Mr Ricardo Guadalupe, CEO of Hublot, in his first visit to India, spoke to LuxuryVolt about what’s next for Hublot in 2015, including the Hublot Ferrari Watch 2015. Mr Ricardo was here, in New Delhi to announce Hublot 2015 tie up with ICC for Cricket World Cup to be held in Australia and New Zealand.
Q) Hublot has ticked two very important boxes for a watch company, aiming to reach out to young achievers. You’ve managed to enhance the brand’s popularity with Hublot as FIFA World Cup time keeper in 2014 and now the second most popular sport in the world, Cricket for ICC Cricket world cup 2015. You already have a Cricket World cup champion, team member Harbhajan Singh, as your brand ambassador. Great achievement for Hublot 2015
Ricardo: “Hublot likes to be different and unique in what we do. Being FIFA World Cup’s official time keeper has been huge for Hublot from an international perspective. India, is a good market and here as a religion, Cricket is the answer. So we decided to enter this sport to increase brand awareness and to talk to people. We will be getting Bhajji his own watch, too. It will happen.
Q) India showed good growth as a luxury watch market, last year. Hublot has been serving customers in India via a few points of sale for several years. However, there is no Hublot stand-alone boutique in India, yet.
Ricardo: Not Yet. To set up a Hublot Boutique, there is some kind of timing. At the moment we have 70 boutiques, in the world. It’s a matter of possibilities. In India, if you are going to do a boutique it will be in the best shopping mall. Probably, I visited DLF Emporio, yesterday but to be there, you need good location and someone’s already in the location. In the next 2 years we will have a stand-alone boutique in India.
Q) In Asia & Middle East region, which are the top five markets for Hublot?
Ricardo: It is not China for us. For all other brands it is China, not for Hublot. We are a young brand founded in 1980. But last 10 years have been big for Hublot. We are still building our brand in China. I would say Japan first and then Singapore. India would be on around 7th position.
Q) New year is around the corner and so are the big watch fairs. What plans have you already chalked out for 2015, for Hublot?
Ricardo: 2014 has been a year of Football. 2015 will be year of Cricket. We will do a ‘Big Bang Tour’ because we want to show that we have a lot of watch making substance. We are building a second factory and doubling our capacity. So we want to show our own chronograph movements UNICO, our own complications, Tourbillons, Minute repeaters, our own materials. We want to show people that Hublot is not just about tie ups with Ferrari but we also have our own watch making art.
Q) What should we look forward to, at BaselWorld, from Hublot?
Ricardo: At BaselWorld 2015 , we will introduce new Ferrari edition with new material. This will be a mix between carbon and gold. A fusion of the two. So there will be a Hublot Ferrari Watch 2015, soon. We will also have a new complication like the moon phase and day date in the classic fusion collection. We are also introducing a new material for ladies watches. It’s gonno be fantastic.
To take a closer look at the Cricket World Cup 2015 Hublot Watch, click here
*Images: Hublot, Shilpa Dhamija
