One of the casualties of the recession was BNB Concept, a complications specialist renowned for its radical, bizarre and odd-looking complications. Hublot took over what remained of BNB Concept and integrated the team, with some 30 people including BNB co-founder Mathias Buttet (the first “B” in BNB), into Hublot as Confrérie Horlogère Hublot.
Confrérie Horlogère Hublot serves as a high complication atelier as well as R&D department for Hublot. It gives Hublot significantly more high horology know-how and credibility than before.
Amongst the many avant garde timepieces in Confrérie Horlogère’s repertoire is the Liberty Bullet, a bullet-shaped watch with tourbillon that tells the time on rotating cylinders.
Below: Dissecting the Bullet Liberty
All high complications – tourbillons, repeaters and combinations of the two – are finished and put together here.
Above: Tourbillon with monopusher chronograph assembled in the atelier
Above: Parts come in a kit for the watchmaker to assemble
For the fingers
The Big Bang minute repeater is surprising, especially for such a big and heavy watch, the chime is loud and pleasant.
Below: Testing the repeater on a hollow wooden box which works as an amplifier
Adjacent to the atelier is the technical department, as well as Mathias Buttet’s office. He heads Confrérie Horlogère Hublot and is given a free hand to be creative.
Above: Mathias Buttet
I found some of the work done by BNB before hard to comprehend but after speaking with Mr Buttet and seeing some of the works in progress I have changed my mind. Mr Buttet is a great technical mind, even if some of his ideas are not to everyone’s tastes. But one project in particular which takes inspiration from something of long, long ago, is quite amazing; that will be launched in mid-2011 or so.
This message has been edited by SJX on 2011-04-03 04:17:35