Baselworld 2010: Hublot
Including an Interview with CEO J-C Biver on the BNB Concept Affair
By Melvyn Teillol-Foo
Evolution of Hublot
Baselworld 2010
Hublot may find it difficult creating buzz with their ‘novelties’ at Baselworld because they make so many ‘limited edition’ variations throughout the year; people worried that there may be no surprise in Basel.
Hublot followed Audemars Piguet as Alinghi sailing team sponsor but the failure of the Swiss team to retain the America’s Cup threw a floater in the bilge tank for Hublot. But Mr Biver managed to recover some places on the grid by closing the deal as Official Watchmaker of Formula 1™ and will produce a range of limited edition Formula 1™ watches to exploit the additional designation ‘Hublot - The Official Watch of Formula 1™’.
Hublot is following in the tyre tracks of Audemars Piguet that has many racing drivers associated with Royal Oak and Offshore watches viz. Montoya, Barrichello, Trulli and a few others who wear AP but cannot be named because they are sponsored by other brands.
It was a marketing masterstroke by Hublot to be named Official Watchmaker of Formula 1™ that is reminiscent of the play by Jack Heure in the 1960s; although Heure also had the technology to be official timekeeper in sports events.
Scandal
Another backroom chat topic was about the way that Hublot took over the management of one of their suppliers – the bankrupt BNB Concept. Will we now see gravity defying, multi-axis tourbillon, minute-repeaters in a Big Bang case?
Biver on the BNB Concept Bankruptcy
On some 'Other' or 'French' websites' discussion fora, it was alleged that, somehow, by being the first and biggest customer of BNB Concept or the largest debtor, Hublot had engineered the demise and acquired the assets cheaply. I put this to Mr Biver during our meeting; you can imagine that he 'blew the roof' and proceeded to search his files for contemporaneous accounting notes, which he immediately forwarded as e-mail from his laptop to mine, as we spoke. Real-time reporting indeed!
During 2009, BNB’s uncollected accounts receivables grew to SFr 10M, owed by about 15 clients. The biggest unpaid account was SFr 1.6M and the smallest SFr 50,000.
For Hublot on 31 Dec 2009: BNB Debt was SFr 555,404; Advanced Deposit to BNB was SFr 129,501; thus Hublot Nett Debt to BNB was only SFr 423,903.
Days before BNB bankruptcy filing, Hublot bought the entire inventory of Hublot finished and unfinished movements, including spare parts, for SFr 2.8M. At liquidation, BNB had 97 employees but its liabilities still exceeded SFr 30M. The small amount of SFr 424,000 owed by Hublot seems insignificant compare with the BNB total debt of SFr 30 Million.
After the liquidation order was issued, Hublot stepped in to acquire a large part of BNB’s machinery and hired former CEO, Mr. Matthias Buttet as technical director and chief executive of a new entity, Confrérie Horlogère Hublot, along with 29 of BNB’s former employees. Of the 30 former employees offered jobs, only one declined to join Hublot with Mr. Buttet.
2010 Novelties
I asked Mr Biver what was the one product he wanted to highlight at Baselworld 2010. He chose the UNICO movement.
The King Power UNICO features the first chronograph movement produced entirely in-house by Hublot. For Mr Biver, this is symbolic of the brand's progress towards verticalisation. In watchmaking circles, a new, in-house, flyback chronograph is more satisfying to develop than even a tourbillon.
UNICO movement
Since early 2009, Hublot has incorporated various production stages into the manufacture. This has enabled Hublot to produce the UNICO chronograph, which was developed exclusively by its own R&D Department. The machining workshop produces bridges, main plates and various steel components, which are assembled by production watchmakers. A special feature of this flyback chronograph is the position of its mechanism and the famous "column wheel" on the dial side rather than the usual back side of the watch.
However, one of the main innovations is the retractable platform escapement, on which the watch owner's initials can be engraved by special request. This subtle and ingenious feature facilitates servicing and maintenance of the movement while allowing the timepiece to be personalised. The escapement (escape wheel and pallet fork) is made from silicon, a light, durable and technologically advanced material which resists wear and guarantees more accurate operation.
The future?
Conclusion:
This brief sketch is just to capture a flavour of Hublot for our community. With the fiscal backing of the LVMH group and having accelerated their movement production capability with ex-BNB resources, it will be interesting to keep a watch-ful eye on Hublot to see what they bring to watch lovers and PuristS across the world.
We leave Mr Biver multi-tasking as usual. During the course of our chat, he managed to finish a live radio interview by mobile phone and shouted at someone about a real-estate deal, whilst taking a resume from a Chinese watchmaker looking for a job!
By the way, that is the best cheese in Switzerland!