The four-time MVP football quarterback Aaron Rodgers and the CEO of the watch brand Zenith, Julien Tornare, have spent the past 15 months co-creating a timepiece. Unveiled last night in New York City, the limited-edition take on the Chronomaster Sport watch shines in bright green—a nod to his 17-year oeuvre with the Green Bay Packers, as well as his new hometeam, the New York Jets.
According to Tornare, Rodgers, who became a Zenith brand ambassador in 2021, has personified its “Time To Reach Your Star” philosophy. As a dedicated athlete who preservers, performs, and pushes the limits, he has defied many odds, pushed incredible boundaries, and created an exemplary career for himself. In addition to his longstanding athletic career, Rodgers is also an advocate for mental health, spirituality, and self-awareness.
Zenith x Aaron Rodgers, courtesy of Zenith.
For Zenith, the Chronomaster Sport Aaron Rodgers edition—featuring a 41mm stainless steel case, a green-toned lacquered dial, Arabic hour markers, and a water resistance of up to 100 meters—even features a first for the Swiss brand: ceramic green bezels. It also achieved many firsts for Rodgers, as he ventured for the first time to Switzerland to take his hand at watchmaking in the brand’s Watch Clinic, seen replicated at Watches & Wonders in years past.
At the watch’s unveiling last night at the Magic Room in LVMH Tower, Whitewall spoke with Tornare and Rodgers about co-creating the timepiece and how history and passion influenced the process.
Julien Tornare, Aaron Rodgers, courtesy of Zenith.
WHITEWALL: Congratulations on the debut of this new watch. What was it like working together to make it come to fruition?
JULIEN TORNARE: It’s been very natural. Since day one, we’ve been putting back on stage the time “Time To Reach Your Star” philosophy since I joined in 2017. We got back to this brand moto. We look for people that can embrace it. When we got in touch, first it was through Zoom in 2020. After 5 minutes, we had a great connection. I asked Aaron to tell me about his journey, because that’s what it’s all about. How people have a dream, how they work hard to reach it. More than anything else, any red carpet effect, I need someone who is authentic in reaching their star. That’s how it started. After that we had to wait a bit because we couldn’t travel and Aaron was quite busy, but he managed to fly all the way to Switzerland. That was the main starting point.
AARON RODGERS: We had a lot of fun. I knew right away I like him a lot. He’s funny, he has a sense of humor. He’s serious, as well, which I respect. When I came back to Switzerland and go the tour of the factory and got to meet everyone, that’s when the partnership really sunk in. And we talked about doing something like tonight. There, I was figuring out how the watches were made, playing with all the parts—and that’s really where it all started.
Zenith x Aaron Rodgers, courtesy of Zenith.
WW: Aaron took his hand at watchmaking?
JT: Yes, and he did very well. I was taken a bit by surprise! He did great.
WW: How did your time in Switzerland influence your understanding of watchmaking?
AR: I didn’t know a whole lot about the process, so I got to really see that. And there’s a building—the Watch Clinic—where you can actually practice with the elements, and see how to get it started, which was cool. The other part that was really meaningful was the history of it. I love history and studied history in college. People who know Zenith know that there was one man who was really important in the brand being what it is today. He’d go over at night time and hide some of the machinery. I love stories where people take risks and show some courage, and decide to act on their intuition and do something that can change the world. And that changed the world of watchmaking. That’s the reason we’re all here today, because one man did something maybe he wasn’t supposed to do.
Julien Tornare, Aaron Rodgers, courtesy of Zenith.
WW: How did your approach to the collaboration end in what we see today? How did your design process evolve?
AR: There was a lot of collaboration and it was so hard to pick because there were so many incredible iterations—from the bezel color to the numbers, the base color, the inside, the dials, the back. They just laid a bunch of stuff in front of me, and it was very, “Yes. Yes. No. Maybe.” But it was like, “How do you choose between the four of these? All of them are amazing.” They’d send me something and I’d send it back, and we’d do a few demos in design. It was pretty cool.
JT: My team and I loved his involvement. When you do a watch with an ambassador like this, it’s usually, “Okay, we’ll make a watch and we’ll talk after.” Aaron was really on it. He said, “I prefer this. Let me think on it. Let’s do another Zoom in two days.” He really was involved in every detail. On one side, it was more work, because we would debate, we would exchange [ideas], but at the end of the day, it was about passion. And that’s what we love.
Zenith x Aaron Rodgers, courtesy of Zenith.
WW: Were there challenges?
AR: Making a decision! [Laughs] They’d send me 16 designs, we’d talk about it, do a Zoom. More demos, more stuff to look at. There were so many great options it was hard to decide exactly what we wanted.
JT: Like even the logo—should we put it on the dial, on the back? In gray? All these types of discussions.
AR: I haven’t even seen the finished product yet, which I will tonight, but the logo is really cool. There are some subtle little Easter eggs.
JT: The green color, too.
AR: We had a lot of different greens, but this one worked out. There’s definitely an ode to my time in Green Bay, and the green that got chosen just so happened to be very similar to my new landing spot.
WW: Did you look into the archive for any inspiration?
AR: Yes, but I really love the [Chronomaster] Sport, so that’s really where we were always leaning. When I was in Switzerland, I really got to understand the history of the brand, and there is a lot of love that grew from that time, just knowing how many people were so important to the brand surviving and getting to where it is now. When you represent a brand, or when you have someone else represent your brand, you’re investing in that, of course. As a brand ambassador, you’re working with the people that make the company so special, so that’s why the relationship with Julien is so important, and his staff and the individual masters who maybe have one specific job with five pieces. They’re so intricate and tiny and important to the watchmaking process. Getting to know those people and seeing how they do things, it really engrained a deep appreciation for Zenith. And getting to know Julien—I feel really good about aligning myself with someone who has such high integrity and professionalism, and a vision.
Zenith x Aaron Rodgers, courtesy of Zenith.
WW: Does this model feature anything that no other Zenith watch does?
JT: We’ve never done green ceramic, and the bezel is in green ceramic. That was totally new for us, so we really had to work on how to do that. It seems easy—and a lot of brands are doing a lot of ceramic—but it’s not so easy. The cover is always a big deal, and we had to work a lot to get a good rendering.
And there’s a little surprise. Aaron’s been signing each box, individually, so that’s a very cool thing. All 250!
AR: I mean, I guess that’s exciting but they all look a little similar… I signed for 18 years my name and the number 12, so every now and then, I start to draw that one, and then that two. I feel like maybe one in the 250, there’s a 12. And that’s 100 percent an accident. [Laughs]
