Hublot
A Bigger Bang
Hublot
A Bigger Bang
To celebrate, Hublot decided to create a design prize. On the panel of judges sat one of this magazine’s idols and a high priest of rakishness, Lapo Elkann. Lapo is of the dynasty of the man after whom this magazine is named, Gianni Agnelli. He was a perfect choice to judge such a design prize considering his particular nous in the design arena, and awarding young designers is just the kind of thing watch brands should take the lead in, especially innovative brands such as Hublot.
But this was not the only thing that Hublot celebrated last year. At the Palais de Tokyo during Paris Fashion Week, Elkann and Hublot announced a much larger collaboration — between Hublot and Elkann’s own hyper-stylish eyewear brand, Italia Independent. The collaboration manifested itself in the Big Bang Unico Italia Independent.
What is most impressive with the choice of collaborator by Hublot is that they are not choosing someone merely because he is famous. Above all else — namely his Italian handsomeness and perfect sartorial taste — he is an extremely high achiever. Guadalupe says of Hublot’s choice of collaborators: “I don’t have a checklist that leads me to say, ‘This guy would be great for us’. It is more a case of meeting people through an activity or an event. If there is chemistry and we have a good feeling, then we just say, ‘O.K., let’s do something together’. We always meet and get to know the person before signing any agreement, to make sure we share the same ideas. A partnership can only be successful if the ambassador or friend of the brand likes the brand. With many of our ambassadors, like Usain Bolt and Jose Mourinho, they are already familiar with the brand, or are existing customers, and of course that helps as it means they have already been touched by Hublot.”
Since then the two brands have been joined at the proverbial hip. The latest epoch of this friendship was launched at the Basel watch fair this year — the Big Bang Unico Italia Independent Camo collection. Koh sees this as a continuance of the ability that Lapo has in making something potentially mundane and quotidian and turning it into a sartorial masterpiece. “With the camouflage motif, he uses quite a bit in Italia Independent, but he also had one of his Ferraris painted in a camouflage motif, and then for this year’s collaboration with Hublot, the Big Bang is Texalium but with a camouflage motif. He wanted to take it away from its military roots and use it purely for its design iconography. One of the sub-dials in the watch has a peace sign because he wants you to understand that his use of camouflage is one for fun and for luxury and irreverence rather than a sort of aggressive military symbol.”
Hublot have tapped into a partner here unlike anything they have managed before. Whereas the aforementioned Bolts and Mourinhos of this world may be the leaders in their particular fields, and Hublot might design a watch to fit around that, Lapo is suited exactly for creating things that are coveted. He is a fantastic designer, and combined with Hublot’s awareness of the zeitgeist, they have created something spectacular as a result. In terms of what comes next, Lapo sums it up much better than we could: “The sky is really the limit in this collaboration between timepieces and eyewear. Hublot and Italia Independent share the same challenge: to reach excellence both at the technical and stylistic levels.