“We Can Be The Best in the World”

Amura had the opportunity to interview one of the most active and charismatic of the watching world, Jean Claude Biver, CEO of Hublot of the most progressive and highest selling watch makers in the world.

■    AMURA: Hublot is a relatively new brand although you are not; tell us a little about your experience in the watch making industry.

 

■    JCB: I have worked in industry for more than 30 years on three brands. I started my career in 1975 at Audemars Piguet, and in 19801 moved to Omega and in 1982 I bought Blancpain for US$15,000 because the brand had been out of business for 36 years and in 1992,1 sold it to Swatch Group. I served as a member of the Board of Directors at Swatch Group for 12 years and in 2004,1 left Swatch to buy a stockholding in Hublot and take over the general management as the only board member and CEO of the brand.

 

■ AMURA: What did you see at Hublot that made you returned to the watch making industry after selling your company?

■    JCB: I was very surprised with Hublot when in 1980 the brand introduced rubber in its straps. Putting rub- ber on someone’s wrists would like a provocation at that time and very unique.

In 2004, said to myself that this fusion by Hublot has not evolved and with no evolution everything gets old and with watches, old designs tend to disappear because you must always inject new ideas, new evolution, new devel- opments, new visions, new concepts into everything you do and this brand had apparently never done that so I said to myself if I could go back to a small brand for the last 10 years of my life I would like to go back to experiencing that feeling of seeing a brand grow, as well as the excitement of re-creating and reinterpreting this fusion that we were talking about is a very interesting idea besides which I had always been a very active player in the traditionalism of making watches, I am a collector, but whereas most col- lectors buy watches, I buy brands and I can make a watch exactly as I want it I am lucky to be able to do that.

 

■    AMURA: Why the name ‘Hublot’?

■    JCB: It is very common in French, it means skylight, if you look at the case of the watch, and it looks like a sky light.

 

■ AMURA: What is the difference, besides the rubber, makes Hublot a great watch?

■    JCB: The difference is that we are a brand that specia- lizes in fusions. If you want a traditional and classic match, maybe Hublot is not the brand for you, we always take the ingredients of tradition, fusion and modernity and then by mixing them together, it is like having a very old 16th century palace filled with modem furniture and touches of technology aestheti- cally placed with unusual colors. Creating aesthetic tension is the difference between us and the rest".

 

■ AMURA: Hublot watches are assembled by hand. Do you preserve the tradition of assembling watches?

■ JCB: We respect hand assembly but we do use machi- nery. We create a synergy between craftsman and machines.

 

■ AMURA: From the Sport 1620 to the “Big Bang”, the watches have grown and now offer more complica- tions. They are ever more futuristic. Is it from there that you are headed in terms of design?

■    JCB: That is exactly where we are going.

 

■ AMURA: Can you tell us more about the collection of unique pieces?

They are pieces that the only made to order and I usual- ly large or made from specific materials. This collection is very successful but we have to limit the number of pieces to one or two due to their complexity and nowa- days we also make limited editions.

 

■ AMURA: Where did the idea come from to use rubber on the bracelets?

■ JCB: The owners and myself like the nautical life so we decided to create a watch for that lifestyle that looks like a skylight in the same time the bracelet was 100% resistant. So we thought that people could use these watches in the sea. What is salt water's best friend? Rubber. The salinity does not attack.

 

■    AMURA: This type of bracelet revolutionized the mar- ket. Are you preparing any other surprises?

JCB: No. There can only be one surprise like that in the history of a brand, but with our new model, the new “Big Bang”, we have tripled sales in the brand’s best ever year. What I can say is that the “Big Bang” may be the most important than rubber itself because of its tremendous success and because today nobody talks about rubber. Everyone is talking about the “Big Bang”.

 

■    AMURA: Tell us why the “Big Bang” is so special?

■ JCB: It has a very imposing appearance, masculine and at the same time, sexy. The more you know about it the more you want to buy it and the more you use it the more you need it. It looks ‘dangerous’ and very special and besides all the combinations its designs offer in terms of colors and the combination of materials. It is the perfect example of the combination of tradition with the future.

 

■    AMURA: What does the future hold for Hublot?

■ JCB: If we continue doing things right and we don’t make many mistakes, we will become one of the best brands of watches in the world, if not the best.

 

■ AMURA: How do you see the Latin American and especially the Mexican market?

■    JCB: It is great because although it is still an immature market, there is an immense consumption so I think the future will be huge here in Mexico. 

 

 

Text: Enrique Rosas ± Photo: Parmigiani