Hublot

Hublot was founded in 1980 by the Italian Carlo Crocco and is based in Nyon, on Lake Geneva. Its first watch paired a gold case, shaped like a ship's porthole (hublot in French), with a natural rubber strap, a combination that was unusual at the time and remains the brand's defining idea. Jean-Claude Biver became chief executive in 2004 and in 2005 introduced the Big Bang chronograph, which combined layered cases in steel, ceramic, carbon and gold with rubber and set the direction for everything that followed.

LVMH acquired Hublot from Crocco in 2008. The company introduced its own Unico chronograph calibre, with column wheel and flyback function, in 2010, and in 2011 presented Magic Gold, a scratch-resistant gold-ceramic composite developed with EPFL in Lausanne. The catalogue is built around the Big Bang, Classic Fusion and Spirit of Big Bang families, and the brand has been official timekeeper of the FIFA World Cup since 2010.