Hublot

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Five years after what could well be termed the relaunch of Hublot, Jean-Claude Biver fulfilled a dream: a the beginning of 2009, the company moved into its own 6,000 square meter factory in Nyon’s industrial quarter. The move acts as a harbinger of the company’s first autonomous movement calibers, which are scheduled to go into serial production very soon. The current economic crisis has put the brakes on this ambitious plan only somewhat: by the end of 2009, 150 employees are scheduled to finished populating about half of the modern, light-filled workshops. The remaining area is reserved for benches remain free for future additions to the watchmaking team as well. In 2008, Hublot introduced its own movement design, a slightly modified version of the tried-and-tested Valjoux chronograph caliber 7750 whose patent protection expired after thirty years. René Maillefer, one of the original developers of the reliable Valjoux caliber, took on the design work of this new mechanism and conceived the changes in components in order to accommodate the use of a special alloy instead of the brass that is usually found in watchmaking for plates and bridges. The term Ag5 refers to a very light, very resistant alloy made of magnesium and aluminum that is otherwise only used in making airplanes. A special surface treatment seals and hardens the material, which is not necessarily unproblematic in terms of oxidation. Particularly noteworthy is that the case and buckle of the Mag Bang model are also made of the same matte shimmering metal.

Since the end of April 2008, Hublot has belonged to the LVMH Group (Louis Vuitton, Moët & Hennessy), which is reported to have paid half a million Swiss francs for the company. Biver has remained as head of Hublot as per a contract that sees him writing his incredible success story for another three years. He places great stock in the first movement completely conceived, developed, and produced by Hoblot, which he celebrates with the name Unico.

Handmade prototypes already exist, and now Hublot is all about the industrialization of the 13 line (30 mm) chronograph movement outfitted with two vertical clutches and a column wheel visible from the dial. The semi-integrated base design offers possibilities for additional—or even complietely new—complications, of which some are already in testing phases.

The balance spring, balance, and pallet lever are made of silicon supplied by Sigatec and assembled in an exchangeable “echappement” –basically, an escapement that is easily removed by a watchmaker without touching the other components. Interested customers will have to wait until the middle of 2010 before the first watches can be tried on at a local retailer. Once production is finally underway, Hublot is looking to manufacture up to 10,000 movements per year. The costs for a Unico chronograph are expected to end up only about 20 percent higher than that of a conventional Valjoux-outfitted model .If those aren’t great expectations for the continuation of Hublot’s own success story…

PORTUGUESE TOURBILLON MYSTERE RETROGRADE

The Portuguese Tourbillon Mystere has been a staple of the IWC line for some time now. This year at SIHH, the firm from Schaffhausen added a retrograde date mechanism to the Tourbillon Mystere. IWC incorporated this new date display by adding a specially designed module to the IWC-manufactured Caliber 51900. On reaching the end of months won 31 days, it automatically files back to 1. At the end of months with fewer days it can be manually adjusted via a corrector, and need not be adjusted in conjunction with the time. In addition to its innovative date display and tourbillon escapement, the Portuguese Tourbillon Mystere Retrograde has a 7-day power reserve unusually long among automatic timepieces. It is available in red gold and in platinum. Price: $124,000.

Once upon a time not so long ago, a visitor arriving at the reception area of the IWC headquarters in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, was greeted by the smell of cooling liquid and metal shavings and the sound cases being manufactured in the neighboring room. In the past several years, however, two imposing new buildings of steel, concrete, and aluminum with expansive glass facades have been inaugurated to absorb the growth of one of the few full-fledged brands from eastern Switzerland. The additional room has not only been used to give the watchmakers a more comfortable workspace, but also to arrange a museum celebrating the company’s 135-year history.

At present, the International Watch Company employs around 750 people, and that number is expected to increase in the middle and long terms. The staff enjoys the most modern workshops in the Swiss watch industry, and not just in terms of the machines and the interior design: IWC strives to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and eliminate other pollutants. It has been applying the latest cleantech to get ahead in the environmental game: heat pumps to generate cooling and heating; groundwater-fed chilled ceilings; rainwater used for the plumbing; a heat exchanger to extract heat from wastewater to obtain energy for heating and cooling; and water-powered electricity.

Already in 2007 IWC was certified as a CO₂ –neutral company, after it had reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by half. Now the brand hopes that modernization of its facilities, including a triple-glazed skin on its glass facades, will lead to a 90 percent reduction in emissions.