According to Forbes, Ronaldo is the world’s highest-paid athlete and has a personal watch collection worth an estimated US$6.5 million.
And now the international football superstar has become an investor in global luxury watch resale marketplace Chrono24, the company’s CEO Tim Stracke has said.
Football legend Cristiano Ronaldo is a luxury watch fan, as evidenced by his personal collection. Photo: @chrono24/Instagram
“He likes the category, likes technology and also thought this was financially a good opportunity,” Stracke explained.
He declined to disclose the amount of the stake, citing an agreement with Ronaldo, but he said it was “significant” for the billion-dollar company, as well as for the athlete-turned-investor.
Chrono24 CEO Tim Stracke and Cristiano Ronaldo trying out Chrono24’s app. Photo: @chrono24/Instagram
“The money was not the reason for us to bring him on board,” Stracke added, explaining that Ronaldo’s well-documented love for watches and his tremendous global following put him at the top of his list of potential celebrity investors.
Before Ronaldo, the most recognisable name associated with Chrono24 was Bernard Arnault, whose family fund backs Aglae Ventures, which took part in Chrono24’s US$118 million Series C funding round in 2021.
The family investment fund of LVMH boss Bernard Arnault owns venture capital firm Aglae Ventures, which has already invested in Chrono24. Photo: AFP
“As a long-term watch collector and regular user of Chrono24, it’s a pleasure for me to become a shareholder in the company now,” Ronaldo said in a statement.
Celebrity investor
Cristiano Ronaldo is the world’s highest-paid athlete. Photo: @cristiano/Instagram
Ronaldo formerly played for Manchester United and now suits up for the Portuguese national team and a Saudi club, Al Nassr. He moved his family to the Gulf state earlier this year.
According to Forbes, he was the first team-sport athlete to top US$1 billion in active career earnings in 2020, and his current US$46 million salary is complemented by US$90 million in endorsements from brand partnerships with Nike, Binance, Herbalife and more. In 2019, he showed up at a conference in Dubai wearing the most expensive Rolex ever made, according to Business Insider.
Cristiano Ronaldo has an enviable luxury watch collection. Photo: @cristiano/Instagram
Off the football pitch, Ronaldo has amassed a growing investment portfolio in fashion, wellness, travel and tech. The investment comes at a rocky time for the luxury watch resale market, which has seen more than a year of price decline following the tightening of interest rates and the implosion of crypto.
“Yes, there is some volatility right now,” Stracke said, “There was explosive growth in ‘22, and then there was a correction, and I think both in the end weren’t super healthy for the market.”
CEO of Chrono24 Tim Stracke believes the watch market is still a good long term investment opportunity. Photo: @tim_stracke/Instagram
In spite of the recent roller-coaster ride of falling prices and sales volumes – which did lead Chrono24 to cut staff and consolidate locations earlier this year, Bloomberg reported – Stracke said he and Ronaldo share the view that the watch market is still a good long-term investment opportunity.
“It’s not so hard to predict the future because it is on file: how much money was spent on watches in the last 10, 20, 30, 40 years; and the average holding period is also calculable,” Stracke said. “So it’s maybe not super easy, but very doable in Excel to predict the future market volume.”
Chrono24 CEO Tim Stracke testing out his app on Cristiano Ronaldo’s watches. Photo: @chrono24/Instagram
In addition to hosting listings and serving as an intermediary for sales, Chrono24 also includes a price tracker that allows owners to see the value of their collection rise (or fall) with the resale market.
“This was a lot of fun for a few years – the last few months, it was a little less so,” Stracke said. “Still a better outcome than investing in tech stocks.”
However, Stracke joked that pricing some of Ronaldo’s collection – which contains several rare timepieces, some personal collaborations with Jacob & Co. and more than a few Rolexes, often set with diamonds and colourful gems – proved somewhat tricky on Chrono24.
Cristiano Ronaldo and long-time girlfriend Georgina Rodríguez now live a lavish life in Saudi Arabia. Photo: @georginagio/Instagram
Stracke said he tested his app’s AI-powered watch-recognition feature on Ronaldo’s US$1.5 million Franck Muller Cintree Curvex Tourbillon 0001 during a meeting with him and his long-time girlfriend Georgina Rodríguez.
