Featuring a long-running tagline, ‘Born to Dare’, in its ad campaigns makes it unsurprising adventure-focused Swiss brand TUDOR have taken on the role of Official Timekeeper of the 2025 Dakar Rally.
The world’s most epic and gruelling off-road race will take place in Saudia Arabia from January 3-17, spans 14 days and thousands of kilometres across the vast and unforgiving terrain of the Empty Quarter, the largest desert on Earth.
As timekeeper TUDOR will have the responsibility to account for every second across stages such as the iconic Marathon and 48-hour chrono. The 2025 edition of the race will start in Bisha on January 3 and end in Shubaytah on January 17. In between the route will take competitors through the Empty Quarter, the largest sea of sand on the planet and unoccupied by humans.
The race uses a ‘rally raid’ format which means teams will use nothing but a roadbook with a route map to cross vast expanses of adverse terrain, sometimes driving for up to 12 hours straight, with special stages along the route.
The origins of ‘Dakar’, as it’s now known, can be traced back to the moment when Thierry Sabine, a French motorbike racer, lost his way during the 1977 Abidjan-Nice Rally and ended up stranded in the Sahara Desert.
He was eventually rescued, but he observed just how challenging and unforgiving the desert could be, birthing the idea to make it the central theme of what would become the toughest race in the world.
In 1978, the first edition of the Paris-Dakar began. The name has since been changed simply to the Dakar Rally.
TUDOR is also the official timekeeper of the Dakar Classic, a parallel race held at the same time featuring vehicles that competed in the Dakar Rally up to 2005. The brand has a long and storied association both with motorsports and extreme adventure.
Its earliest watches were famously worn by mountaineers and hikers in extreme conditions, a testament to their toughness, durability and precision. TUDOR timepieces were also seen on the wrists of drivers during the golden era of motorsport, starting with the Tudor Watch Racing Team in the late ’60s through to the recent IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.
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