HUBLOT REINVENTS ITS MP-10 TOURBILLON WEIGHT ENERGY SYSTEM WITH TWO NEW CASES IN SAPPHIRE AND BLACK CERAMIC
Three years. This is how long it has taken to construct and deliver the first 50 pieces of the original MP-10 Tourbillon Weight Energy System. Three years in which this veritable watchmaking UFO has remained not only unsurpassed, but unrivalled. And with good reason: with no dial, no hands, and not even an oscillating weight, the piece boasts a roller display, a circular power reserve, and regulation via a tourbillon inclined at 35° with automatic winding by two linear weights. More than a watch, it is a manifesto which fuses the past, present and future of Haute
Horology in a single piece: first, unique and different.
Yet, Hublot has once again decided to give its MP-10 Tourbillon Weight Energy System a fresh boost. Two new limited editions propel it even further ahead of any would-be rivals. Since its movement has already been perfected, the Manufacture has been redesigning its exterior. Originally made from titanium, the piece has now been complemented with two other versions: one in black ceramic, the other in sapphire.
These choices are no coincidence, as both materials are deeply inscribed in Hublot’s DNA. The Manufacture has been a pioneer in the use of ceramic, in all its forms and colours. And different forms are something that the MP-10 Tourbillon is not lacking. It does not have a single right angle. Unusually complex, its geometry is designed to embrace a double sapphire crystal which offers a completely unobstructed view of the two linear weights. The colour of the black version, limited to 50 pieces, was chosen for its faithfulness to the spirit of the original MP-10 Tourbillon Weight Energy System – and as a nod to the All-Black series which Hublot also pioneered.
To complement this, common sense would have dictated offering a colour similar to black, a more measured hue. This was too obvious a choice for Hublot. For its avant-garde collectors, something bolder, more radical: the second MP-10 Tourbillon Weight Energy System is even more strictly limited (to just 30 pieces) and diametrically opposed to the first. The piece is clad entirely in light grey and immaculate white inside a translucent sapphire case, sitting on a bracelet which is also translucent. To counter the dark intensity of the MP-10 Tourbillon Weight Energy System All Black, Hublot presents a pure, celestial MP-10 Tourbillon Weight Energy System Sapphire.
This decision was as much aesthetic as technical. Thanks to the sapphire, another material that Hublot has mastered in all its chromatic variations, the MP-10 Tourbillon Weight Energy System is flooded with light. Its extraordinary movement, with its 592 components, is revealed. Truly sculptural, the MP-10 Tourbillon has no hands. In their place are four constantly rotating displays: the hours and minutes in the upper third of the dial, combined with an invisible magnifying glass; the circular power reserve in the central third, which has three very clear zones in green, orange and red for the 48 hours it is counting down; and the seconds in the lower third, which are indicated directly on the tourbillon cage. This open mechanism has been finished in satin-brushed metal grey to accentuate its mechanical prowess, like the engine of a supercar visible through its rear hood.
“Fusing substance and form, aesthetics and technology, is quite simply part of our DNA”, concludes Julien Tornare, CEO of Hublot. “We do not think in terms of versions but rather approach each of our new pieces as a genuinely new development – and these two new MP-10 Tourbillon Weight Energy System models are no exception. Developing cases in black ceramic and 100% translucent sapphire, in these proportions and with this geometry, was much more than a stylistic exercise. It is a true feat of watch engineering. It has enabled us to take these two MP-10 Tourbillon models to new heights. And as is always the case at Hublot, this is only the next step… on the path to new heights”.
