Hublot and Ferrari: A Whole New Ball Game
BaselWorld is well underway at the moment, and as I come up for a little bit of air, I thought I would give you all a little sneak preview of some of the amazing watches coming out his season…one in particular is the new Hublot MP05.
Like many of their past offerings, Hublot is not shy when it comes to designs that are at once striking, and subtly over-the-top. In other word, you either love them, or hate them – at least in terms of design. Much like the car it is inspired by, the LaFerrari. This beast of a Ferrari was just unveiled at this year’s Geneva Auto Show. The LaFerrari is the first ‘hybrid’ Ferrari, with the highest power output of any Ferrari ever made – and at the same time, fuel consumption is actually decreased by 40 percent. The car’s V12 powerplant has a 6.3 liter capacity and a whopping 789 horsepower! Ferrari says that the car has a top speed well over 220 mph; (190 mph) in under 15 seconds.
Taking a brief look back in time, Ferrari has partnered with venerable watch companies before – and both times (Girard Perragaux and Panerai), the results were less than favorable. In the case of these watches, it seemed that the watch companies essentially just put their logo on the watch – not a big deal at all.
Flash forward to the new partnership with Ferrari and Hublot, and I do believe the mix is right….like vodka and orange juice, Bogart & Bacall, Hall & Oates, Apple pie and Ice cream …you get the picture!
At Baselworld, Hublot introduced what looks like an engine block for the wrist – an homage to the LaFerrari. For the complications, it contains a world-first: the longest power reserve for a tourbillon timepiece: 40 days, or approximately 960 hours!! That’s a lot of gas in the tank. Also of note, the watch is built with 637 individual components – eleven of these are barrels containing the mainsprings able to pull off this amazing feat. These spring barrels are set up in a linear fashion, in the middle of the watch, giving the movement the engine block look. The entire movement is covered with a sapphire crystal, which takes its design directly from the lines and shape of the new Ferrari.
The time is displayed by means luminous hours and minutes that are shown on black anodized cylinders to the right of the line of spring barrels. The seconds are indicated on an aluminum cylinder that is fixed to the oversized suspended tourbillon (14.5 mm diameter). The power reserve indication is displayed on a cylinder to the left.
The Ferrari logo is etched into the black PVD-coated titanium case, underneath the suspended tourbillion cage; furthermore, there are a 2 “Ferrari Red” colored bars supporting the movement. Very subtle and not as obvious if you’re not looking for the car’s design cues. The overall shape and dimensions of this timepiece marvel are more revealing as to it’s origin. Now for the reality part – The price? Not as much as the car (1.5 Million), but at 300,000 Swiss Francs, it should be kept in a garage.
Daswani, out!