Page 130 - Sharp Winter 2023

FIRE AND FUSION
EXPLORING NEW MATERIALS IS AT THE CORE OF HUBLOT’S RAISON D’ÊTRE
By Justin Mastine-Frost
Even at present, Hublot is the most polarizing brand in the luxury watch ecosphere. The brand is a powerhouse of partnerships, launching new watches year-round with Michelin-starred chefs, artists like Shepard Fairey and Takashi Murakami, premier sports leagues including both FIFA and UEFA, and countless athletes in a variety of disciplines. With this activity comes critique — particularly from niche enthusiasts viewing these activities as a means of trading on the hype or status of others.
The gripes of this sect are not enough to keep the brand down in any respect, as Hublot remains immensely popular around the globe. If anything, this poor attitude is keeping these shallow few from discovering what really makes Hublot shine — its unrivalled mastery of materials.
Looking across the watch industry in its entirety, finding a luxury watch brand that cases more watches in materials other
than steel and standard-issue precious metals is not an easy task. You’ll find the occasional ceramic case here, and a rare sapphire case there — often in a run of no more than five examples. Meanwhile, at last count Hublot has roughly a dozen sapphire-cased watches in its current catalogue, with each reference offered in a limited-edition of between five and 500 examples.
It’s widely agreed that sapphire, synthetic or otherwise, is an extremely difficult material to work with. It’s one of the hardest materials to cut and form in any manner, let alone to trim into the complex multi-piece watch cases the brand is known for. From the launch of its first sapphire-cased watch in 2016, the brand has invested heavily in the industrialization of synthetic sapphire. This is precisely why the brand is so much further ahead in the category than its competitors, and why they’ve also been first to launch watches cased in coloured sapphire (including the Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic Purple Sapphire that launched earlier in 2022).
Of course, sapphire cases are only a small part of the equation. The techniques the brand has used over the years to develop coloured sapphire are a crossover from extensive work with ceramics. While more common in the watch category than sapphire, Hublot once again trumps its rivals with a diverse colour palette. Vibrant blues, greens, red, yellow, beige, and others, are all on offer.
For those less familiar, it’s best not to think of these ceramics in the same manner one would the ceramics that adorn our homes. So-called high-tech ceramic is a zirconium-based composite with impressive scratch resistance properties. The material is baked at around 800 degrees Celsius and subjected to intense pressure in the production process in order to achieve these properties. In the case of the brand’s vibrant red ceramic, the Hublot R&D team discovered that fusing iron oxides in the ceramic mix would yield the desired result.
It’s precisely this kind of curiosity and experimentation — backed by both a significant research budget and equipment — that leads Hublot to these innovative materials. Another prime example is what the brand dubbed Magic Gold roughly a decade ago. The conventional hues of gold in the watchmaking world have been the same for decades. Whether it’s white gold, yellow gold, or rose gold, the properties of the material have remained largely unchanged. Gold is heavy, but it is also soft and easy to scratch and/or dent. Taking a significant amount of time and resources to problem solve, the solution provided the base for much of the brand’s future successes with its other aforementioned materials.
In essence, Magic Gold is an unscratchable 18K gold alloy created by injecting gold into porous ceramic. This in turn capitalizes on the properties of both materials, pairing the heft and prestige of gold with the more appealing wear and resilience characteristics of high-tech ceramics.
This is one of two proprietary gold alloys that Hublot holds in its back pocket. The latter is aptly named King Gold — a gold variant developed with a brighter colour and sheen than Magic Gold that maintains the former’s resistance to scratching. Warmer than a conventional yellow gold, without reaching the pinkish territory claimed by rose gold, King Gold’s alloy formula includes a healthy dose of platinum for good measure.
While far from the traditional and subtle end of the watchmaking spectrum, Hublot remains the kind of brand that will always add a dash of excitement to the watch world. Whether it’s a new material, a new in-house manufactured calibre, or a surprise partnership with one of the world’s hottest DJs, it’s safe to expect the unexpected when Hublot comes to town.
BIG BANG UNICO GOURMET 42 MM, $30,100.
130 WINTER 2023
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