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The Watches of the FIFA World Cup 2014 The Watches of the FIFA World Cup 2014

The Watches of the FIFA World Cup 2014

Felix Scholz

Tim-Cahill-Goal Brazil 2014 has been a World Cup full of heroism, epic Australian goals (Cahill forever), dodgy dives and national identity played out on a global scale. But really, what we care about at Time+Tide is the watches. So we’ve prepared the most unbiased, comprehensive and accurate analysis of coaches, players and their performances, based entirely on their wrist choices. So let’s break it down, starting with…

Germany. Sure, Germany’s shattering domination of Brazil might have had a bit to do with their ability on the pitch, but we suspect that it was also connected to their excellent taste in watches. Nowhere is this more evident than the wrist of team manager Joachim Loew. He has a stable of quality watches, mostly of the IWC variety. In the past he’s touted the limited edition Big Pilot DFB (Limited edition watch for the German team).

Joachim-Loew-IWC-DFB-BP His allegiance to IWC isn’t coincidental; the brand sponsored the German team until recently and for Loew the love of watches is more than purely contractual, as for Brazil he has switched to the Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph. Joachim-Loew-IWC-Portuguese-Yacht-Club And we think IWC is a perfect fit for the German team. Classic, clean lines and efficient engineering. Perhaps a tad unromantic, but well, how did romance work out for Brazil?

Brazil.  Team Brazil is officially sponsored by Parmigiani Fleurier, – but it wasn’t one of Parmigiani’s offerings on the wrist of defender Thiago Silva during the bloodbath match against Germany (AKA team IWC). No, Silva was wearing a watch from the king of sports ambassador placements – Richard Mille. It’s hard to tell from the pic, but it looks to be a Richard Mille RM 027, famously worn by Rafael Nadal. Thiago-Silva-Richard-Mille Richard Mille is one of the showy upstarts of the watch world, but for all the glitz and bling they’re watches with serious technical credibility – and as such we reckon they’re a pretty perfect pairing with the Brazilian team.

France. Another casualty of the German juggernaut was France, losing 1-0 in Rio. Whatever went wrong out there for the French it would be unfair to blame it on the watch choice of manager Didier Deschamps. The former footballer is clearly a well travelled and rugged kind of guy, at least based upon his watch – the excellent Master Compressor Extreme World Chronograph from Jaeger Le-Coultre. Didier-Deschamps-JLC-Master-Compressor-Extreme-World-Chronograph This JLC is a watch of sophisticated masculinity, and honestly, if any of the world cup teams out there says sophisticated masculinity it’s got to be the French.

Italy.  The Time+Tide award for best dressed wrist of World Cup 2014 goes to Italian midfielder Claudio Marchisio. Proving beyond any doubt that the Italians are king when it comes to sartorially style and taste. Claudio-Marchisio-Lange-Zeitwerk  Marchisio has been seen sporting the mighty A. Lange & Sohne Zeitwerk (HT to Monochrome for the pic) . A serious piece of kit, cutting edge horology of the highest order that would more commonly be seen in Manhattan board rooms. Claudio-marchisio-Patek-Philippe-Nautilus-Chronograph Marchioso’s wrist game is as good as his on field game, and he’s clearly not a one watch guy. He’s also been seen wearing a Patek Philippe Nautilus Chronograph. Clearly the Italian reputation for excellent taste and fashion sense is alive and (pardon the pun) kicking in Claudio Marchisio.

Greece. Fernando-Santos-Hublot Honestly, any wrap up of the 2014 world cup wouldn’t be complete without mention of the main watch sponsor, Hublot. Biver and the gang are all over the world cup, from the Big Bang shaped referee’s boards, and more limited editions than you can shake a caliber at. But of all the Hublot choices on offer we most liked the number sported by Greek coach Fernando Santos. Sure, they didn’t make it past round 16, but his wrist looked patriotic in defeat.