Founded in 1980, Hublot is 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 recognised 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 unrivalled, 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. Entirely black, this piece with a powerful identity went even further in its combination of all-new materials with an extreme design. The Big Bang All Black had a bold monochrome style, which is widely used in contemporary watchmaking. The flagship model was subsequently introduced in an even more virile and sporty version, with the King Power, and then transposed in a barrel shape with the Spirit of Big Bang. The best-seller also incorporated the first Hublot “house” engine—the famous UNICO chronograph—thus becoming emblematic of the brand’s manufacturing development. From the sapphire of its case, to the innovative movements it incorporated, and its multitude of elegant and joyous feminine variations, the Big Bang become an inexhaustible source of creativity and innovation. Equally emblematic of the Hublot style, in a timeless sporty-chic register, the Classic Fusion launched in 2008 also reinterpreted the first innovative designs of the 1980s. Integrating a great variety of features, diameters, materials and vibrant colours, it too became an essential unisex model.
Since 2004, Hublot’s growth has been truly dizzying. This success led the global luxury leader LVMH to buy the brand in 2008. To meet this rapid development and vertically increase its production, Hublot inaugurated two buildings in Nyon, the first in 2009 and the second in 2015. The high-tech manufacture hosts a rich array of professions, crafts and technologies capable of conceiving watchmaking according to the “Art of Fusion”. 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.