from the Green Jacket winners since at least 2012, and sure, these are brand ambassadors, but we’ve seen some great watches too. Here are the seven Masters champions—men who won a combined 22 Masters titles—and the watches they wore.

tiger woods
Of course, we have to start with five-time Masters champion Tiger Woods. When he dons his latest green jacket in 2019, we find him wearing a Rolex Deep Sea D-Blue. Woods’ caddy, Joe LaCava, said Woods even gave him a Rolex watch after his 2019 title, which LaCava said was too flashy for him to get out of the box.

Back in 2011, Rolex signed Woods as its spokesperson (Rolex Ambassador Ambassador). Since then, he’s been spotted wearing his Deepsea almost everywhere. We even spotted Woods wearing it to sleep a few years ago (remember Keegan Allen telling us he did the same?).

In one of my favorite watch endorsement footnotes, a young Tiger Woods briefly served as a Tudor ambassador in the 1990s. The most notable result of their collaboration is a series of “Tiger” chronographs. They were similar to Tudor’s standard chronographs of the time, but had “Tiger” written on the dial and came in a variety of colors (including green next to Masters). After spending most of the 2000s at TAG Heuer, Woods signed with Rolex in 2011.

Scotty Scheffler
Last year’s winner, Scottie Scheffler, is another Rolex spokesperson. After his win, we find him wearing the Everose Rolex GMT-Master II “Root Beer,” a two-tone version of the GMT-Master II released in 2018.

With Woods and Scheffler, a Rolex face could win three of the final four Masters—Hideki Matsuyama dons a green jacket in 2023 and wears a Rolex Submariner Date “Bluesy” on his wrist. Hublot’s Dustin Johnson wins in 2020.

adam scott
Another green jacket, another Rolex spokeswoman. When Adam Scott won the Masters in 2013, we found out he was wearing a Rolex Deep Sea at the Green Jacket Awards. Since then, it’s safe to say he’s become a complete nerd. He was talking watches and golf on Hodinkee Radio in 2018 (the picture on his wrist that day was the Everose GMT-Master II Scheffler wore when he won the Masters). At that point, he told us that he had delved into vintage Rolexes. He has “visited” the Rolex factory “many times”. This guy even lives in Switzerland! replica watches Price

These days, he’s even posting pictures of his wrists on his Instagram, most recently with his Milgauss (seems he’s disappointed it’s being discontinued).

bubba watson
Adam Scott’s 2013 Masters victory was sandwiched between Bubba Watson’s two Masters victories. Watson has been a Richard Mille ambassador since 2011. Some RMs bear his name: the RM038 and RM038-1 tourbillons and the RM055. During his victories in 2012 and 2014, Watson wore the RM038. Unlike Rolex’s testimony, Watson often wore a Richard Mille watch while playing golf. The RM038 is what you’d expect from an RM: it’s a tourbillon with an all-white case made of 89% magnesium.

Nick Faldo
This year’s Masters will sound a little different, as it will be the first time since 2007 that Nick Faldo will not be in the announcer’s booth. Prior to his broadcasting career, Sir Nick won the Masters three times in 1989, 1990 and 1996, half of the six Grand Slam titles he won in his career. Popular cheap watch

Faldo was a longtime ambassador for Audemars Piguet, and when he won the Masters and British Open in 1990, AP even produced a limited edition Royal Oak “Champion’s Edition” to celebrate. This is a 33mm Royal Oak quartz watch that stands out for being AP’s first use of stainless steel and tantalum. It’s also sold with a pretty crazy box set that includes a key chain, Royal Oak cufflinks and pendant, belt, pill case, belt, and tantalum bracelet. AP released another Royal Oak Nick Faldo Limited Edition in 2003 – it was not as good as the Champion, and stood out for the slightly dated golf ball rotor bearing Faldo’s signature.

Jack Nicklaus
Back in 2017, we made a talking watch with 18-time major champion (and 6-time Masters champion) Jack Nicklaus. As he told us, he owns the same Rolex Day-Date ref. 1803 Gold version since 1967. That means he’s carried the watch in 12 of his 18 major tournaments – he’ll take it to the course, put it in a small bag, and put it in his golf balls bag, then slipped it back on his wrist as he walked off the 18th green.

Arnold Palmer
Finally, the most stylish golfer, Arnold Palmer. He was the one who really made watch endorsements the standard for players, signing with Rolex in 1967 (in fact, Palmer, Nicklaus and Gary Player were some of the first clients of IMG, a pioneering sports agency, which has changed the way endorsement deals are done for many athletes). Getting a watch deal is a young golfer’s right of passage these days, but it started with Arnie.

Over the years, he can be seen wearing several different Rolex copy watches. Check out this photo of him with Packers quarterback Bart Starr, President Richard Nixon and baseball player Al Kaline in 1969, wearing a gold Day-Date on his wrist. That looks good for someone who is paving the way for modern watch endorsement deals.