Hublot: Big Bang, all-black and beyond
It’s late in the afternoon, a Hublot executive and I are in a mall in Makati, and talk comes around to a J.J. Abrams-like scenario where the sun has been blotted out.
“If one day this happens, everything digital and electronic will stop working… and the only thing that will be left are mechanical objects — that’s why mechanical watches can never be obsolete,” explains Loic Biver, Hublot general manager for Greater China. “Mechanics have been with humanity since humans started using tools.” And men have this obsession with all things mechanical, about how things work.
“As young boys, we played with toy cars, Lego, structure kits, planes we assembled ourselves — it’s part of our childhood. It’s an emotion that maybe we don’t know where it comes from.” That’s why grown men are drawn to all those beautiful objects with their intricate webwork of mechanisms — from vintage cars to steampunk- ish stereo equipment to watches such as Hublot.
“We at Hublot believe that watches are not only useful for reading time,” Biver shares, adding that this is especially true when a watch costs a fortune. “You buy more than just a tool for telling time; you buy a status.”
Biver is in the Philippines for Hublot’s Big Bang All Black 10th Anniversary party. He reminisces about how Hublot caused a stir when they introduced something unthinkable to the market: an all-black watch.
“Totally black!” he exclaims. “Black hands, black dial, black case…. you practically can’t read the time anymore. When we told our watchmakers about it, they said, ‘No! You cannot do that! A watch has to be clear’ We answered, ‘We are Hublot — we are different, we are unique, and we must be the first.’ That’s the DNA of the brand.”
Production on the first all-black Big Bang model was limited to 250 pieces, and was presented at the 2006 Baselworld watch fair. Today, it is considered iconic and trailblazing.
“We got more than 4,000 orders for the watch. This has given Hublot a reputation in the watch industry as a brand that sets trends. Every competitor stared making their own black watches.”
He explains, “We also decided to use in- novative, hi-tech materials such as black ceramics — not just steel, gold and platinum — to be used with a tourbillion with traditional movement made by hand. It’s a mix of tradition and modernity.”
Ceramic has certain properties: scratch-resistant, comes in a variety of colors, very light. The best Japanese knives as well as Formula One disc brakes are all made of ceramic, by the way. Hublot integrated a startup outfit from the University of Lausanne into the fold, and work with them in exploring other materials (One of the fruits is a type of 18k gold that is scratchresistant and doesn’t oxidize: they call it “magic gold.”)
“We have a department of materials as well as a department of chemistry — these doesn’t exist in other watch companies,” Biver shares. “And now it’s the other industries — mobile phones, infrastructure — that come to Hublot to find out what we’re doing (with materials).”
The brand is always looking out towards wider vistas, giving justice to its name: “hublot” in French means porthole.
“That’s why the watch is round, with screws, and has ‘ears’ — that’s the look right there.” A Hublot watch is composed of many layers (rather than just one big block): the bezel, superior plate, inferior plate, ears, and the caseback. They call it a sandwich construction, conducive for innovatively mixing materials, such as ceramic, steel, gold, titanium, Kevlar, even carbon fiber. He adds, “The watch is connected in terms of material to your car, to your hi-tech goods, to your lifestyle.”
For its 10th anniversary, Hublot is coming out with a special-edition timepiece that makes use of a very special material: black sapphire. “It’s the first time that a watch brand features such a material.”
A particular model caught my eye: the Meca-10. The movement was inspired by a British model construction kit called Meccano.
“Meccano is very popular in Europe and Japan. It is the complicated Lego. The movement of Meca-10 is made up of bridges instead of plates. The bridges are typical Meccano pieces, but in micro. This watch is a reminder of how as young kids we loved playing with mechanical structures,” Biver concludes.
Yeah, this badass beauty comes in allblack.