Ernesto Bertarelli — watch collection

About Ernesto Bertarelli’s watch collection

Ernesto Bertarelli is a Swiss-Italian billionaire entrepreneur best known as the former CEO of Serono, the Geneva-based biotechnology company founded by his family. Under his leadership, Serono grew into one of the world's largest biotech firms before he oversaw its sale to Merck KGaA in 2007 for approximately $13.3 billion. Beyond his business career, Bertarelli is widely recognized for his role in competitive sailing, having bankrolled and helmed the Alinghi syndicate to back-to-back America's Cup victories in 2003 and 2007 — achievements that placed him among the most consequential figures in the modern history of the sport. He is also a philanthropist and ocean conservationist, co-founding the Bertarelli Foundation with his wife Kirsty, which funds marine science research across the world's oceans.

The Ernesto Bertarelli watch collection, as captured in our database, reflects a man who wears watches that are directly tied to chapters of his own life rather than off-the-shelf luxury purchases. Bertarelli has been spotted wearing Audemars Piguet, and in particular a piece that carries unusual personal weight: the Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph Alinghi Polaris, reference 26040ST. This is not simply a watch Bertarelli bought — it is one he co-developed with the Le Brassus manufacture following Alinghi's second consecutive America's Cup win in Valencia in 2007. The 26040ST runs on calibre 2385, an in-house movement Audemars Piguet engineered specifically for the collaboration, giving the piece technical credentials that match the circumstances behind its creation.

What makes Bertarelli's approach to watches notable is the directness of the connection between the objects he wears and the events that defined him. The Alinghi Polaris ref. 26040ST is not a generic sports watch chosen for aesthetics — it is a document of a specific sporting era. For a collector of his means, wearing a single, personally meaningful Audemars Piguet over a rack of more conventional trophies says something deliberate about how he regards the relationship between time, achievement, and what ends up on your wrist.