Timing is everything for professional sportsmen and women, and quality Swiss watch brands are keen to have their products worn by sporting celebrities as they pick up major trophies.
At the forefront of these sponsorships are Audemars Piguet and Omega. Both brands have a long history of sponsoring sports personalities and events, including world championship sailing.
'We share common values with sports and sporting greats,' said Wolfgang Sickenberg, chief executive of Audemars Piguet Hong Kong and China. 'The prestige, the teamwork, the innovation and all the other elements you see in competitive sporting people are the same as you see in watchmakers.
'Watchmakers always have to find new solutions and develop new concepts; it's the same for sportspeople.'
Both Omega and Audemars Piguet have a history of sponsoring major sporting events in Hong Kong, such as premier horse racing at Sha Tin. 'This year we will celebrate the 10th anniversary of our sponsorship of the Audemars Piguet Queen ElizabethII Cup,' Mr Sickenberg said. 'The sponsorship of the race is something we have been developing and we are very pleased with it. It's very positive for us in this part of the world.'
Mimi Chun, public relations and event manager for Omega Hong Kong, said that Omega had a long and proud tradition of sponsoring golf in the region, and has been title sponsor of the Hong Kong Open. On top of this, a long-term agreement signed in 2001 between the International Olympic Committee and The Swatch Group, of which Omega is a part, calls for the company to provide timekeeping and measurement services for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Omega first became the official timekeeper of the games in 1932.
Ms Chun said that the work this year involved dedicated and modern timing systems such as photo-finish cameras and displays, cameras and touchpads which were thoroughly tested by the Omega timekeeping team in Switzerland before being shipped to Beijing.