Rolex Sports Logo Dials: A Complete Guide

From the 1950’s until about 2010, Rolex offered customized logo dials for customers wanting to commemorate a particular event, company or team. Rolexes with corporate logo dials were often given as employee service awards, and several government organizations ordered custom Rolexes with their crest on the dial. But Rolexes made for sports teams and events are even rarer. These special Rolex dials commemorated events ranging from local golf tournaments to the Olympics. In this article, we’ll cover every known type of Rolex sports logo dial.

Timeline of Rolex Sports Logo Dials

The earliest known example of a Rolex with a logo of a sports team or event on the dial is Yogi Berra’s own gold Oyster Perpetual celebrating the Yankees winning the 1956 World Series. The last one seems to be a 2009 Turn-O-Graph with the logo of Standard Liège, a football team from Belgium. Over that span of over 50 years, Rolex sports dials were made for a wide variety of events.

More Special Rolex Dials:
Collector’s Guide to Rolex Dials
Every Known Rolex Government Logo Dial
Every Known Rolex Company Logo Dial
Overview of Rolex Logo Dials

Geography of Rolex Logo Dials

While most Rolex sports logo dials hail from the United States, teams and events from a few other countries have been celebrated with Rolex dials as well: Italy, France, Belgium, Saudi Arabia and Canada.

Pics of All Rolex Sports Dials

While some Rolex logo dials were meant to commemorate a career, others were meant to memorialize a single sporting event or championship. Here we’ll show you every Rolex logo dial made for a sporting event or organization:

A.C. Milan

A.C. Milan is a popular football club, and one of the most successful Italian sports teams ever.

Al-Ittihad Club

Al-Ittihad is professional football club based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Baltimore Colts 1959 World Champions

The Baltimore Colts defeated the New York Giants in the 1959 NFL championship game, which is often referred to as the “Greatest Game Ever Played.”

Cigarette 1

Donald Aronow was a famous boat designer who invented the cigarette boat and ran a boat racing team called “Cigarette 1.” His life was so interesting that John Travolta played a slightly fictionalized version of him in a (hilariously terrible) movie called “Speed Kills.” Apparently, Mr. Aronow told his crew that he’d buy them all Rolexes if they won a fishing tournament in the late 1980’s.

They did win, and he made good on his promise, giving each of the five crewmen a steel Rolex Submariner with a Cigarette 1 logo on the dial. Aronow also supposedly had a gold Cigarette 1 Submariner made for himself, but it has yet to turn up at auction.

Cotton Bowl

A 1969 Rolex print ad states, “Since the first Cotton Bowl Classic of January 1, 1937 when Texas Christian met Marquette University in the Cotton Bowl, members of the teams participating in this classic have been presented with presentation watches.” These presentation watches were Rolexes from 1967-1970 and Tudors from 1971-1974 (and again in 1976).

Davey O’Brien Award

Since 1981, the Davey O’Brien award has been given to the best college quarterback of the year. The example shown was a gift to the chairman of the Davey O’Brien Foundation, not a player.

Denver Petroleum Golf Classic 1985

Presumably, this dial refers to a golf tournament for the Denver oil industry. It’s possible these are aftermarket, as there is still “Precision” text at the bottom and some of the printing is fading, but the font seems to resemble other sports event dials.

Detroit Red Wings

This Detroit Red Wings dial is possibly one of a kind, given to Jim Skinner in 1963. Skinner was the coach of the Detroit Red Wings, and he started the tradition of kissing the Stanley Cup trophy.

Greater Greensboro Golf Tournament

The Greater Greensboro Golf Tournament was a PGA Tour event held annually from 1938 to 2007. In 2008, the tournament was renamed the Wyndham Championship after Wyndham became the title sponsor.

Lafayette Oil Tourney

Very little info is out there about the Lafayette Oil Tourney. Dials can be found from 1967, 1970, and 1973.

New York Jets World’s Champions 1968

In 1969, the New York Jets defeated the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III, the first game to officially be known as the “Super Bowl.”

New York Yankees World Champions 1956

The New York Yankees defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1956 World Series. The 5th game of this 7-game series was the only perfect game in World Series history. Not only that, but this particular watch was awarded to the legendary Yogi Berra himself. The caseback is engraved “Presented to Lawrence P. Berra by the Baseball Commissioner.” Heritage Auctions sold it for $72,000 in 2018. This is the earliest confirmed example of a Rolex logo dial.

Nick Price (WJ Golf)

Nick Price started WJ Golf in the late 1990’s. Each Rolex Datejust with a WJ logo on the dial features a numbered caseback (1-200) with Price’s signature.

Olympics

The 1988 Olympics were held in Calgary, Alberta. The Olympic Committee presented Colleen Klein, the wife of Calgary’s mayor at the time, with a ladies’ Datejust bearing the Olympic logo.

Saudi Arabian Football Federation

The Saudi Arabian Football Federation is the official governing body for Saudi football.

Standard Liège

Standard Liège were the Belgian football champions back-to-back in 2008 and 2009. Apparently 100 Turn-O-Graphs were made to celebrate the 2009 victory. This must have been one of the last logo dials:

Toronto Polo Tournament

Four of these dials are believed to exist, awarded for a polo tournament in Toronto in 1991.

University of Houston

This Datejust was supposedly given to a University of Houston coach, the only such example known:

Tudor: Continuing the Sports Dial Tradition

From local golf tournaments to the Olympics, Rolex logo dials have been made to commemorate a wide variety of sporting events all over the world. Although Rolex no longer makes customized dials like this, Tudor seems to be carrying that torch. If you’re willing to buy at least 25-30 copies of a Tudor with your logo on it, Tudor is likely to accommodate you. A Pelagos was made for the 2018 International Billfishing Tournament in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and a Black Bay Chrono “Panda” was made for Genève-Servette HC (the 2022-2023 champions of the top Swiss hockey league).

Are there any Rolex sports dials we’ve overlooked? Do you have a favorite? Let us know!

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