Tennis legends Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf turned a milestone corporate anniversary into a major philanthropic achievement, raising $300,000 for their respective charitable foundations through a limited-edition watch auction in partnership with Swiss watchmaker Longines.
The fundraising effort marked the couple’s 10th anniversary with the luxury brand. The partnership was officially celebrated on June 2, 2018, during a high-profile charity gala hosted at Paris’s Musée Rodin. The event honored the tennis greats and introduced a special limited-edition collection known as the Conquest V.H.P. series.
The collection comprised just 20 timepieces—split evenly into 10 men’s watches and 10 women’s watches. Following the unveiling at the Musée Rodin, Longines launched an online auction that ran throughout June 2018 to sell the exclusive sets. The company retained the first numbered set, marked 1/10, to house in its permanent museum in Saint-Imier, Switzerland. Collectors and supporters acquired the remaining nine sets through the online sale.
The $300,000 in proceeds generated from the auction was divided to support two distinct charitable organizations founded by the tennis stars: the Andre Agassi Foundation for Education and Children for Tomorrow.
Agassi established his educational foundation in the United States to improve educational opportunities for disadvantaged young people. His philanthropic work notably includes the creation of a college preparatory campus in Las Vegas, founded in 2001 to help underserved students access better academic pathways.
Graf established Children for Tomorrow in 1998 with a mission to help children and families affected by war, violence, exile, and persecution. Speaking about the impact of the partnership later that year, Graf noted that the increased financial backing allowed her organization to expand its operations significantly. At the time of the fundraiser, the charity was helping a little over 1,000 children each year, primarily through specialized therapy.
With the additional support, Graf explained that the organization broadened its scope beyond traditional therapy sessions. The charity began entering schools to work directly with teachers, training educators to recognize and address trauma in students. Graf noted that this expansion was particularly vital given the sharp rise in refugees arriving in Germany over the preceding five or six years, a shift that introduced complex challenges involving new languages, diverse cultures, and severe trauma experienced by children. Despite her international schedule, Graf continued to travel to Germany every couple of months to support the charity’s ongoing mission.
The collaboration with Longines grew out of a long-standing relationship rather than a purely commercial arrangement. According to Agassi, the alliance was built around an overlap of shared values, noting that Longines had previously supported his former Grand Slam for Children fundraising event in Las Vegas before the partnership evolved over the decade.
The philanthropic initiative culminated in November 2018, when Agassi welcomed the winning bidders of the watch auction to Democracy Prep at the Agassi Campus in Las Vegas. During the visit, the donors met with students before Agassi personally handed over their numbered watch sets, directly connecting the luxury watch sales back to his foundational mission in education.
