We present a 30-day monitoring campaign of the optical counterpart of the bright X-ray transient Swift J1745-26, starting only 19 min after the discovery of the source. We observe the system peaking at i' ˜ 17.6 on day six (MJD 561 92) to then decay at a rate of ˜0.04 mag d-1. We show that the optical peak occurs at least 3 d later than the hard X-ray (15-50 keV) flux peak. Our measurements result in an outburst amplitude greater than 4.3 mag, which favours an orbital period ≲21 h and a companion star with a spectral type later than ˜A0. Spectroscopic observations taken with the Gran Telescopio de Canarias 10.4 m telescope reveal a broad (full width at half-maximum ˜1100 km s-1), double-peaked Hα emission line from which we constrain the radial velocity semi-amplitude of the donor to be K2 > 250 km s-1. The breadth of the line and the observed optical and X-ray fluxes suggest that Swift J1745-26 is a new black hole candidate located closer than ˜7 kpc.