LaFerrari, Neo Antikythera, and interview with
Mathias Buttet - Part 1
I had an opportunity to meet and handle
these novelties and to interview Mr. Buttet again. I had great
times on both occasions and I hope you do,
too.
Part 1. Interview with Mr. Buttet on
LaFerrari:
I am pretty sure that I have
spent the longest time with this "machine" alone so far, except for
Hublot staff Sorry, everyone!
KIH: It's not been such a long time (the
last interview was held in November, 2012 - read here: hublot.watchprosite.com
), but how do you feel about visiting Japan for the third
time?
Mathias
Buttet ("MB"): Well, I am always impressed with the beauty of the
ladies, kindness of the people, cleanliness of the street, and most of
all, the delicious foods anywhere. The more I visit here, the
more I want to visit again and
again.
KIH: Let me ask you about LaFerrari
today. Hublot and Ferrari, which proposed this watch
first?
MB: I am
quite often asked that question, but the honest truth is
"neither". You see, Hublot has the right to make watches with
"Ferrari" name and logo on them anytime it wants. It means
that, technically speaking, Hublot could make and sell this watch
without consulting Ferrari. But in this case, when we heard
about Ferrari's LaFerrari, we thought we wanted to do something
together. Also, coincidentally, the development of the long
power reserve mechanism was almost finished and we thought it would be a
good idea to use that mechanism as the "core" of this special
watch.
KIH: Tell us a
bit about your experiences working with the Ferrari
team.
MB:
Obviously, they cannot make comments or suggestion on the movement
inside the watch, but their design team certainly gave us comments about
the appearance and how the inside should "look". For example,
the red color used in this watch is exactly the "Ferrari
Red". You might think that we could get the ink from Ferrari,
but Ferrari cars are painted many times, thus makes the body "thick"
while the watch movement is a very small world and we do not have luxury
to tolerate such "thickness". So, we had to come up with the
way to make the color in the alternative way by ourselves.
Ferrari team is very happy with this
coloring.
Hour/Minutes
adjustment is done via the screw on the left hand side of the back of
the watch. Unfortunately, the tool did not accompany the watch
this time.
50
days worth of winding is done via this screw - with special "winch" or
"drilling gun look-alike", which did not come this time
either.
MB: I also
found the similarity and the difference between the two
industries. The similarity between auto industry and watch
industry is that R&D team and Design team do not invade their
respective territories. Engine development team comes up with
the new engine, and the Design team creates the surroundings.
Movement development team - my team - develops a new movement, and our
design team comes up with the outside design. And, the
difference is very obvious - auto has a lot more "room" to play and
implement the new ideas about the car while watch has far more
restriction - the space inside the watch - and it is not easy to design
freely. One thing, though, I also have known is that watch
industry is at least 15 years behind the auto industry in terms of the
"new materials".
MB: But this time, when I showed Ferrari team this
color ceramic, they were very interested and impressed. As an
engineer, I was so proud. Sure, there were colored ceramic
before but they were all dark color and this is the first time to make
ceramic with vivid colors. Although the mass production is not
ready yet, I expect this to be utilized in not only the watch industry
but also in any other
industries.
KIH: How
did Ferrari team react when they saw this watch for the first
time?
MB: It
was "Wow! Cool!". Of course they later gave us
various useful suggestions on the outside design, but not
many. Even for me, it is very common to think "Damn!
I should have done like this or that" after finishing the watch, but
this watch did not let me think so. I was quite comfortable
and happy with what it is now - very well balanced, everything is put in
the right place - I think this one will not let people get
tired.
KIH: Why did you want to make 50-day
power reserve movement to begin with?
MB: I have made 31 days power reserve watch
- BNB made it for Jacob's Quenttin - and I heard someone was trying to
make 40 days power reserve movement and I thought 50 would be better
than 40 as a number Seriously, when I came up with this movement
design, 11 barrels could fit in it - so 5 days for each barrel and with 5
day worth possible power loss (due to friction), 50-day power reserve
was made possible. Even 5 days for each barrel is quite long
for the conventional watch making. We made this mechanism as
torque-efficient as possible and we could achieve such efficient
machine.
KIH: What
was the most difficult part in the development of this
movement?
MB:
There are many. But the most difficult task was to use the
power built up in all the barrels equally. As opposed to many
people may think, 11 barrels DO release power AT THE SAME TIME, NOT one
by one. 11 barrels must end at the same time - this was where I
had to use my brain most. This contributes to the very long
time stable torque and thus reliability and accuracy of the watch.
KIH: Three years have passed since you
joined Hublot. Do you notice any change in Hublot and/ or
yourself since you joined the brand?
MB: Well, not necessarily because of me,
but Hublot is now a "manufacteur". It was buying movement from
outside, but now it has capability to make its own movement.
As for me, I have become more "kid" and now I am only interested in what
nobody has done before. I want to focus more on the new
materials, more "first", not only in the watch industry but also in the
world. And I also want to challenge more on the complicated
movements. Although I can't say too much, I have just finished
the movement with more than 4,500 parts. When the time comes,
it will be revealed. Can't say if it's for the wrist,
either.....
KIH: 4,500
parts? Wow.... Looking forward to such a monster to
be revealed sooner rather than later. Thank you very much for
your time today.
MB: It is always the
pleasure.
Now, Let's take a look at this
"machine".....
On the
right is Hour/Minute, on top being "hour" and the bottom being
"minute". On the left hand side is the power reserve meter - 5
day meter (5, 15, 25, ...) on top and 10 day meter (0, 10, 20, 30....)
on the bottom.
Eleven
barrels.
Backside has the engine-like beams.
CG by
Hublot. The last one has no "stopper".
The
center plate is titanium - not exactly the "base plate" but something
like that for this movement.
As you can see, the movement parts
are put horizontally while the conventional movement parts are normally
put vertically - only way to have many barrels.
Wrist
shots!
Big,
but cool profile.
Even
the buckle is made curvy.....
A
touch of carbon like LaFerrari body....
It's
1:46
And
the power reserve has about 5 days left.
...
and 15 second....
Slightly curved back makes the watch wear quite
comfortably.
Some of the specifications:
Number of parts: 637
Number of jewels: 108
V.P.H: 21,600
Power Reserve: Approx. 50 days (1,200 hours)
Ref #: 905.ND.0001.RX
LE: 50 - unfortunately. all have been spoken for, most of which have been "sold" even without seeing one. Waiting list is getting longer.....
==============================================================
Thank
you very much:
Mr. Mathias Buttet, R&D
Director, Hublot S.A.
Ms. Kitty Kano (technical translator)
Ms.
Nakai, Hublot Japan
Hope you enjoyed the
watch and interview as I did!
End of Part
1
This message has been edited by KIH on 2013-08-10 08:51:47 This message has been edited by MTF on 2013-08-10 20:08:45 This message has been edited by KIH on 2013-08-10 20:46:58 This message has been edited by KIH on 2013-08-19 18:45:46