Thirty years after Carlo Crocco created the first Hublot watch, brand chief executive officer Jean-Claude Biver presents Hublot's first movement to be produced entirely in-house - the HUB 1240 UNICO.
The automatic flyback column-wheel chronograph movement makes its debut in the new King Power Unico All Black model, a microblasted black ceramic 48mm watch that makes a strong visual statement with its monochromatic multilayered dial.
Functions include 60-second and 60-minute chronograph counters, and a date aperture. A special removable platform escapement allows the watch owner's initials to be engraved on the surface.
'By 2015, we expect 100 per cent of our movements to be in-house calibres,' Biver says, adding that a non-chronograph UNICO movement with classic three-hand time indication will be launched next year.
'We are already working on an annual calendar movement, as well as a GMT one. Soon we'll be moving on to a perpetual calendar.'
Another Hublot novelty of note this year is the Liberty timepiece.
Shaped like a gun cartridge, the Liberty is Hublot's reinterpretation of the traditional pocket watch.
