The Pele Watch Story: A King's Collection

Last updated: June 2026

Pele is the only player to win three World Cups, in 1958, 1962, and 1970. His watch story belongs mostly to Hublot, who signed him in the mid-2010s and built its football identity around him, capped by the Big Bang e he wore at Qatar 2022 weeks before his death.

This is the watch side of football's most decorated career. Pele played in an era before wristshot culture, so the documented chapter starts late, with his Hublot signing and the Classic Fusion editions that carried his name and his number 10. It runs through the connected Big Bang e at the 2022 World Cup, his death on December 29, 2022, and how Hublot has kept his name in the catalog since. Rolex and IWC come up in his story too, though the sourcing there is thinner. For the bigger picture, see our complete 2026 World Cup watches guide.

The only three-time World Cup winner

Start with the record, because it explains why Hublot called him the King. Pele won the World Cup three times: Sweden 1958 as a 17-year-old, Chile 1962, and Mexico 1970. No other player has done it. That 1970 Brazil side is still talked about as one of the strongest squads ever assembled.

His playing career ran from the late 1950s into the 1970s, decades before footballers turned their wrists into marketing assets. There is no reliable photographic record of him wearing a specific luxury watch on the pitch at those tournaments, so we are not going to invent one. The part of his watch story that is documented and sourceable begins much later, when the watch industry came to him. Pele's nation fields a deep bench of watch-wearing players today, which we cover in Brazil's 2026 World Cup squad guide.

The Hublot signing and the Classic Fusion Pele editions

Pele became a Hublot ambassador in the mid-2010s. The exact year is reported inconsistently. Some accounts tie the relationship to a 2013 launch in Geneva, framed around the brand's push toward the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Others point to a formal 2016 signing. We are not going to pick one as fact when the public record disagrees with itself. What is clear is that by the Brazil cycle, Pele was the face Hublot used to root its football story in history rather than current squads.

That story took physical form in the Classic Fusion Aerofusion Chronograph Pele. It is a 45mm chronograph (a stopwatch function on top of timekeeping) with a skeletonized dial, yellow accents, a soccer-ball motif on a subdial, and his number 10 picked out on the date track. The caseback carries an illustration of his bicycle kick and his signature. Hublot built it in two limited runs.

The black ceramic version ran to 500 pieces and the yellow gold to 200, both carrying the PEL14 suffix in the reference. We do not handle Hublot at WO5, so we have no first-hand read on how these trade. On the open secondary market they surface periodically through Hublot specialists, with the 200-piece gold version the scarcer of the two by design. Pele and Maradona were both Hublot, and the brand leaned on both to build its football presence in the 2010s. You can read the parallel story in the Diego Maradona watch story.

The Big Bang e at Qatar 2022

The last major Pele wristshot came at the 2022 World Cup. He was photographed wearing the Big Bang e FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 (Ref. 450.CI.1100.RX.FWC22), Hublot's connected smartwatch for that tournament. It is a 44mm black ceramic case running Wear OS by Google, with a burgundy and black strap referencing the Qatar flag colors. Hublot built it in 1,000 pieces at $5,800 retail, and the run sold out before the tournament finished.

The Hublot Big Bang e FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, the connected watch Pele wore late in 2022. Image: Hublot

That watch carries extra weight now. Pele was ill during the tournament and died shortly after it ended, so the Qatar 2022 image stands as one of the final public records of him with a watch on. For the full arc of the brand at the tournament, including this piece and the referee program, see Hublot's 16-year FIFA partnership and how it ended.

December 2022 and how Hublot kept his name in the catalog

Pele died on December 29, 2022, about a week after the World Cup final. Hublot marked the moment publicly, publishing a tribute under the banner "Hublot celebrates the life of King Pele" and pointing back to the Classic Fusion Aerofusion Chronograph editions that already carried his name, the 500-piece black ceramic and the 200-piece yellow gold. Those pieces, made during his life, became the watches most associated with his memory.

One thread is worth pulling. When Hublot signed Kylian Mbappe in 2018, CEO Ricardo Guadalupe framed it around a meeting between Mbappe and Pele, saying Mbappe was joining the legends of football, "and King Pele in particular." Hublot was openly positioning its young active-player face as a successor to its King. That ambassador line, like the Pele and Maradona heritage programs, is a personal arrangement. None of it was touched when Hublot ended its FIFA timekeeper partnership in December 2025. The tournament deal is gone; the Pele association lives on in the catalog.

Rolex, IWC, and the rest of the wardrobe

Pele's name gets attached to Rolex and IWC in various tellings of his life, which is unsurprising for a global figure of his era and stature. We are not going to assign him a specific Rolex Day-Date or a specific IWC reference, because we could not find primary documentation tying him to a confirmed model. Where the record is thin, we would rather say so than fill it with a guess.

The honest summary is this: the Hublot chapter is the one with references, piece counts, photographs, and a public ambassador relationship behind it. Everything before it sits in the pre-wristshot era, and everything around it on other brands is loosely sourced at best. For a player who only ever needed one number, a watch story built almost entirely on the number 10 feels about right.

Sources: Hublot brand press and its "Hublot celebrates the life of King Pele" tribute for the Classic Fusion Aerofusion Chronograph Pele editions (black ceramic Ref. 525.CM.0179.VR.PEL14, 500 pieces; 18k yellow gold Ref. 525.VX.0179.VR.PEL14, 200 pieces) and the Big Bang e FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 (Ref. 450.CI.1100.RX.FWC22, 44mm black ceramic, 1,000 pieces, $5,800 retail). Pele's three World Cup wins (1958, 1962, 1970) and his death on December 29, 2022 are part of the public record. The exact year Pele signed with Hublot is reported inconsistently, variously as 2013 and 2016; we describe it as the mid-2010s rather than assert one year. The 2018 Mbappe signing context, including the meeting with Pele and Ricardo Guadalupe's "King Pele in particular" framing, comes from watch and sports media coverage of that announcement. Specific Pele Rolex and IWC references are not enumerated here because we found no primary documentation tying him to a confirmed model. Secondary market commentary reflects industry experience and is not financial advice; values vary by condition, completeness of box and papers, and dealer. WO5 does not sell Hublot.