The original bandana-clad bad boy of 1990s tennis, Andre Agassi was a marketing phenomenon who rocked acid-wash denim shorts and an aggressive amount of neon. He skipped Wimbledon for a bit due to what he saw as the oppressive nature of its famous all-white dress code. A long-time Longines guy, there was a time when Agassi was chopping up opponents wearing an incongruously elegant Ebel, a revived Swiss mark that was big in the world of tennis (more on them later). Extra points for wearing a proper dress watch while playing elite sport in nu-rave gear.

Underarm serving his way to a historic French Open victory and the inside of Ivan Lendl’s frazzled mind, Michael Chang was an American tennis trailblazer — the youngest ever male Grand Slam winner – and underrated wearer of clothes. The technicolour Reebok polos and short shorts wouldn’t look out of place in a Dalston pub garden. Over the years, Chang sported watches by the now defunct Stelux and helped to launch Reebok’s foray into the timekeeping world in the late 1990s, before settling with Longines for his luxury era.

He of flowing mane and a gaze as chilly as a fjord on a November morning, Björn Borg was the original tennis heartthrob who made a headband, tiny little shorts and a track jacket his trademark. He also knew how to wear some jewellery, a couple of thin gold chains here, a Cartier Tank – a mid-century classic that has become the de facto dress watch of now – there. A bit like Borg himself, it’s the sort of piece that has never gone out of style.

It’s fairly fitting that someone like John McEnroe – a foul-mouthed iconoclast in a red headband (during his early years anyway) who is known more for his temper and winning just seven major titles in an ultra-competitive era – would rock a digital watch. This isn’t a delicate gold Day-Date sort of man. This is the sort of man who wants to insult the umpire’s intelligence and integrity, and tell the time down to the very second on his Casio afterwards.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Ebel was the dominating force when it came to watches and tennis players, and tennis players wearing watches. Andre Agassi, Boris Becker and Yannick Noah had vastly different styles and personalities but were united by the fact that they were box office and looked cool on a tennis court… and wore the Swiss brand. The last Frenchman to win Roland-Garros, Yannick Noah in outlandish Le Coq Sportif on the beautiful red clay of Paris is an abiding image, and so is this one of him in the airport in a little stainless-steel dive number. Oh, also, he’s a hugely famous pop star in France. What can’t he do?

Say what you like about Richard Mille watches, but the brand knows how to make a design that is memorable, bold, weighs less than a quail feather and is precision-engineered to be able to withstand the rigours of professional tennis. Rafael Nadal might dress mostly like a friendly accountant now that he’s retired, but his long-running partnership with the maker of sport watches that cost about as much as a one-bedroom flat in Zurich has become one of the defining athlete-watch partnerships. And he did look cool in it when he wound up that bullwhip forehand, didn’t he?

Here he is, the immaculate Swiss statesman of recent tennis history. The grace, the glory, the absolutely pulverising opponents for a period of time that felt like centuries – Andy Roddick is still digging out that slice backhand in his sleep. He wore a cardigan and trousers onto Centre Court and he did it all while wearing a beautiful Rolex… Well, he put it on after he won. There have been gold Day-Dates, GMT IIs with SW19-green faces and a Daytona or 30. Can you get us on the waiting list, Rog?