Hublot
The Art of Fusion
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Hublot at a glance
Hublot founder Carlo Crocco established his business in 1975 with the watch brand “MDM” - Marie-Danielle-Montre, named after his wife. Looking back, those watches already reveal traits of today’s Hublot. With the presentation of the first Hublot model line at Baselworld in 1980, the brand entered the orbit of the great luxury houses. The brand name (German: Bullauge, meaning porthole) refers to the hinged bezel on the dial side. The rubber straps, used here for the first time, evoked maritime associations as well. By 2007 at the latest, when the legendary Big Bang series astonished the watchmaking world, success was inevitable. A strong distribution network played its part: the newly opened Hublot boutiques in Paris and Saint-Tropez were followed by a further 30 luxury shops worldwide. Since 2008 the company has belonged to the luxury goods group LVMH, and in 2012 Hublot was ranked 40th among the most valuable Swiss brands by the “Interbrand study”. In 2014 the company reported growth of 12 per cent, to approximately 400 million francs.
Everything in order at Hublot Switzerland
The ultimate thrill, a monument Hublot erected to itself, and not a timepiece one can order to the door when buying a watch online. The unbroken value record is held by the most expensive watch in the world – the Hublot Big Bang $ 5-Million – from the manufacture in Geneva/Nyon. That buying a watch online has long since extended to luxury brands also makes clear how greatly the acceptance of, and demand for, luxury watches have grown. A watch of this magnitude must, however, remain singular in order to preserve its aura. It is less the technical refinement than the value of 1282 jewels that makes this Hublot an absolute Queen of hours. Movement and form are kept rather understated; the Bling Bling effect is achieved through the particular process by which the gemstones were set into the white gold case without allowing the settings of the diamonds to become visible. 12 diamond cutters, five diamond setters and several watchmakers created this masterpiece over 14 months of devoted work. A buyer was found just minutes after its presentation. Today it can be admired at the watch boutique “The Hour Glass” on Orchard Road, the finest shopping boulevard in Singapore.
A brilliant instinct for innovative materials
The use of rubber straps was only the beginning. Working with leading technical and scientific institutions in Switzerland, the in-house metallurgy department devised exceptional state-of-the-art materials that changed the watch industry. The traditional precious metal alloys used until then met unbeatable competition in the first 18-carat, entirely scratch-resistant gold alloy, which remains unsurpassed to this day. Hublot has consistently relied on unusual materials in order to set itself clearly apart in the market for the finest luxury watches. Materials research and the creation of colour, as a source of ideas, became the company’s pacemaker. The combination of gold, ceramic, magnesium, titanium and rubber so typical of Hublot has received international awards on several occasions. The determined will to bring forth the spectacular in creation is palpable in a more recent work, the “tobacco watch”, the Classic Fusion Forbidden X, and the Classic Fusion Tourbillon issued in just 30 examples. Only once a cigar humidor has been opened does it reveal itself as a watch. The eye falls on a dial made of the finest Dominican tobacco from the Arturo Fuente plantation. Naturally, the tobacco leaves first had to be made suitable for watchmaking with a special resin, so that form and colour could be preserved for the long term. The ceramic bezel echoes the brown of the tobacco. In 2013 a model in red ceramic followed, and in 2015 a watch made of natural fibres, which can be produced in a more environmentally friendly way than the carbon wristwatch. The model series launched in 2005, the Big Bang, became a bestseller.
“First, different, unique”: Hublot and sport
Like other watch manufactures of world renown, Hublot relies on the magical bond between sport and the luxury watch. When Hublot developed the official “FIFA watch” and served as timekeeper at the football World Cups in South Africa and Brazil, the company could already point to a long history as a sponsor of the Swiss Football Association and the Mexican Football Federation, and as a partner of Diego Maradona. The company lettering on the boards held up by FIFA referees quite literally sealed its passage to the final. To honour that qualification, Hublot dedicated watch collections of its own to every football World Cup. A partnership with Ferrari likewise found expression in various versions of the Big Bang Ferrari as a tribute to motor racing. Its profile: 72-hour power reserve, limited to 250 pieces, grey or black ceramic, 45 mm case, titanium screws, countersunk head, sapphire crystal with interior and exterior anti-reflective coating, HUB 1214 Unico movement. On the dial the horse modelled on the Ferrari emblem leaps, while satin-finished and rhodium-plated indices are set on grey ceramic, or in red lacquer on a black ground. Rubber strap with stripes. The commitment to the World Boxing Council, the global governing body of the sport, was born of genuine enthusiasm. It produced 12 exceptional watches dedicated to 12 boxing legends. Every example was ennobled with a handwritten signature. The auction proceeds of more than 1 million dollars went to the charitable initiatives and the pension and emergency funds of the World Boxing Council. In May 2015 Hublot appeared before the cameras in Las Vegas together with the then undefeated boxing champion Floyd “Money” Mayweather and, ahead of his fight against Manny Pacquiao, presented the King Power WBC Full Pave special model set with emeralds, made for that event.
A curiosity in passing – typically Hublot
At Baselworld 2012 Hublot ventured a return to history with the principle of the Antikythera mechanism, with which the Greeks of antiquity determined the passage of the planets. The modern-day sensation, a wristwatch barely larger than a postage stamp, finds room for the calendar of the Panhellenic Games, the phases of the moon, the position of the sun within the constellations and other ancient cycles. Today this rarity can be seen at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris.
Hublot model lines:
Further models:
Women, Black, Big Bang King, Big Bang Unico, Big Bang Black, Big Bang Blue, Big Bang White, Titanium, Ceramic, Blue, White, Black Magic, Big Bang Meca-10, Big Bang One Click 33mm, Big Bang One Click 39mm, Classic Fusion 42mm Automatic
