Gold fever at Hublot

While the Swiss watch brand revives an 80s trend with a new collection, its CEO Ricardo Guadalupe is also quick to embrace cryptocurrency

Swiss watch brand Hublot is no stranger to making headlines. Earlier this month, it launched the Big Bang Unico Ledger in partnership with the crypto and digital asset platform. The watch’s high-contrast golden bezel, in Electrum, a natural gold and silver alloy, comes with a limited-edition crypto key that will only be available with the watch. With this new product, CEO Ricardo Guadalupe once again proves that the brand is on point when it is about wooing a youthful and modern audience.

This announcement also reiterates what he’d mentioned on a video call at last month’s LVMH Watch Week 2022, “We are of course looking at NFT and cryptocurrency, and addressing [its community]. Many of them have become wealthy in a short period of time and are potential clients.” And let’s not forget that last year, when industry veteran Jean-Claude Biver made news with the first NFT luxury watch to be auctioned, it was a Hublot — the Bigger Bang All Black Tourbillon.

Guadalupe has had a significant role to play in reviving the brand that is now synonymous with sports masterpieces, innovative materials and brave colour experiments. During the pandemic’s virtual media interactions, he often joined his scientists in their lab at the Nyon manufacture to present to viewers the heating tanks and other futuristic equipment that go into crafting their exceptional sapphire cases and other components. When we spoke during LVMH Watch Week 2022, he confirmed that they are “still the leaders in the production of sapphire” in the industry.

Hublot began the year on a slim note with three 40mm ‘Time Only’ Big Bang Integrals but what caught many a watch critic’s attention was the introduction of gold across its key collections: Big Bang Integral, the Big Bang Unico, the Classic Fusion Chronograph and the Spirit of Big Bang. “We are going back to our roots in a way,” said Guadalupe. “Since I joined Hublot [2004], we have never done a yellow gold watch, just rose gold as that reflected the trend of the time for watches. But I thought it may be the right timing to put yellow gold as a trend, and chose one model per line. Let’s see how the market will respond.”

While China and the Middle East clearly favour the metal, he added that there has been interest from the United States as well. “Perhaps India will also be keen on it. Our gold production of watches is also quite limited,” he added. And despite the size, the watches will be hailed by women as well.

Like many luxury watch CEOs tracking the growing interest among women watch collectors, Guadalupe agrees that their watches can be worn by both men and women. “Big Bang Time at 40mm can be a ‘no gender’ model for men and women. The women’s market is where we can really grow. Last year, it represented 28% of our sales; we’d gone from 20% to 28% in a few years and hope to grow further,” he said.

The Yellow Gold collection is priced at ₹ 39.4 lakh onwards; the Big Bang Unico Ledger is priced at ₹ 21.25 lakh