Fast Watches with Hublot and Ferrari

Time For Speed

Ferrari, one of Italy’s oldest supercar ateliers and one of the finest Formula One teams, has been a storied marque since 1929. Hublot, a Swiss firm founded in 1980, was looking to be involved with both a supercar marque as well as with Formula One racing, so the Hublot-Ferrari match was natural. Hublot is very involved with Ferrari, and participates in about 20 major events every year – over 130 joint events to date. Hublot describes their relationship with Ferrari as one comprised of “success, happiness, harmony, synergy, emotion and dreams”, a relationship that just keeps getting better. Hublot decided that, rather than just connecting with the Ferrari brand by licensing the name and logo, they would create a “360-degree, 365-day relationship”.
Hublot’s flagship model is the MP-05 LaFerrari pictured here ($345,000), a high-tech timepiece comprised of a Hublot-record 637 components (including eleven barrels arranged like a spinal column) which boasts a 50-day power reserve. The design is evocative of a transmission, with the gears and “shifter forks” clearly visible from above and through the transparent back. The vertical face is on the end of the watch, for easy viewing while driving, and utilizes a second hand and anodized black aluminum cylinders for the minutes and hours, plus a separate cylinder to show power reserve, all supported by red aluminum reinforcing bars. The complex shape of the case and of the sapphire crystal are meant to echo the shape of Ferrari’s latest über-car, the $1,300,000 LaFerrari (of which only 499 are to be made and all of which are already sold), through the use of black titanium and carbon parts and special windows into the soul. Both the car and the watch quicken the pulse, which somehow seems quite appropriate.