Hublot watches everything from football to art

BY SWISS luxury watch industry standards, Hublot is still a baby. Founded in 1980, it doesn’t have the legacy that some of the much older and more established brands enjoy.

But today, Hublot is easily up there with the giants of the industry – thanks to the vision of Jean-Claude Biver, who not only turned the fortunes of the company around when he joined it in 2004, but also brought in Ricardo Guadalupe, whom he also worked with previously in Blancpain.

After succeeding Biver in 2012 as chief executive officer (CEO), Guadalupe has continued to drive Hublot forward, playing to its strength as a young and funky watchmaking brand that is unafraid to think outside the box. 

In Singapore to officiate the opening of the Hublot standalone boutique at ION Orchard, he takes questions on his own during this interview, without any minders to steer him away from awkward or sensitive topics. Such is his confidence.

Guadalupe also looks at least a decade younger than his age of 57, and the man is building a track record of his own at the brand – even if many still credit his predecessor only for getting Hublot to where it is today.

But Biver also clearly saw something in Guadalupe when he hired him at Blancpain in 1994. Two decades later when Biver took over Hublot, he once again hand-picked Guadalupe to join him.

Asked about their working relationship, Guadalupe said their chemistry boils down to that they have different traits and personalities.

“We are not the same – because when you’re the same, you’ll be competing with one another, more or less. Biver is a genius in marketing ideas, and I think I am good in product development – that’s why we had incredible success,” he quipped.

The partnership may no longer exist, but that two-pronged approach is still very much intact. Just look at the ongoing World Cup tournament in Qatar, where Hublot is the official timekeeper for the fourth edition running.

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Besides its branding on the top of the electronic substitution board, all 129 match officials also wear the latest version of the brand’s Big Bang e connected watch during the games.

Incidentally, Hublot is the first Swiss luxury watch brand to be associated with football, despite what some might consider to be a sport for the working class.

But that should come as no surprise, because it also had the audacity to slap a rubber strap on a gold watch in 1980 – another first in modern luxury watchmaking history.

For taking that risk with football, Hublot now has front row seats to all the action on the pitch, as well as partnerships with federations such as Fifa and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), visibility at top-tier competitions such as the World Cup and Champions League, and access to some of biggest stars in the game – such as Paris St Germain’s star striker Kylian Mbappe and Brazilian legend Pele – to market its products.

Along with Tag Heuer and Montblanc, Hublot is also one of the few luxury watch brands pushing ahead with smart watches like the ones currently worn by World Cup officials in Qatar. Asked why, Guadalupe says: “For a young brand like us that is only 42 years old, we want to be modern, dynamic and innovative.”

He maintains mechanical watches will always be the core business, but there is no harm looking at the technology also happening outside of Switzerland and the strides being made in Silicon Valley or even China. “It helps to open our minds to different visions, and sometimes this can bring good ideas back to our mechanical business.”

Beyond football, Hublot also has close links to the world of art, where it is associated with names such as sculptor Richard Orlinksi, pop artists Shepard Fairey and Takashi Murakami, and even tattooist Sang Bleu.

To Guadalupe’s credit, those partnerships extend to more just the artists donning Hublot watches for its publicity materials; and the aforementioned personalities all have collaborated with the brand to design various timepieces. 

“I’m always looking for someone whose art can be transformed into a watch. Picasso is a great artist, but I don’t want to just print something on the dial. It has to be more than that,” explains Guadalupe.

Hence, Orlinski’s emblematic edges, facets and bevels have been used to reimagine the Classic Fusion, while Murakami’s trademark smiley sunflower motif takes centrestage on the dial with spinning petals beneath the sapphire crystal and a pistil sitting on the glass to give the watch a unique three-dimensional architecture. 

Beyond the aggressive marketing, Guadalupe has also been building credibility for the brand while at the helm over the last decade.

The research and development department has made several breakthroughs in material development – most notably adding colours to ceramic and sapphire. It also invented and patented Magic Gold, the world’s first and only 18k scratch-proof gold alloy that it uses in models such as the Big Bang, Spirit of Big Bang, as well as a Sang Bleu II Big Bang.

But Guadalupe’s proudest moment as CEO is turning Hublot into “a real Manufacture” with complicated in-house movements such as the Unico chronographs, the Mp-11 (14-day power reserve), automatic tourbillon, and more.

“We now have our own materials and movements – and that has been an incredible challenge over the last ten years,” Guadalupe beamed, “Before – and I’m talking about 20 years ago – we were just a brand that was assembling watches, but now we are building a real Manufacture.”