Watch house, Festina, has reviewed its marketing and sponsorship strategy, moving away from its 25-year association with the Tour de France – cycling’s most famous race – to hiring Scottish actor, Gerard Butler, as its first movie celebrity brand ambassador.

The change comes as the Barcelona-based watchmaker –whose brands include Calypso, Lotus, Festina, Jaguar and Candino – gives up its best known sporting link to concentrate on the wider territory of lifestyle.

Festina, which is widely distributed in duty free and travel retail, is featuring Butler – who has three movies launching in the coming months starting with London Has Fallen in March– in its ad campaign Time to Live, where the actor shares aspects of his life: work, sports, leisure and love.

Festina says: “Gerard Butler’s international profile, professionalism, versatility and gentleness make him the perfect image for Festina. He also shares some scenes with Denny Méndez, actress and Miss World.”

Rodríguez is taking a lifestyle tack after years in the sports camp.

The campaign, produced by photographer Sinisha Nisevic, was recorded in different locations in Los Angeles in 48 hours. Time to Live’ launches internationally in March during the global watch and jewellery exhibition, Baselworld.

Owner of Festina Group, Miguel Rodríguez, comments: “It is a great honour to count Gerard Butler in our campaign. Working with him was really easy… apart from being really professional he is also a great person.”

As well as its five watch brands, Festina Group has two in jewellery: Lotus Style and Lotus Silver. The group has seven subsidiaries (France, Germany, Italy, Benelux, Switzerland, Czech Republic/Poland and Chile), and is present in over 90 countries selling five million watches a year.

Festina is not abandoning cycling altogether as the brand will continue with events such as the Tour of Britain, Volta do Portugal etc and also continue with other sports like football and ice hockey.