CROWNING GLORY

Rolex’s long-standing association with the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance proves that the brand’s tryst with the automobile goes beyond the racetrack

- PARTH CHARAN

A trophy for the mantlepiece is great if you’re the sedentary type, but a trophy you can travel with? That’s even better. Fortunately, the organizers of the 70th Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance—the world’s most prestigious classic and vintage car event—seem to concur. And so, much like every other time for the last 24 years, the winner of the coveted “Best of Show” award, drives away not only with the distinction of owning one of the world’s most storied and immaculately preserved cars, but also a glistening, specially engraved Rolex.

For 2021, that car happens to be a 1938 Mercedes-Benz 540K, and the prize, along with a mantlepiece trophy, is a new, 41mm Oyster Perpetual Datejust watch. As the 70th car to win the “Best of Show” title, the ’38 540K Autobahn Kurier was selected for its impeccable provenance, which dates all the way back to the 1938 Berlin Motor Show where it became the first of its kind ever to meet the public’s entranced gaze. Part of the Keller Collection of Petaluma, California, it’s now the ninth Mercedes-Benz to have won the title.