This article was originally published in the Design 2023 Issue of the WatchTime print magazine.

Hardly any other brand stands for such a wide variety of models as Hublot. In addition to diverse materials and colors, this manufacture is now dedicating itself to form and is introducing a square watch. To what degree is the Square Bang a typical Hublot"

When Jean-Claude Biver set out in the 1980s to make the nearly forgotten Blancpain brand attractive again, he formulated a number of principles. One of them was that a Blancpain watch should always be round. Biver left Blancpain long ago, but to this day, those in charge there have upheld that precept of yesteryear.

Ricardo Guadalupe was one of Biver?s early and longtime comrades-in-arms. He was by Biver?s side at Blancpain and later went with him to Hublot. For the past 10 years, Guadalupe has led the brand as its CEO. He admits, ?I like shaped watches. It was always a dream of mine to make a square watch one day. Unfortunately, that wasn?t possible when I was at Blancpain.? Guadalupe proved that it is possible at Hublot a few years ago. In 2014, he launched the tonneau-shaped Spirit of Big Bang. There had previously been individual special models in nonround cases, but the Spirit was the first regular line in Hublot?s collection with a shaped case. ?The success of the Spirit encouraged me to do the Square Bang,? Guadalupe says. ?The Spirit currently makes up 15 percent of our sales. With the h...