“I designed the Surf GMT to keep pace with the world’s most fearless thrill seekers,” said Charriol’s CEO and Creative Director Coralie Charriol of the sporty new St-Tropez timepiece. And thrill-seeking world-renowned surfer Garrett McNamara, who conquered Nazaré and the world’s largest surface wave, is the on-point ambassador.
The fortuitous collaboration has led to some high-profile ocean-side exposure: The athlete will sport the new watch during the filming of season three of HBO’s popular TV series, 100 Foot Wave. The documentary, which premiered in 2021, is all about McNamara’s career as a big-wave surfer, and it focuses on his time in Nazaré, a town in Portugal known for its enormous waves. The series was picked up for its third season in August of last year.
The Watch
Charriol’s Surf GMT offers some extraordinary dial designs and colorways, and each watch is fitted with a self-winding mechanical movement on display via the sapphire crystal caseback. The 41mm steel timepiece comes on an interchangeable steel bracelet with a deployant clasp, and it provides water resistance to 10 ATM, thanks in part to its screw-locked crown.
“I love it,” McNamara enthused when we spoke last week. “The watch is big enough to be manly, but not too big,” he said, referencing other—larger and weightier—watches he’s worn in the past. “Nothing felt right until Charriol—it’s heavy enough to feel solid, but not too heavy.”
Skateboarding was McNamara’s sport of choice as a younger child, but a relocation when he was 11 changed all that.
“We moved to Hawaii, and we lived close to the beach,” he explained. “We didn’t have much when we got there, and my mom got us [McNamara and his brother] a surfboard.” And if it’s true that one’s passion can bend time, McNamara had clearly found his calling. “The day could pass without knowing it. All we needed was a surfboard and shorts—it was such a perfect scenario.” he said.
At 17, he entered and placed in the Triple Crown of Surfing series and began to garner sponsors. For the next 10 years, the brothers joined the competition circuit, eventually leading Garrett to tow surfing in search of the biggest waves.
McNamara is a Guinness World Record holder for the largest wave ever surfed and part of the only team to have surfed waves generated by a 300-foot calving glacier in Alaska. He is also the only foreigner to receive the Vasco de Gama Medal of Honor from the Portuguese Navy for his contributions to Portugal.
But with accolades too numerous to imagine, McNamara has somehow kept his sights on things less fleeting than a wave and symbolically bigger than his feats.
“Garrett isn’t just a world class surfer,” Charriol shared. “He and his wife, Nicole, are inspiring travelers and life partners, devoted parents, and philanthropists who bring infectious positivity to every encounter and community they are a part of.”
The couple are generous benefactors—particularly when it comes to the environment—and they work with a variety of organizations, including McNamara’s own foundation, Waves of Life, which provides surf therapy mentorship for at-risk and underprivileged youth. “It all comes from my love of the ocean. I feel a strong desire to serve and protect,” he explains.