• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, Yesterday

Luxury giant LVMH is shifting its Formula 1 sponsorship into high gear, turning the Monaco Grand Prix into a showcase for some of its best-known brands. While the company signed a 10-year sponsorship deal with Formula 1 back in January, the Monaco event gave racing fans their clearest look yet at LVMH’s integrated approach to global sports marketing.

TAG Heuer, acquired by LVMH in 1999, made history as the first title sponsor since the race’s inception in 1929. The Swiss watch brand has a long-standing relationship with Monaco, serving as the official partner of the Automobile Club de Monaco since 2011.

Other brands joined the circuit, too. Louis Vuitton presented a bespoke Trophy Trunk, building on its “Victory Travels in Louis Vuitton” campaign. And Moët & Chandon showcased a rare Formula 1 Jeroboam collection — nine historic bottles from its archives — now revealed for the first time.

LVMH also leveraged the glitz of Monaco to spotlight its celebrity appeal, with the likes of actor Patrick Dempsey and model icon Naomi Campbell alongside Oracle Red Bull Racing drivers Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda.

The event also amplified a recent TAG Heuer product rollout. Several months before Monaco, the brand launched three new timepieces honoring the city’s racing legacy: the TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph x Gulf, a nod to the film "Le Mans" and Steve McQueen; the Monaco Chronograph Stopwatch, inspired by 1970s racing instruments; and the ultra-lightweight Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph.

While LVMH and its competitors continue to face headwinds in the luxury sector, including cooling demand and evolving U.S. tariff policies, Swiss watches are enjoying an unusual surge. Swiss watch exports to the U.S. soared 149% in April, according to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry. That bump reflects strategic stockpiling, not necessarily surging consumer appetite: “The sharp rise in exports is more a reflection of a one-off response to an uncertain commercial situation than a genuine sign of a structural strengthening of demand,” the trade group said.

Formula 1’s own momentum is growing. With 24 races on the 2025 calendar, the sport boasts a cumulative global audience of 1.6 billion and an active fan base of 826 million. In the U.S., viewership is climbing fast: Blackbook Motorsport reports F1 races have averaged 1.04 million viewers through the first five races, with each one showing double-digit percentage increases year-over-year.

PepsiCo is the latest major brand to jump on board, announcing a multiyear deal with F1 across Sting Energy, Gatorade, and Doritos. For LVMH, the Monaco activation signals just how far it plans to push the F1 platform — and how seamlessly it can lap its competitors when it comes to brand storytelling on a global stage.