Where Time and Tide Meet: Rolex, the CYCA, and a Partnership Forged at Sea

There is a moment every Boxing Day when Sydney Harbour holds its breath. The fleet is assembled, the city has gathered along the foreshores, and then at precisely 1pm, the cannon fires and the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race begins. It is a moment that has played out for eight decades, and for the last 24 years, it has carried the name of the world’s most recognised watchmaker. That is not an accident.

100 years of the Oyster

This year, Rolex marks the centenary of the Oyster — the world’s first waterproof wristwatch, born in 1926. The anniversary invites reflection on why a Swiss watchmaker has spent the better part of a century binding itself to the sea. The answer, it turns out, is not so different from the story of the CYCA itself.

The Oyster’s first great test came in 1927, when swimmer Mercedes Gleitze wore one during her English Channel crossing, spending more than ten hours in the water. When she emerged, the watch was declared in perfect working order. Endurance in punishing conditions. Precision under pressure. A refusal to yield to the sea. Sound familiar? It should. Those are the same qualities that have defined the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race since Captain John Illingworth replied to a Christmas cruise invitation with these famous words: “I will, if you make a race of it.”

History behind the Rolex Sydney Hobart

The CYCA was established in 1944 by a handful of adventurous sailors whose ambitions lay beyond the harbour. From those humble beginnings, the race captured the imagination of the nation, growing into a summer icon that stands proudly alongside the Boxing Day Test. Rolex’s partnership with the CYCA and its premier event began in 2002, and what was formalised that year was, in truth, a recognition of something that already existed: a shared language of excellence, precision and respect for the sea.

The 2025 edition, the 80th running of the race, produced one of the most significant results in its history. Min River’s owner Jiang Lin became the first woman to ever win the race outright, and together with co-skipper Alexis Loison, they also became the first double-handed crew to claim the Tattersall Cup. It was a result that felt entirely in keeping with what Rolex’s own press materials describe as the sport’s evolving understanding that “excellence has many forms.” Progress and tradition, moving together.

That tension between honouring the past and pushing toward the future is exactly what both institutions navigate every year. Despite the presence of professional crews and some of the world’s most cutting-edge racing craft, the Rolex Sydney Hobart, like other offshore classics, is imbued with the traditional spirit of sailing. The majority of the fleet, drawn from all corners of Australia and internationally, are comprised of skilled Corinthian sailors. The Tattersall Cup is as likely to go to a club yachty who loves offshore racing with mates as it is to a maxi crew with a massive corporate budget. That is precisely the point.

Rolex Testimonee and five-time Olympic medallist Robert Scheidt captures what this race demands of everyone who enters it: the spirit, he says, that enables one to stay the course — to fight boat by boat, situation by situation, regardless of where you sit in the fleet. Any sailor who has crossed Bass Strait in the dark, battling a 25-knot south-westerly, knows exactly what he means.

As Rolex Testimonee Tom Slingsby, an Olympic gold medallist, 2016 Rolex Sydney Hobart winning skipper and three-time Rolex World Sailor of the Year, puts it: “When I go back to Australia and people ask what I do, as soon as I say I am a professional sailor, the first question anyone asks is ‘how many Rolex Sydney Hobarts have you done?'” The race is not just an event. It is a measure of a sailor.

The Rolex press release marking this centenary year speaks of yachting’s clubs as “guardians of yachting’s culture” and “the container in which so much of the passion and experience is held and transmitted to the next generation.”

That is a description of the CYCA as much as any institution in world sailing.

Perpetuating knowledge is a fundamental aspect of the Rolex philosophy, and over the past 75 years there are numerous examples of veteran race participants passing on wisdom and skill to younger, less experienced sailors within their crew. It is the same philosophy that underpins the CYCA’s Youth Sailing Academy, which has graduated more than 500 sailors — many of whom have gone on to Olympic podiums, America’s Cup campaigns, and, of course, the start line on Boxing Day.

The partnership continues

In 2026, Rolex celebrates 100 years of the Oyster. The CYCA celebrates 24 years of a partnership that has helped take this race — and this club — to a global audience. Paul Cayard, a Rolex Testimonee for over 25 years, perhaps says it best when he reflects on what anniversaries are really for: they are not endings, but a chance to consolidate experience and carry it forward into the next endeavour.

The cannon will fire again this Boxing Day. The fleet will surge through the Heads. And somewhere on the water, a sailor will look down at the watch on their wrist, feel the boat lift to a swell, and understand — just for a moment — exactly what all of this is about.