You know a watch brand is particularly proud of a piece when the movement is designed in what the industry calls an “architectural manner.” The idea is that the movement has decorative elements combined with technical ones to show off the abilities of the brand. A mere glance at the interesting and symmetrical dial of the Hublot King Power Tourbillon Manufacture and you realize that the movement designers had more than just mechanical efficiency in mind when making the watch.

In fact, this watch celebrates two important milestones for Hublot: the 30th anniversary of the brand and its ability to now make movements in house. A clever business decision allowed the brand to acquire talent from the now-defunct movement-making firm BNB Concept. For any brand, an in-house tourbillon movement is a big deal, but for Hublot, it was imperative for the brand’s future. The caliber HUB 6002 Tourbillon movement used in the King Power Tourbillon is all Hublot’s own—a journey that took about six years to complete.

The tourbillon movement is manually wound and has a long power reserve of 120 hours. The dial displays a smaller, off-centered watch dial, and equal focus is given to the spinning tourbillon placed at six o’clock. Note the decorative column-style bridges that flank the watch dial and tourbillon. Set in a 48-mm-wide ceramic case, the King Power Tourbillon Manufacture watch continues the popular trend of modern watches being all black. In addition to the black ceramic, the timepiece has PVD black titanium, and black composite resin in its complex case construction.

In fact, Hublot’s CEO Jean-Claude Biver is noted as the conceiver of the all-black watch concept. For him, the operative term to explain the black-on-black aesthetic is “visible invisibility.” The clever term refers to the fact that onlookers notice all-black watches but cannot specifically identify the brand. The wearer alone is aware of the identity of the watch.

At Hublot, boldness is a way of life, and that feeling is represented ambitiously in most of its timepieces, and furthered by having designs that speak as loudly as the people who wear them. In the coming years, Hublot will introduce an exciting collection of marquee watches with complex and attractive in-house movements. The seminal piece is this watch, containing the accumulated focus of the brand’s rich character with technical merits that most discriminating watch buffs seek out.

$160,000 | Limited to 30 pieces
www.hublot.com