Hublot as a brand has evolved from a small Swiss brand that was barely known, into a hugely popular manufacturer that counts the likes of Diego Maradona and Usain Bolt as its ambassadors. It is impossible to claim that this was not thanks to the efforts of Jean-Claude Biver and his team. So design, function, and even product aside, why has one of the biggest luxury brands http://www.watchescrafted.com/replica-hublot-big-bang.html
of the moment commissioned a pair of unique watches especially for Marcus?
See, the story of Marcus Margulies and his contribution to the horology world stretches pretty far back. As a veteran of the luxury watch industry, his distribution company Time Products, along with the self-named Marcus boutique, was one of the first to back Hublot at a time when it had just been headed by Jean-Claude Biver, the charismatic former CEO of the brand, and the man largely credited with bringing Hublot's yearly revenue up from 20m Swiss Francs in 2004 to approximately 300m Swiss Francs last year. The faith put into the brand by Marcus, who acted as not only its first new retailer but also the uk distributor, is recognised to have been a significant force behind the brand's success. The store and its proprietor are very well known in watch circles, so the introduction of the then lesser known Hublot brand into the horological equivalent of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory immediately sparked interest from other retailers and collectors alike. The rest is history, and these two unique pieces have been created by Hublot to celebrate both Marcus' 70th birthday, and also the 10th anniversary of the Marcus boutique.
In addition to the Tourbillon Minute Repeater, there is a second, perhaps more exotic piece unique Hublot. The second Marcus flavoured Hublot offering comes in the shape of the MP-02 Key of time, or La Clé du Temps (which is basically French for... "the key of time"). You may remember the previous black and green version released that was part of a limited edition of 50 pieces we discussed hands-on here. Well this is the same piece but again executed in the white and red Marcus colour scheme. All the features from the original are present including the vertical tourbillon, 5 day power reserve, and the stand-out unique feature of being able to speed up or slow down the display time by a factor of 4... and then being able to return to the actual time at the flick of a crown. Useless, but nonetheless fun.
To be fair, this white and red version looks a lot better to me than the black and green iteration. It may have to do with the immense amounts of dust I saw on every picture of the black version, or it may simply be that it looks less 'plastic. ' Whatever the reason, I found myself liking this piece more than I thought I would. It is of course hefty and sits high on the wrist, though we'd do well to remember that neither of these are formal dress watches despite the spec list of features (tourbillons, minute repeaters and so on). Don't try and tuck these watches under your shirt cuff, it's just not gonna happen! They are made to be worn in full view of everyone within a mile and a half radius, and being honest, who wouldn't want to show off the fact that they are wearing the cost equivalent of a moderately stocked super car garage on their wrist?! The pair of these watches will run you in the ballpark of low price (though they are sold separately). These two piece unique Hublot timepieces and other interesting unique watches are available at Marcus, which is located at 170 New Bond Street in London. It is part of their 10th Anniversary Exhibition that will run until October 2nd, 2012.
Hublot debuted this watch in Shanghai during a public charity event where Mr. Maradona himself kicked a soccer ball to raise money for kids. If only it was that simple. Why the legendary Argentinian soccer (ahem, I mean "football") player went to China for Hublot and his own watch is probably an amusing story. Suffice it to say that Diego Maradona fans in Argentina and abroad can appreciate his newest limited edition watch.