Founded in 1980, Hublot will be celebrating its 40th birthday this year. We take this opportunity to look back at the explosive journey and dizzying ascent of a small Swiss watch brand with disruptive designs which, in less than half a century, has become a genuinely cutting-edge watchmaking manufacture recognized all over the world. As the first brand to dare to combine gold and rubber on a watch, Hublot has turned this audacious approach into a philosophy forming the cornerstone of all of its creations, innovations and partnerships: the Art of Fusion.
Iconic watches
Through their performance and their disruptive character, the products that have marked Hublot’s history are unrivaled, innovative and different. It all began in 1980 with the Classic Original, combining a precious material—gold—and a modern material—rubber—for the first time in watchmaking. In its wake, the iconic Big Bang Original caused a real impact in terms of watchmaking design in 2005, with its black composite insert, giving the impression that it was entirely crossed by the black rubber strap, and its “sandwich construction” which enabled the materials to be played with. One year after the phenomenal success of this watch, Hublot created the Big Bang All Black and the revolutionary “invisible visibility of time” concept. The best-seller also incorporated the first Hublot “house” engine the famous UNICO chronograph.
Hublot inaugurated two buildings in Nyon, the first in 2009 and the second in 2015. At the same time, Hublot took up residence in the greatest luxury metropolises, New York, Geneva, Tokyo, Zermatt, Paris, London, Dubai and Hong Kong; its boutiques, with their modern design, translate this same simultaneously urban, luxurious and technological spirit.
Art and materials
Written into Hublot’s DNA, materials are essential attributes of the watches, for their aesthetic qualities and their resistance to scratches and ageing. Since its first use combined with a gold case in 1980, rubber has been the defining essential and emblematic material of the brand. Likewise, Magic Gold, developed in partnership with EPFL (the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne) and produced in Hublot’s foundry, remains the only scratch-resistant 18-carat gold alloy and the hardest in the world.
New interior design
To celebrate its 40th birthday, Hublot has worked in close collaboration with Samuel Ross, a British fashion creator, industrial designer and new member of the Hublot family. With his stripped down, textured and balanced style, the wunderkind (child prodigy) of design has translated 40 years of Hublot history into materials, and dreamed up the new interiors of the Hublot boutiques in an aesthetic and functional line in his style. A combination of concrete mineral material—and steel—industrial material—to express the Art of Fusion. Watch stands in poured concrete, etched in laser, to infer watchmaking accuracy.