Play tennis, pickleball, or padel? NORQAIN’s new collab with Stan Wawrinka more than qualifies as your first on-court watch

For a racquet in one hand and a wristwatch on the other, few players in recent memory have commandeered the court as confidently as Stan Wawrinka. The Swiss three-time Grand Slam champion, famed for his thunderous one-handed leftie backhand, is now seeing his sporting legacy carried onto the wrist by NORQAIN in the form of the Wild ONE Skeleton Stan the Man Limited Edition.

Lightweight, shock-resistant, and infused with touches that speak directly to Wawrinka’s career highlights, this tribute watch is produced as an 85-piece limited edition in reference to his birth year, 1985.

It’s a collaboration just waiting to happen. Wawrinka, who has always combined grit with a snazzy of sense style on the tennis circuit, joined the NORQAIN family as an ambassador and business partner early this year. Most recently, he’s part of a team of sports professionals who founded the Ginga Stadium in the Bordeaux metropolitan area of France. A 3,000 sqm indoor club for padel, pickleball, badminton, and futsal enthusiasts, this project also paves the way for his road towards entrepreneurship.

At the core of the Stan The Man Limited Edition is the Wild ONE Skeleton architecture, housed within a 42mm case constructed from NORTEQ, the brand’s proprietary carbon fibre composite that is both ultra-light and incredibly robust. A bright yellow-green rubber shock absorber, evoking the fuzz of a tennis ball, is sandwiched between the carbon layers, ensuring both visual punch and resilience under impact.

The tennis cues continue. On the left flank of the case, the NORQAIN plate incorporates actual tennis ball fibres, developed with BIWI, and engraved in the same vivid yellow-green tone. The watch is fitted with a black and yellow-green rubber strap patterned like a tennis net, making the visual language unmissable.

Turn it over, and the sapphire caseback is printed with an image of Stan alongside the years of his Grand Slam victories — 2014, 2015, and 2016 — a reminder of his defining moments at the Australian Open, Roland Garros, and Flushing Meadows.

Up front, the skeletonised black dial opens onto the NORQAIN Calibre NB08S, a COSC-certified automatic movement with 41 hours of power reserve. Rhodium-plated hands and indexes are edged in Super-LumiNova and tipped in tennis’ signature yellow-green.

With a 200m water resistance, a sandblasted titanium container, and a screw-down crown sheathed in black rubber, the Wild ONE Skeleton is not a showpiece destined for the shelf — it’s made to move. Even the bespoke spherical box arrives with a signed tennis ball from Wawrinka, which is a nice touch.

Says Ben Kuffer, founder and CEO of NORQAIN, “Stan is a tennis legend, and it has brought us great joy to create a watch in his name. He’s also a close friend and we love working with him. Collaborating on this watch was so much fun, and the result is a special design that we’re excited to introduce to Stan’s many fans.”

As Wawrinka himself put it, the joy lies not only in being celebrated with a timepiece, but in knowing the model can pull its own weight in any hard-fought match: “I never imagined someone would make such a cool, high-tech watch in my name. It’s an immense honour. What makes this timepiece so special to me is the fact that it contains actual tennis ball fibres, a detail that’s not only deeply personal but also incredibly innovative. And thanks to the impressive shock resistance of the Wild ONE models, it’s a watch professional tennis players can actually wear on the court.”

For players who demand performance equipment whether it’s their racquet, their shoes, or the watch on their wrist, this new NORQAIN creation delivers a compelling double-duty solution: a versatile timekeeper sturdy enough to follow you straight onto the court, and on to wherever life may find you.