REVOLUTION_International_Vol 54

Left
Crystallized gold,
a rare natural
gold formation, is
mimicked by Hublot
through modern
technology.
Above
Mr Jean-Claude
Biver, the nonexecutive
president
of the LVMH
Watch Division and
chairman of Hublot,
has shaped the
brand’s ideology to
incorporate various
unusual materials.
Why do watch enthusiasts or collectors love to hate
on Hublot? Many would say that the brand is
too loud or too heavily marketed for their taste,
while others will say that Hublot watches copy the look of the
icons that are the Royal Oak and the Nautilus. But behind
the layer of visible boisterous marketing techniques, Hublot
has many times cemented its position as an innovative
high-end luxury watchmaker, and one of the most important
brands in the watchmaking industry. If you take the time to
dig into the brand, handle its timepieces and learn all about
the company’s innovations, a brilliant shift will take place
where instead of spitting out unwarranted amounts of vitriol
at the first sight of a Hublot watch, you will get past your first
impressions, look closely at the pieces, and understand that
all the parts make sense together and represent the perfect
image of the brand.
THE ART OF FUSION
To understand Hublot in its entirety, it is important to
remember that right from the start, the brand didn’t skimp
on time and resources to create the best possible product,
and sought to break out from the mold of the luxury watch
business. Having left his family business in the late 1970s, a
young confident Italian man named Carlo Crocco set out to
launch his own watch brand in Switzerland. The first watch
he presented, called the Hublot after the French word for
“porthole”, was the first luxury watch that had the audacity
to mix a precious metal like gold with a rubber strap. The
strap took three years of research to produce and revealed
the amazing properties of natural rubber that instantly
adapted to the wrist of the wearer and provided long-term
comfort. Although the timepiece received no interest when
it was presented during the 1980 Basel Fair, the original
mixture of high and low soon grew in popularity due to
the new luxury sports watch market of the time, and many
clients, retailers, celebrities, and even members of royal
families, found themselves attracted by the Hublot watch.
Hublot’s motto today is the “Art of Fusion” and this
single principle is what drove the watch brand from its
creation with the pairing of gold and rubber, and what
brought the company enormous success. It’s not until 2004
though that the brand took a new turn and rose to another
level when the one and only Mr Jean-Claude Biver became
CEO of Hublot. A genius of the watch industry and a watch
brand savior, Mr Biver sought to immediately create a new
collection and flagship model, the Big Bang Chronograph.
The rest is history and the brand would not be where it
is today without him. Ask Mr Biver what is the one watch
he will keep for the rest of his life, he will immediately
reply that it would be the Hublot Bigger Bang Tourbillon
prototype watch he often wears. It was the starting point of
his success at the maison and the watch that would guide
Hublot and give birth to the whole collection of Hublot
watches. According to him, it is the timepiece that has
brought him the most luck in the industry and one he would
never part with.
It is under his direction that the concept of the “Art of
Fusion” would personify Hublot’s future and become the
intersecting point of many different materials such as gold,
titanium, carbon, ceramic, rubber, etc...
BACK TO THE FUTURE 117