Pebble Beach at 75: Rolex Connects the Concours With Its Racing Roots

The Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance celebrates its 75th edition Sunday, Aug. 16, capping a week of Rolex-backed automotive events on California’s Monterey Peninsula that includes the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, the Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance presented by Rolex, and The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, where Rolex serves as Official Timepiece. If you’ve been browsing our Rolex watch page, you’ll find plenty of the same models at this year’s event. This year’s Concours will highlight its origins in the Pebble Beach Road Races, first held alongside the Concours in 1950. When racing on the narrow roads through the Del Monte Forest became increasingly dangerous, the competition moved in 1957 to a new purpose-built circuit nearby, now known as Laguna Seca. The historic races held there evolved into today’s Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion.

The 75th edition also marks two milestones in Rolex’s Monterey history. Rolex has been associated with the Pebble Beach Concours since 1997, and 2026 marks 25 years of partnership with Monterey’s historic racing event. The watchmaker’s presence today encompasses everything from the competition at Laguna Seca to the Tour d’Elegance and Sunday’s Concours, where the Best of Show winner will receive a specially engraved Rolex Perpetual 1908.

From the Pebble Beach Road Races to Formula One

Pebble Beach’s relationship with racing began at the beginning. The first Pebble Beach Road Races and Concours were held together in 1950. Among the young drivers was Phil Hill, who won the inaugural Pebble Beach Cup in a Jaguar XK120 and returned to win again in 1953. Hill later became the first American Formula One World Drivers’ Champion in 1961.

More than 400 historic competition cars are scheduled to race at Laguna Seca during this year’s Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, while cars associated with the original Pebble Beach Road Races will help commemorate the shared history. Rolex brought its own substantial racing history to Monterey. In the 1930s, Sir Malcolm Campbell wore a Rolex Oyster while repeatedly setting World Land Speed Records, including at Daytona Beach – namesake of the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona – establishing one of Rolex’s earliest links with motor racing and speed.

The Cosmograph Daytona: Rolex’s Watch Built for Racing

Designed for racing drivers and debuted in 1963, the Cosmograph Daytona collection combined chronograph timing with a tachymetric bezel for calculating average speed. Its Daytona name cemented the relationship with the Florida circuit. That connection continues today, with winners of the Rolex 24 At Daytona receiving specially engraved Cosmograph Daytonas. At Pebble Beach, Rolex has traditionally chosen watches reflecting the event’s emphasis on elegance rather than outright speed. The Datejust was long associated with the Concours Best of Show prize; a Datejust 41 was presented to the winner in 2018, and the model was still being awarded in 2023.

Why the Rolex Perpetual 1908 Became Pebble Beach’s Best of Show Watch

In 2024, Rolex changed the Pebble Beach prize to its new but classically styled and supremely elegant Perpetual 1908 dress watch. Best of Show winners received engraved 1908s in 2024 and 2025, and another specially engraved example will go to the winner of the 75th Concours on Aug. 16.

The Rolex Datejust’s Continuing Role at Monterey Car Week

The Datejust remains prominent elsewhere during Monterey Car Week. Rolex has been Official Timepiece of The Quail since 2005, where the Rolex Best of Show winner receives an engraved Rolex Datejust model and entry into the Rolex Circle of Champions. Rolex also presents Thursday’s Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance, in which approximately 150 Concours entrants leave Pebble Beach for a 65-mile drive along 17-Mile Drive, Highway One and Big Sur.

The watches, all iconic models, form a parallel history of their own: the Oyster with Rolex’s pioneering record-breaking motorists; the Cosmograph Daytona with racing; the Datejust with Monterey concours prizes; and now the Perpetual 1908 with Pebble Beach Best of Show.

Where Racing Heritage and Watchmaking Meet

Pebble Beach’s 75th edition brings the event’s story full circle, reconnecting today’s Concours with the road races that helped define its earliest years. Rolex’s long involvement adds another layer to that history, linking the Oyster, Cosmograph Daytona, Datejust, and Perpetual 1908 to different eras of motoring, competition, and design. As historic cars return to Laguna Seca and the world’s finest automobiles gather at Pebble Beach, Monterey Car Week remains one of the clearest examples of why watches and cars have become so closely connected in collecting culture: both are judged not only by performance, but by craftsmanship, originality, provenance, and the stories they carry forward.