Hublot | Featured Brand at Time+Tide Watches

17.12.2020
Nick Kenyon

Cricket legend Michael Clarke: Hublot is a game-changer “that is never scared to be different”

What’s the best way to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Hublot for the Australian arm of the brand? Through our national sport of cricket, of course. And that’s exactly what Hublot Australia have done, bringing together two Australian cricketing greats in Michael Clarke and Pat Cummins to mark the launch of the new Hublot Classic Fusion 40 Years Anniversary collection. The Hublot Classic Fusion 40 Years Anniversary collection is a trio of new references inspired by the first-ever Hublot made back in 1980. Founder Carlo Crocco was behind the design of this original Hublot, which inspired Jean-Claude Biver and Ricardo Guadalupe to later coin the phrase “the art of fusion”, due to the watch’s solid yellow gold case being paired with a black rubber strap. This was a first for the watch industry and the start of a trend that dozens of brands have followed. Michael Clarke, a former captain of the Australian Cricket Team, has been a Hublot ambassador since 2014, and believes this willingness to evolve and push boundaries has been critical to the brand’s success. “This year has been incredibly challenging for everyone around the world, but thinking on your feet has been more important than ever… Read More

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16.12.2020
Thor Svaboe

#Kicktock: Hublot’s street-tough dial made from concrete meets its match with New Balance

This week we go monochrome in the urban jungle, with the new Hublot Classic Fusion Concrete Jungle New York and an awesome pair of New Balance trainers just dropped on Hypebeast. The gritty edge of concrete is just as fresh as a splash of colour and Hublot’s avant-garde touch is very much present in the elegant form of their Classic Fusion line. This is as tough as it is impressive on a material level, as this is no mere dial or case finish, but actual concrete composite. With a mix of 65-75% fine cement, and epoxy resin, reinforced by fibre glass, how better to embody the Art of Fusion? And damn, does it look rugged in the guise of the automatic chronograph, powered by the HUB1143 manufacture movement and operated via the black ceramic pushers and crown. The dial is a calm and balanced design, with the two opposing registers countersunk, while the indices are simply indented into the silky concrete surface. The greenish grey of the fascinatingly organic micro-pitted smooth surface works perfectly with the black accents, and comes on the comfort of Hublot’s black fabric strap. Fifty pieces of this 45mm street-tough block of haute horlogerie will be… Read More

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13.12.2020
Zach Blass

VIDEO: The Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Meca-10 Black Magic watch is horological sorcery on the wrist

Hublot is a brand that does not always get its horological due. The movements that the brand does not produce in-house are horological footnotes compared to the movements that they do. At their core, Hublot are a bold, brave and forward-thinking manufacturer, and an excellent example of this temerity is the Meca-10 movement. As its name suggests, the caliber provides a long-lasting 10 days of power reserve and offers a distinctly Hublot aesthetic in form and finish. It’s quite the marvel in the metal, and a feast for the eyes for even the most seasoned gearheads. This is why it is proudly displayed front, back and centre of the Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Meca-10 Black Magic. Measuring 45mm in diameter and 14.5mm thick, the black ceramic case is horological sorcery on the wrist. A sizeable watch, with the industrial feel of the Empire’s Death Star, this is surprisingly one of the more tame designs from Hublot. While they are more than capable of injecting colour into their ceramic creations, here they have elected for stealth appeal through an almost entirely black aesthetic. The only deviations from black can be found in four aspects of the watch. The H-shaped screws,… Read More

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17.12.2020
Nick Kenyon

Cricket legend Michael Clarke: Hublot is a game-changer “that is never scared to be different”

What’s the best way to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Hublot for the Australian arm of the brand? Through our national sport of cricket, of course. And that’s exactly what Hublot Australia have done, bringing together two Australian cricketing greats in Michael Clarke and Pat Cummins to mark the launch of the new Hublot Classic Fusion 40 Years Anniversary collection. The Hublot Classic Fusion 40 Years Anniversary collection is a trio of new references inspired by the first-ever Hublot made back in 1980. Founder Carlo Crocco was behind the design of this original Hublot, which inspired Jean-Claude Biver and Ricardo Guadalupe to later coin the phrase “the art of fusion”, due to the watch’s solid yellow gold case being paired with a black rubber strap. This was a first for the watch industry and the start of a trend that dozens of brands have followed. Michael Clarke, a former captain of the Australian Cricket Team, has been a Hublot ambassador since 2014, and believes this willingness to evolve and push boundaries has been critical to the brand’s success. “This year has been incredibly challenging for everyone around the world, but thinking on your feet has been more important than ever… Read More

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12.12.2020
Nick Kenyon

VIDEO: The technical tour de force of the Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Meca-10 Titanium

Hublot don’t do things by half. If they do something, they do it full throttle, and you can see that in the in-house movements they produce. You won’t find a simple three-handed caliber; no, instead you’ll find chronographs, tourbillons and some of the most impressive power reserves in the game. Of their in-house movements, this year the famed Meca-10 movement has been adapted to fit into the new home of the tonneau-shaped Spirit of Big Bang case. This has required a movement architecture redesign to fit like a glove into the curved case of the SOBB, and it’s hard to argue that it doesn’t look good. In particular, the Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Meca-10 Titanium shows off the movement with an attractively industrial contrast against the blackened bridges and darker metal of the case. The 45mm case is beautifully curved to meet the contour of your wrist, not sacrificing any comfort despite the uncompromising design. Thanks to the skeletonisation of the movement, you are able to see entirely through the watch, with the dial side showing off the power reserve indicator and time, while the winding barrels are engagingly visible through the caseback. It is a technical tour de… Read More

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10.12.2020
Thor Svaboe

HANDS-ON: The Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Meca-10 Titanium feels like the future on your wrist

Even after such a strong year for Hublot, and after getting up close and personal with the Black Magic version here, the new Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Meca-10 Titanium still intrigues me with its intricately woven industrial micro-architecture. Even as the Big Bang series is getting close to becoming an industry standard for large, open-worked luxury sports watches, there is always something new to discover, and for me the tonneau-shape is king. A case for the renaissance of titanium? With the arcing tidal movements of fashion, titanium seems to be enjoying a new rise in popularity, even in slim, polished dress watches. But the strong Hublot language of wrist-worn engines still feels like the material’s true sweet spot. The lightness is still every bit as surprising as the ceramic-cased Black Magic version of the Spirit of BB, but even more so with the heavy industrial tool sensation I get from the texture of metal. As soon as I try it on with the soft-striated rubber strap, the sensation is surprising: the combination of lightness and an air of indestructibility is tangible. I’m not pretending it is a slim watch, but that’s exactly why we love these big machines from… Read More

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09.12.2020
Nick Kenyon

NEWS: Hublot has perfect 2020 vision in their new e-warranty system

Buying a pre-owned watch can be full of dangers. The watch might be fake, or not have all of the original parts, and it can be very hard to know all that — unless you have the original documentation of the watch. But even if these original papers have remained with the watch all these years, there is an increasing risk of fake papers that are forged to match the watch you’re interested in buying. The response to this problem by the LVMH watch brands has been to use blockchain records to ensure no counterfeiting happens. But Hublot has taken it a step further, partnering with an artificial intelligence company to create a system that uses a phone camera to recognise every individual Hublot watch that will be sold in the future. You read that correctly – every individual Hublot. Hublot has been working with KerQuest for the last three years to develop this technology, with that time being spent in research and development to find a way to specifically identify each individual Hublot watch. They focused on the materials used in the watches and — in part thanks to the improvements in phone camera definition over the last few… Read More

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