The fun began even before the tournament, with the watch counting down the moments to the start of the first game. It provides the wearer with team line-ups and player profiles 15 minutes before each match, and then switches over into so-called “timeline” mode once the match kicks off. Each time something important happens – a goal, a penalty, or a yellow or red card – the watch will launch a special animation featuring the player’s name, and mark the event with a football symbol on a scale around the edge of the dial, which indicates when it took place. The wearer can replay the animation at any point by scrolling around the dial using the watch’s crown.

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Taking its aesthetic cues from the Big Bang, Hublot’s best known timepiece, the Big Bang e Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022 comes in a 44mm case in black ceramic and titanium. It’s available in a wide range of dial and strap options: the official version comes in the colours of Qatar’s flag, but fans of other countries can also choose from versions in the colours of each of the 32 teams taking part.

At the timepiece’s heart is a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100 processor powered by Google’s Wear OS. The watch features a range of useful functions that include an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a microphone, a speaker, GPS and a heart rate monitor. It also comes pre-loaded with a range of handy apps.

As the Hublot Loves Football campaign launched for the 2022 World Cup suggests, Hublot’s support for the game runs deep. This is the fourth time that the Swiss luxury watchmaker has been the official timekeeper at a World Cup, and it also has official relationships with many other important football competitions, from UEFA’s European Championships and Champions League, to the English Premier League.

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Hublot is also official timekeeper and watch for leading domestic clubs including Juventus, Chelsea, Ajax and Benfica, while among the ambassadors and friends of the brand are a host of football stars including former greats Pelé, Luis Figo, Didier Deschamps and Marcel Desailly from the men’s game, and Laure Boulleau from the women’s, as well as current French forward Kylian Mbappé and current manager José Mourinho.

Now, with the launch of the Big Bang e Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022, limited to just 1,000 pieces, that commitment to the world’s most popular sport steps into new, uncharted, interactive territory.