The annual LVMH Watch Week was held in Singapore for the first time this year after being held virtually the previous two years and in Dubai in 2020, reflecting the growing significance of this geographically compact country as a market for luxury watches. Furthermore, as China re-enters a flagging global economy, raising hopes for a rebound, it was only logical for the LVMH Group to focus its attention on this region.
Being the first major event on the horological calendar, the fair offered a primer of what’s to come at Watches and Wonders Geneva (March 27 – April 2, 2023). While both watches and tastes tend to become more conservative in times of mixed prospects, the Group’s core watch brands – TAG Heuer, Zenith, Bvlgari and Hublot – exhibited a bevy of novelties that showed prudence and audacity in a studied equilibrium.
HUBLOT
Hublot got off to the strongest start, unveiling what was the most visually astounding watch of the fair — the Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic in vivid neon yellow. As it did with brightly colored ceramics, the brand has mastered large-scale machining of sapphire, and also its coloring by fusing elements and chemical compounds into sapphire without altering its most prized physical properties, namely hardness and lightness. However, to achieve this specific intense fluorescent hue, the manufacture had to combine aluminum oxide, the basic component of sapphire, with elements like thulium, holmium and chromium, resulting in an alloy called SAXEM. A loosely abbreviated acronym for “Sapphire Aluminum oXide and rare Earth Material,” it differs from regular sapphire with its inclusion of exotic elements instead of standard metals like iron or titanium, hence achieving a brilliance that surpasses that of sapphire.
Inside is the in-house HUB6035, an automatic tourbillon movement that was aesthetically constructed to exhibit all its moving parts. The baseplate and bridges are made from sapphire, leaving the entire movement, including the keyless works and gear train for the automatic winding system, in plain sight. A discreet micro-rotor mounted on the
