Time-lapse plummet

Hublot founder Carlo Crocco founded his business in 1975 with the watch brand "MDM - Marie-Danielle-Montre", the name of his wife. In the flashback you can already see trains of today's Hublot clock. With the presentation of the first Hublot model series at Baselworld 1980, the brand entered the orbit of the major luxury brands. The brand name (English: porthole) refers to the hinged cover on the dial side. The rubber watch bands used for the first time also evoke maritime associations. When the legendary Big Bang series astonished experts in 2007 at the latest, success was inevitable. A strong distribution network contributed to this: The newly opened Hublot boutiques in Paris and St. Tropez were followed by another 30 luxury shops worldwide. Since 2008 the company has been part of the luxury goods group LVMH and in 2012 Hublot was ranked 40th in the "Interbrand Study" of the most valuable Swiss brands. In 2014, the company reported growth of 12 percent to approximately CHF 400 million.

Everything in the green at Hublot Switzerland

The ultimate kick, a monument to Hublot himself and not a timepiece that you can get into your home when buying a watch online. The world's most expensive watch - the Hublot Big Bang $ 5 million - from the Geneva/Nyon watch manufactory holds the unbroken value record. The fact that buying watches on the Internet has long since expanded to include luxury brands also shows how strongly the acceptance and demand for luxury watches has increased. However, a watch of this size must remain unique in order to maintain its nimbus. It is not so much the technical sophistication as the value of 1282 jewels that makes this Hublot an absolute queen of hours. The movement and form are rather unspectacular, the bling bling effect is achieved by the special procedure of how the gems were implanted into the white gold case without letting the settings of the diamonds become visible. 12 diamond cutters, five diamond setters and several watchmakers created this masterpiece in 14 months of dedicated work. A few minutes after their presentation, a buyer was found. Today it can be admired in the watch boutique "The Hour Glass" on Orchard Road, Singapore's finest shopping boulevard.

A brilliant nose for innovative materials

The use of rubber watch bands should only be the beginning. In cooperation with leading technical and scientific institutions in Switzerland, the in-house metallurgy department has developed extraordinary state-of-the-art materials that have changed the watch industry. The traditional precious metal alloys used until then faced unbeatable competition from the first 18-carat, absolutely scratch-resistant gold alloy, which is still unsurpassed today. Hublot continuously relied on unusual materials in order to distinguish itself clearly on the market for the highest quality luxury watches. Material research and colour creation as a change of ideas became the timers of the company. The typical combination of gold, ceramics, magnesium, titanium and rubber has received several international awards.The determined will to produce spectacular creations is noticeable in a younger creation, the "Tabak-Uhr", the Classic Fusion Forbidden X or the Classic Fusion Tourbillon in just 30 pieces. Only after opening a cigar humidor does it reveal itself as a clock. You can see a dial made of the finest Dominican tobacco from the Arturo Fuente plantation. Of course, the tobacco leaves first had to be made watch-ready with a special resin in order to preserve their shape and colour in the long term. The ceramic bezel reflects the brown of tobacco. In 2013 a model made of red ceramic followed, in 2015 a watch made of natural fibres, which can be produced more environmentally friendly than the carbon wristwatch. The Big Bang model series published in 2005 became a bestseller (e.g. 301.PM.1780.RX).

"First, different, unique." Hublot and the sport

Like other world-class watch manufacturers, Hublot relies on the magical combination of sport and luxury watches. When Hublot developed the official "FIFA watch" and was involved as a timepiece at the World Cup in South Africa and Brazil, the company could already look back on a long sponsorship career with the Swiss Football Association, the Mexican Football Federation and as a partner of Diego Maradona. The company logo on the signs of the FIFA referees literally sealed the entry into the final. To pay tribute to the qualification, Hublot dedicated its own watch collections to all World Cups. A partnership with Ferrari was also reflected in various versions of the Big Bang Ferrari as a tribute to racing. Your profile: 72-hour power reserve, limited to 250 pieces, grey or black ceramic, 4.5 mm case, titanium screws, countersunk head, sapphire crystal with internal and external anti-reflective coating, HUB 1214 Unico movement.The Ferrari horse jumps on the dial, satin-finished and rhodium-plated hour-markers move on grey ceramic or red lacquer on a black background. Rubber strap with stripes. The commitment to the World Boxing Council, the worldwide boxing umbrella organisation, was born of his own enthusiasm. It produced 12 exceptional and 12 box legend watches. All copies were finished with the handwritten signature. The auction proceeds of over $1 million were donated to the World Boxing Council's charity initiatives, age and emergency fund. In May 2015 Hublot appeared together with the unbeaten boxing champion Floyd "Money" Mayweather in Las Vegas and presented the special model King Power WBC Full Pave with emeralds produced for this event before his fight against Manny Pacquiao.

Curiosity at the edge - typical Hublot

Hublot dares to return to history at Baselworld 2012 with the principle of the Antikythera mechanism. With it the ancient Greeks determined the passage of the planets. The modern sensation, a wristwatch barely larger than a stamp, offers space 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 in the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris.