The NBA and Tissot announce global partnership

By

Obi Anyanwu

Published
Oct 5, 2015

The National Basketball Association and Tissot on Monday announced a multi-year global partnership that will make Tissot the first Official Timekeeper of the NBA, the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the NBA Development League (NBA D-League) that will begin during NBA Global Games 2015-16.

 
This marks the first Official Timekeeping partnership for TISSOT with a major North American sports league and the largest partnership in the company's history of more than 160 years.  With the agreement, TISSOT adds to an already robust portfolio of international sports and sporting event partnerships.  

Tissot, the leading Swiss traditional watchmaker in terms of volume, is a member of the Swatch Group. The Swiss watch brand will work with the NBA to develop a state-of-the-art integrated timing system that will be implemented across all 29 NBA arenas beginning with the 2016-17 NBA season. In addition, Tissot will receive global league licensing rights for timepieces, watches, clocks and watch accessories for all NBA teams.

"Tissot is very proud to join the NBA and to be able to create a bond with the players and the fans," said François Thiébaud, President of Tissot. "The emotions and the spirit behind the sport will further translate into our products.  Our daily work is to dress time.  We create pieces of beauty and accuracy but above all of emotionality and that is what sport, and more particularly the NBA, is about."  

The partnership will begin during NBA Global Games 2015-16, which will feature 6 NBA teams playing seven regular-season and preseason games in 6 countries. 

NBA's partnership with Tissot follows the announcement in June that Nike will become the official on-court apparel provider for the NBA, and the announcement in April that Stance is the official sock provider for the NBA.