The partnership will commence this year with Tissot providing timekeeping, scoring and results services at both the 27th Summer Universiade in Kazan,in July and the 26th Winter Universiade in Trentino this December.

"We are delighted to welcome Tissot as our Official Timekeeper." said FISU secretary general and chief executive, Eric Saintrond.

"Timing and scoring in sports demands absolute precision and Tissot is best in class in sports timekeeping."

"As our student-athletes strive for 'Excellence in Mind and Body', our new partner will be there measuring and marking their performances."

Tissot President François Thiébaud and FISU CEO Eric Saintrond sign partnership agreement

François Thiébaud, President of Tissot said: "We are thrilled to be bringing our proven expertise in precision timekeeping for multi-discipline competition to the Universiades this year.

"We have already successfully performed this task for the Summer Universiade on two previous occasions, but 2013 also marks our debut as Official Timekeeper and Partner of the winter edition.

"We look forward to this new challenge and to providing tomorrow's best athletes with uncompromising fairness through our world class timekeeping solutions."

Yesterday, head of the Kazan 2013 organising committee Vladimir Leonov claimed that this Summer's Universiade will be the largest ever.

A total of 13,500 athletes and officials from 170 countries and regions will travel to the Republic of Tatarstan for the event in July according to Leonov, as well as over 1,500 journalists, 20,000 volunteers.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]