When talking Hublot, we immediately think of sports. There have been many collaborations with past and present champions, from Kylian Mbappé to Usain Bolt, from Pelé to Kobe Bryant.

If that’s not enough, Hublot reminds us of Formula1 as well, with its models created to celebrate Ferrari’s historic achievements. (Click here if you lost all Hublot news from BaselWorld2019).

However, the brand is not just sport and motors, but art as well, a wide and still little explored field to draw inspiration from.

Here’s where the six models presented at BaselWorld2019 come from, all produced in collaboration with the French artist Richard Orlinski. After Aerofusion Chronograph and Tourbillon, the artistic and technologic sodality between the artist and the maison is renewed.

Orlinski is famous for his way of reinterpreting sculpture: he breaks shapes’ natural harmonies, creating unusual geometries and fascinating plays of light. Remarkable are his installations: from the enormous Wild Kong in Cannes to the 5-meters bear in Courchevel.

This time he wanted to challenge himself transferring his artistic idea to a much smaller space. Orlinski, with his masterwork of folds, geometric lines, corners and facets, modeled not a King-Kong, but a 40 mm case with 11 mm thickness. This has been realized with two different materials, Titanium and King Gold, Hublot’s typical, the maison always facing researches to new performing materials.

Shapes and light plays are enhanced in four out of six versions by 54 diamonds on the bezel and 210 (Pavé) or 112 (Alternative Pavé) on the case.

However, also the two versions without diamonds are luminous, thanks to the harmony between dark and shiny materials, like the mirror dial crossed by lines that create protruding edges, recalling Orlinski’s Pop sculptures.

Inside the case we find the automatic movement HUB1100 and, on the outside, the opaque black rubber strap creates a play of contrasts with the highly-faceted glossy black dial.

On the wrist

With these six watches, Orlinski is addressing to the feminine world and to art lovers. He wants to convey the message that “art on the wrist stands out just like a jewel”.

Artist’s idea of flamboyance is surely very vivid in diamond versions but, to us, the two simpler versions are much better.

The Classic Fusion Orlinski is per se an essential yet refined watch, which manages to excite the wearer without tiring him. With its plays of light and his “cuts”, it kills the banality that often accompanies simplicity, to turn out instead a timepiece with a marked aesthetic and character, which intrigues the observer. Definitely the best piece from the maison at the last Basel’s Fair, it knows how to be elegant but, at the same time, going beyond the traditional canons, it manages to be suitable even for the most informal occasions, as art should be.

Prices range according to version, from 11.300€ for the Titanium to 29.000€ for the King Gold with diamond Pavé.

Translated by Lorenzo Spolaor (@lorenzospolaor)

Pictures by Vincenzo Finizola (@vfphotograf)