Hublot

Our lives are determined by time: How often do you think we look at the clock during a single day? We get up according to the time and do not go to sleep without first measuring the time we are granted for a good night's rest. Therefore, it is all the more important that when we look at our wristwatch, we feel joy first and foremost and less time pressure. Luxury watches are created not only in the pursuit of perfect technology. They carry in themselves the claim of aesthetics, elegance and perfect form. Hublot watches meet both criteria par excellence.

Hublot in time-lapse

Hublot founder Carlo Crocco started his business in 1975 with the watch brand "MDM" - Marie-Danielle-Montre", the name of his wife. Looking back, traits of today's Hublot watch can already be seen in them. 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 (German: Bullauge) refers to the hinged cover on the dial side. The rubber straps, used for the first time, also evoked maritime associations. Success was inevitable when the legendary BigBang series astonished the trade in 2007. A strong distribution network contributed to this. The newly opened Hublot boutiques in Paris and St. Tropez were followed by another 30 luxury stores worldwide. Since 2008, the company has been part of the LVMH luxury goods group, and in 2012 Hublot was ranked 40th most valuable Swiss brand by the "Interbrand Study". In 2014, the company reported growth of 12 percent to approximately CHF 400 million.

All green at Hublot Switzerland

The ultimate kicker, a monument that Hublot set for itself and not a timepiece that can be brought into the house when buying watches on the internet. The unbroken value record is held by the most expensive watch in the world - the Hublot Big Bang $ 5-million - from the watch manufacture in Geneva / Nyon. The fact that watch buying on the internet has long since extended to luxury brands also makes it clear how much the acceptance of and demand for luxury watches have increased. A watch of this magnitude, however, must remain singular to maintain its nimbus. It's not so much the technical sophistication, but the 1282-jewel value that makes this Hublot an absolute queen of hours. Movement and shape are kept rather unspectacular, the bling bling effect is achieved by the special process of how the gems were planted into the white gold case without letting the settings of the diamonds show. 12 diamond cutters, five diamond setters and several watchmakers created the masterpiece in 14 months of devoted work. A few minutes after its presentation, a buyer was already 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 bracelets was to be just the beginning. The in-house metallurgy department, in collaboration with leading technical and scientific institutions in Switzerland, came up with extraordinary state-of-the-art materials that changed the watch industry. The traditional precious metal alloys used until then were given unbeatable competition by the first 18-carat, absolutely scratch-resistant gold alloy, which remains unsurpassed to this day. Continuously, Hublot relied on outlandish materials to make itself clearly distinguishable in the market of the highest quality luxury watches. Material research and color creation as a turnover of ideas became the company's zeitgeist. Hublot's signature combination of gold, ceramic, magnesium, titanium, rubber has won several international awards. The determined will to create something spectacular can be seen in a more recent creation, the "tobacco watch", the Classic Fusion Forbidden X or the Classic Fusion Tourbillon, of which only 30 were made. The watch only reveals itself as a watch when a cigar humidor is opened. The view falls on a dial made of the finest Dominican tobacco from the Arturo Fuente plantation. Of course, the tobacco leaves first had to be made watch-worthy with a special resin in order to preserve their shape and color in the long term. The ceramic bezel reflects the brown of the tobacco. A red ceramic model followed in 2013, and in 2015 a watch made of natural fibers, which can be manufactured in a more environmentally friendly way than the carbon wristwatch. The Big Bang model series released in 2005 became a bestseller.

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

Like other world-class watch manufacturers, Hublot relies on the magical combination of sports and luxury watches. When Hublot developed the official "FIFA watch" and became involved as a timekeeper in the World Cups in South Africa and Brazil, the company already had a long sponsorship track record with the Swiss Football Federation, the Mexican Football Federation and as a partner of Diego Maradona. The company's logo on the FIFA referees' shields literally sealed their entry into the final. To pay tribute to the qualification, Hublot dedicated its own watch collections to all World Cup matches. A partnership with Ferrari was also reflected in various versions of the Big Bang Ferrari as a tribute to racing. Its fact sheet: 72-hour power reserve, limited to 250 pieces, gray or black ceramic, 4.5 mm case, titanium screws, countersunk head, sapphire crystal with inner and outer anti-reflective coating, HUB 1214 Unico movement. The dial features the Ferrari-inspired horse jumping, satin and rhodium-plated indices moving on gray ceramic or in red lacquer on a black background. Rubber strap with stripes. The commitment to the World Boxing Council, the world's boxing governing body, was born of its own enthusiasm. It produced 12 exceptional watches and 12 watches dedicated to boxing legends. All copies were refined with the handwritten signature. The auction proceeds of over $1 million dollars benefited the World Boxing Council's charity initiatives, retirement and emergency funds. In May 2015, Hublot joined previously undefeated boxing champion Floyd "Money" Mayweather in front of the cameras in Las Vegas to present the special King Power WBC Full Pave model with emeralds, made for the event, ahead of his fight against Manny Pacquiao.

Curiosity on the sidelines - typical Hublot

Hublot dared to take a step back into history at Baselworld 2012 with the concept of the Antikythera mechanism. The ancient Greeks used it to determine the passage of the planets. The modern sensation, a wristwatch barely larger than a postage stamp, provides 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.