Now into its second decade, love it or loathe it, Hublot?s posterboy is here to stay ? the product of a veteran auteur?s infectious ambition, and the absolute embodiment of future-forward Swiss watchmaking

When Hublot crept onto the scene in 1981 ? arguably the height of the Quartz Crisis ? it was known for mixing its titular, oddball ?porthole? design with a rubber strap scented with vanilla. (Presumably so that it didn?t smell when you sweated over the wisdom of your purchase.) In the same year, rising exec Jean-Claude Biver had just purchased the rights to one of many victims of the aforementioned Crisis; a small naval diving watch supplier by the name of Blancpain.
Hublot sputtered along, never quite comfortable with its unusually contemporary take on ?Swiss?; Blancpain blossomed as a venerable horloger, along with the reputation of M. Biver ? a well-loved, larger-than-life character who would sell the brand to Swatch Group, then revive the fortunes of its struggling Omega marque.
And then" The two threads met in 2004, with Hublot finally finding the direction it needed, thanks to its new CEO?s singular brainwave: an enigmatic concept (complete with paper-napkin sketches) called ?the Art of Fusion?, and embodied by Biver?s boldest move yet: the Big Bang.
Despite sniggers over the gauche name and mumblings over a certain ?offshore? kinship, this pumped up reinterpretation of the porthole style was a stroke of luxury design genius. Unlike so many other revived br...