Welcome to my Top Swiss Chronographs Boutique! Hublot is a Swiss luxury watchmaker founded in 1980 by Italian Carlo Crocco. The company operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of the French luxury conglomerate LVMH. A scion of the Italian Binda Group dynasty (best known for making Breil watches), Carlo Crocco left the company in 1976, to start a watch company. Moving to Switzerland he formed MDM Geneve and set about designing a watch that he named the Hublot after the French word for "porthole". The watch that he created featured the first natural rubber strap in the history of watchmaking. It took three years of research to create the strap. Despite failing to attract a single potential customer on the first day of its debut at the 1980, Basel Watch Fair, the watch quickly proved to be a commercial success with sales in excess of $US2 million in its first year. Crocco, preoccupied by his own design work and many activities for the Hand-in-Hand Foundation, a charity helping deprived children all around the world, set out to look for someone to who oversee Hublot. In late 2003, Jean-Claude Biver, then president of Swatch Group's Omega division, met Crocco, and in May 2004, Biver assumed duties as CEO, becoming a board member and minority shareholder in Hublot Watches. Upon his arrival, Biver set about creating a new flagship collection that was unveiled in Basel in April 2005, with the Hublot "Big Bang" chronograph. It was an immediate success and orders increased threefold in one year. A few months later, in November 2005, the Big Bang chronograph was awarded internationally, receiving the "2005 Design Prize" in the "Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix", the "Sports Watch Prize" at the "Watch of the Year" ceremony in Japan, and the Middle Eastern Prize for the "Best Oversized Watch" at the Editor’s Choice "Watch of the Year" in Bahrain. Following the arrival of Biver in 2004, the brand's sales were 24 million Swiss francs and by the end of 2006, sales were close to 100 million Swiss franc. In April 2008, luxury goods group LVMH announced it had acquired Hublot from Crocco for an undisclosed fee, adding to its existing portfolio of watch brands including TAG Heuer. Movement: - automatic Hublot caliber HUB 4100 - base: ETA 7753, the so called "workhorse" - 25 jewels - power-reserve: 42 hours - frequency: 28.800A/h - chronograph Case: - 316L stainless steel/black ceramic - unique watch number 7*****3 (for buyer only), the best proof of authenticity - 44mm excl. crown, 51mm incl. - thickness 14,7mm - length: 56,8mm lug to lug - flat sapphire crystal, anti-reflective Crown: - stainless steel with black inlay - push/pull with logo Case-back: - see-through, sapphire crystal - screwed in with 6 screws Bezel: - polished black ceramic - fixed - screwed in with traditional 6 H-shaped titanium screws Dial: - black - stamped «Carbon Effect» - 'Hublot' logo at 12:00 o'clock - luminous polished hands - chic metallic hour batons and Arabic numerals - red minute markers around the outer rim - date window at 04:30 o'clock - central red chronograph second hand with "H" logo - three chronograph sub-dials: running sec. at 09:00 o'clock 12 hours at 06:00 o'clock 30-min. counter at 03:00 o'clock Weight: 136 grams Strap: - authentic Hublot - black structured rubber - length: сa. 21cm incl. wristwatch itself - width: 25mm by lugs, 22mm by clasp Fold over clasp: - 316L stainless steel, brushed - two security push buttons - logo Water-resistance: 10ATM/100meters/330feet High recognition value. Distinctive design. General professional pre-sale service was made in November 2024: the watch is keeping good time and working perfectly. Hublot black watch box with round window (see pics). Distributors stock: the card isn't stamped. Excellent condition, never worn: the wristwatch comes from luxury watch-shop showcase. My personal authenticity and quality warranty: you will get warranty card (as pictured), fully completed and signed on the back. Insured, registered shipping worldwide with DHL Express: it’s not cheap, and yet fast and reliable, two days in Europe, three days worldwide. Everything you see in my pics is included in the package that you'll receive. NO EXTRA COSTS for EU Buyers!