With a Frankenstein-looking MP-10, vibrantly hued new sapphire cases, neo-vintage Ice Bang, and more, Hublot’s fleet of 2024 novelties certainly makes a ‘big bang’. The legendary Big Bang dominated the line-up, taking many new forms and exuding the maison’s spirit of ‘Art of Fusion’ – creating a duality between mechanical mastery and material innovation.
We spoke with Ricardo Guadalupe, who’s newly taken up the mantle of Honorary President of Hublot after serving 20+ years at the maison – eight years as Managing Director followed by CEO for the latter twelve. Guadalupe has led Hublot even before LVMH acquired them in 2008, overseeing their global expansion and is the mastermind behind the ‘Art of Fusion’ concept.
Guadalupe comments on innovations for 2024, “Hublot’s mission for 2024 is to showcase the very best the manufacture has to offer, building upon all three pillars of the maison: Material innovation, dynamic design, and utter brilliance in manufacture movements. Simply put, the focus was on furthering our savoir-faire.”
Hublot and Maxime Plescia-Buchi – what’s the magic behind this match?
Right since 2016, the Sang Bleu collections have served as the perfect creative canvas for Maxime. Incredibly successful, each piece offers a fresh take on Hublot icons while showcasing Swiss tattoo artistry by Maxime. What started with an exclusive, 200-piece, co-designed Big Bang extended to the Spirit of Big Bang – further injecting Maxime’s artistic brilliance into Hublot’s offerings. For 2024, this partnership has created an absolute paean of hyper-complexity, bringing Maxime’s three-dimensional geometrics onto sapphire, Hublot’s high-tech material of choice. It is a perfect fusion between his world and the technical savoir-faire of Hublot. True wearable works of art!
What is Hublot’s mission with the use of Sapphire?
Hublot has been highly experimental in using Sapphire as a kaleidoscopic case material. Over the years, we’ve created numeral sapphire-focused novelties in colours of purple, blue, pink, red, SAXEM yellow, SAXEM green, and orange. While undoubtedly being an extremely difficult material to master, Hublot’s master craftsmen have been able to perfect sapphire’s processes of machining and polishing – integrating them into bracelets and cases. Time and time again, Hublot proves to be a master of materials that carry the weight of innumerable trails. We dare to traverse where other maisons won’t dare to – choosing unique materials, infusing colour with them and incorporating high complications. This year, we have a pink sapphire Unico, a ‘water’ blue sapphire MP-11, and a crystal-clear Sang Bleu sapphire Spirit of Big Bang.
Take us through the mastery of the ‘Water Blue’ sapphire case MP-11
The MP-11 is quintessential of Hublot’s spirit of the Art of Fusion. It perfectly intersects the maison’s mastery of coloured sapphire and the ingenuity of Manufacture Piece movements. The MP-11’s calibre HUB9011 has long served as a goliath of mechanical mastery, delivering a spectacular 14-day power reserve while being housed in a slew of unique case materials. This movement employs seven series-coupled barrels arranged horizontally, which transmit energy to the hour/minute vertical gears using a 90-degree helical worm gear. Our manufacture is consistently seeking new creative avenues to innovate, and by presenting a new sapphire colour, a world first, we position ourselves as a leader in coloured sapphire.
What has Hublot’s journey with the use of Ceramic been like?
Another material that Hublot has mastered is ceramic, which has become part of our DNA. With the Big Bang Unico Red Magic in 2018, Hublot became the first brand to introduce a novelty with a vividly coloured ceramic case. After its resounding success, we experimented with hues of yellow and blue and went on to create Magic Gold – an un-scratchable 18-carat gold and ceramic alloy. The maison holds patents on all these innovations, and our R&D division has made us proud through each stage of development. Once again, for 2024, they’ve showcased their innovative excellence as we present a new sapphire hue – ‘Water Blue’. Which, again, will be unique to the brand.
What led to the Big Bang e (digitally connected watch) representing Hublot’s passion for Football rather than one of their mighty Swiss movements?
Hublot was the first fine watchmaking brand to join the culture and legacy of football. We’ve been supporting the beautiful game since 2006 in partnership with FIFA and UEFA as the Official Timekeeper and Official Watch of prestigious clubs – Juventus, AFC Ajax – and famous personalities from the sport, José Mourinho and Kylian Mbappé.
Hublot and Football strive for digital accuracy using cutting-edge technology. The Big Bang e was created in collaboration with FIFA and UEFA, worn by match referees, and is perfectly synchronized in real-time with the game’s events and ‘goal-line’ technology. Such features are currently only possible on our digital ‘connected model. The world is also consistently reminded of Hublot’s presence in the game whenever the Big-Bang-shaped referee board is raised – an iconic moment during every substitution and extra time.
How has the legacy of the Unico Ice Bang carried into the future?
The Unico Ice Bang has such a powerful personality. It was introduced a year after the phenomenal success of the Big Bang, which brought to life Hublot’s vision of integrating new materials in its brutalist design. This spirit of innovation and dynamism continues to propel us into the future, smashing through any traditional and technological barriers we might encounter.
Taking after its predecessor, the 2024 model boasts the same two-tone, dark grey/black neo-vintage personality along with the same materials as the original, presented in a smaller 42-millimetre case. Like the original, it’s also 100-metre water resistant but with a new black ceramic case and tungsten bezel. The openworked dial puts the HUB1280’s mechanical elegance on display. This movement is truly a rare breed with a column wheel alongside the dial.
What makes the MP-13 Tourbillon Bi-Axis Retrograde a marvel of mechanics?
The MP-13, as the title suggests, is the thirteenth manufacture piece (or MP) movement created 100% in-house. It’s a perfect trifecta of Hublot’s disruptive, creative, and technical haute horlogerie spirits. As a first for Hublot, it combines a bi-axial movement with a bi-retrograde movement – a highly intricate achievement made possible thanks to the creativity and technical savoir-faire of the manufacture.
The MP-10 Tourbillon Weight Energy System Titanium is an absolute Frankenstein-looking marvel – what was the idea behind it?
With all our Manufacture Pieces (or MPs), we allow raw innovation to guide the conception of the watch. Each model represents Hublot’s audacity and avant-garde approach to creating extraordinary timepieces, and the MP-10 with 592 components is no different. The goal with the MP-10 was to reinvent how hours, minutes, and power reserves are displayed. For this, we used a self-winding system with two vertical weights and completely eliminated the dial, allowing time to be displayed right off the calibre. Adding to its complexity, it also features an inclined tourbillon!
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