Hublot tapped Time+Tide to present their 2024 novelties at an exclusive Sydney event – here’s how it went down
Jamie WeissIt’s weird to think that it’s a month since we were in Geneva for Watches and Wonders – to be honest, I’ve only just recovered. Over our whirlwind week in the watchmaking capital of the world, we covered over 65 different brands and well over 300 watches (if my maths is correct, and I think it is), but a personal highlight for me was my visit to the Hublot manufacture in Nyon, just outside of Geneva. I was deeply impressed with the calibre of Hublot’s watchmaking and had the chance to see some parts of the watchmaking process few outsiders get to, such as Hublot’s R&D labs and their gem-setting atelier.
Last night, I was lucky enough to share what I saw at the home of Hublot with Australian watch fans, hosting an event at Hublot’s Sydney boutique where the Hublot team and I presented the brand’s 2024 Watches and Wonders novelties. I took Sydney’s biggest Hublot aficionados through the same tour I experienced, focusing particularly on the Unico movement, Hublot’s ceramics, Magic Gold and sapphire watches.
Without being too much of a tease, if you want to see what I shared on the night, you’ll have to subscribe to @timetidetribe and sit tight. What I can share today is that the new novelties were a hit with those there on the night: as a watch journalist, it’s such a pleasure seeing watch fans discover new releases in the metal (or ceramic, or sapphire…) for the first time and observing their reactions in real-time.
“The 2024 Watches and Wonders collection was well received and the night a success,” Joël Ruiz, Brand Director for Hublot Australia & New Zealand relates. “We are very pleased to have celebrated this launch with the Sydney watch community as well as with our friends from Time+Tide.”
If you missed out on this Hublot event and you’ve got a bit of FOMO, don’t fret. We here at Time+Tide plan on hosting more of these events throughout the year so that our community can get acquainted with the hottest new watch releases. It’s thanks to you that we’re in a position to do these sorts of things, and we want to be able to return the favour by bringing cool watches to you.
Studio Underd0g’s transatlantic pizza party success
Speaking about bringing cool watches to you – or should I say hand-delivering watches to you? The Studio Underd0g x Time+Tide Hand Delivered continues to be a massive success, with Studio Underd0g founder Richard Benc having just wrapped up another two extremely successful “Pizza Parties” in both the UK and the US, off the back of our successful joint Pizza Party by Lake Geneva during Watches and Wonders and another hit showing in Leeds.
Last night, Richard held a Pizza Party in Oxford during a RedBar get-together that went down a treat, and earlier this month, he had a particularly successful one during the 2024 Windup Watch Fair San Francisco. Windup San Fran was the US market’s first taste of Pizza, and they loved it, with the Studio Underd0g team selling pretty much the same number of Hand Delivered watches at the event as they did during their mega-successful British Watchmakers’ Day event earlier in the year.
“WindUp San Francisco was bonkers,” Richard tells Time+Tide. “I got to chat with thousands of passionate enthusiasts and was pretty clear to see that the people of San Francisco were pretty keen to get their hands on our pizza watches!”
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Here’s some interesting stats for you: 62% of pizza watch sales at the San Fran event were pepperoni, with the rest being Hawaiian. Read into that what you will… The real test will come when Studio Underd0g takes the Pizza Party to Chicago for Windup’s Chicago fair from the 12th to the 14th of July. Here’s some free advice, Rich: rubber band the two together and sell them as a “deep dish bundle”. You can thank me later. Find out the full Pizza Party schedule here.
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Jamie and the Time+Tide Team
Watch meme of the week: popping it open
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Mechanical watches and mechanical computer mice: both are outdated technologies, but at least one of them is actually nice to use.
Wrist shot of the week: a surprisingly un-cursed combination
Zach sent me this wrist shot earlier this week of a Furlan Marri Salmon Flyback on a Baltic “beads of rice” bracelet… And you know what? It actually works. Normally I’m not a fan of mixing and matching watch heads with another brand’s bracelet, but this might just be the exception.
Time+Tide Shop pick of the week: Studio Underd0g x Time+Tide Hand Delivered Merch
While you need to find Richard or Andrew in person (or head to our Melbourne Discovery Studio) to get your hands on a pizza watch – no online deliveries for those I’m afraid – you can snap up some of the exclusive merch we made to celebrate our collaboration online. Just as there are two flavours of the Hand Delivered, this merch capsule collection encompasses two options: a hoodie and a t-shirt. Both feature a common design, a cream-and-red colour scheme inspired by the colour of the Hand Delivered’s tachymeter scale and are made from quality blanks (the hoodie is a heavy-weight 400 GSM fleece, great for winter).
The Studio Underd0g x Time+Tide Hand Delivered t-shirt retails for A$55 and the hoodie retails for A$129. Both are available from the Time+Tide Shop or our Melbourne Discovery Studio. Find out more about the merch (and the watches) at the Time+Tide Shop here.
Our favourite Time+Tide coverage of the week
The Time+Tide team picks the one watch brand they would wear for life
Months back, we played a multiple-choice game on Instagram with you all to see which one watch brand you would wear for life – we even reacted to your selections here in part one and again in part two. But, we realized that we never offered up our team picks. The curtain is now lifted: here are the watch brands our editorial team would be willing to commit to for life.
A. Lange & Söhne trip the light fantastic with the Datograph Perpetual Tourbillon Lumen
Last year at Watches and Wonders, A. Lange & Söhne released only one watch: the Odysseus Chronograph. This year, the German brand doubled its output with a whopping two watches! One of those watches, however, was a particular statement: the Datograph Perpetual Tourbillon Honeygold Lumen. This lengthily-named piece ranks as one of the most complicated watches the esteemed German brand has ever produced, both technically and aesthetically: read what I thought about this terrific timepiece here.
Why independent brands were the big winners of Only Watch 2024
We finally got there. Late last week, the 10th edition of the much-anticipated Only Watch charity auction finally took place, with 47 lots donated by 52 brands going under the hammer, ultimately raising CHF 28.3 million for research into Duchenne muscular dystrophy. It’s great to see so much money raised for charity, and while we will leave the discussion around the financials to others, we love to see the creativity shown in the watches produced for the auction. Personally, I think it’s really interesting to see how much some watches from independent brands ended up going for, with a lot of love shown for small indies in particular. Here’s who we thought were the “big winners” of Only Watch 2024 (other than charity, of course).