Mario Götze sells his World Cup Rolex to Tim Stracke

And with that, it has fallen into appreciative hands. Tim Stracke joined Chrono24 as co-CEO in 2010 and played a key role in the rise of the marketplace, founded in 2003, to become a leading global online platform for pre-owned luxury watches.

Source image links: LinkedIn account Tim Stracke

At the beginning of 2024, Tim Stracke and Holger Felgner handed over the CEO position to Carsten Keller (who had previously played a key role in developing Zalando’s marketplace model), but remained important shareholders and joined the Chrono24 advisory board, with Stracke also acting as chairman. He handed over this role on June 1, 2025, to Tobias Hartmann, who was previously CEO at Scout24.

However, the world of watches is still his, as he recently reported in the TOMorrow Watches podcast by journalist and media entrepreneur Tom Junkersdorf. And Stracke clearly has a knack for understanding the needs of top soccer players. In 2023, none other than Cristiano Ronaldo joined Chrono24 as an investor. “No one brings as much passion for luxury watches to the world stage as Cristiano,” he commented in 2023 on the five-time world footballer’s involvement with Chrono24.

In the podcast, he wears Mario Götze’s World Cup-winning “Submariner” on his wrist. And this is no standard model. “I am very, very proud to own this watch. It is definitely the most special of all my watches,” says Stracke. In doing so, he confirms that watches can be a truly emotional affair.

How Mario Götze’s World Cup-winning Rolex ended up on Tim Sracke’s wrist

Let’s briefly recap: It’s July 13, 2014, and the German national team is in the final of the World Cup in Brazil. It is the 113th minute at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, and the score is 0-0. Then André Schürrle passes to Mario Götze, who scores the winning goal, making it 1-0. Germany is the 2014 World Cup champion, thanks to Götze’s “goal for eternity,” as national coach Jogi Löw put it.

And for that, he received a Submariner as a private gift. The former professional soccer player wishes to keep the identity of the generous donor to himself. It is evident that it was not a gift from the Swiss luxury brand Rolex itself—Switzerland was defeated by Argentina in the round of 16, by the way—because the watch has been extensively modified.

“Actually an absolute no-go among watch enthusiasts,” says Stracke, and that applies to him too. “You don’t change a Rolex; you take it as it comes from the factory. But this is a very special watch,” says Stracke. It has a black coating, the case back is engraved with the trophy and the name Mario Götze, and the dial features two dice as lucky symbols.

Stracke couldn’t say no, especially since he was at the stadium in Rio de Janeiro when the “goal for eternity” was scored. “The dedication has added something priceless. Especially when you witnessed what happened in Rio in 2014 live.”

This very special Submariner was part of an entire watch collection that Mario Götze brought to Chrono24, asking for help in selling it. When Stracke asked him why he wanted to sell this collection, and especially such a special watch, Götze replied that there were things that had become more important since the birth of his children.

But how do you determine the price of such a unique item? “It wasn’t easy to agree on a price,” recalls Stracke. “We didn’t want to discuss it at length, so we decided to make it a donation to organizations of his choice.”

Tim Stracke does not reveal how much he donated for the watch. However, it will have been a little more than for the coffee fund, because watches with prominent previous owners sell well, he confirms in the podcast.

chrono24.com