The Geneva brand Hublot pulled out all the stops for its invited guests on June 18th at the sumptuous Parc de Bagatelle in Paris. The occasion was a society event to celebrate the launch of a limited series of its popular watch, the Big Bang, baptized ‘Polo de Paris’. If the product were an eau de toilette for men, we would certainly partake of the lovely scents of fresh cut grass and tanned leather. But in this case, it was a back ceramic watch measuring 44.5 mm in diameter, available only in a series of 50 numbered pieces—a beautiful object, virile, with a rubber strap, sporty, chic and expensive at Euros 11,900 each.
So Polo it was. Did you know that a polo field is as large as six soccer fields? The Bagatelle site certainly fit the bill. On June 18th, at the initiative of Hublot and its partners, the world’s best polo players—the Argentineans—faced off for the first time outside of their country during a game that was rather appropriately billed as the ‘Perfect Match’.



Two teams, Los Granaderos and Los Patricios, each made up of four riders sporting their caps, kneepads, and mallets—to hit the hard little plastic ball—battled for an hour on the vast field. Los Granaderos had the winning score, 11 goals to 10. No one dared suspect that the outcome was fixed but we couldn’t help notice that one of the players on the winning team was Miguel Novillo, Hublot’s ‘ambassador’ for the brand’s ‘Big Bang Polo de Paris’.”
With all its obvious symbolism, this match marked a sort of pinnacle for Hublot, which has been owned by the French luxury group LVMH since 2008, but brought back to life—like many other brands before it—by the Swiss Jean-Claude Biver. “We produce between 25,000 and 30,000 pieces a year and our turnover has grown from CHF 25 million to 250 million,” proudly explained Juliane Robert-Grandpierre, the brand’s PR and Event Manager. To become associated with polo was therefore quite natural. “Hublot projects an image that is youthful, sporty, and dynamic,” added Juliane, “and polo conveys an image that is also splendid—modern, luxurious, sexy, and glamorous.” This new watch reveals the man that you are—the horse, the stallion, that burns inside of you.
Accompanied by a very beautiful woman, the Michelin three-star chef, Guy Savoy, chef of the Parisian restaurant that bears his name on the Rue Troyon in the 17th arrondissement, attended the event at the invitation of his “very good friend” Jean-Claude Biver, who himself was detained in Switzerland. Biver and Savoy share not only a taste for excellent things, they are also both from the Swiss canton of Vaud, which naturally gives them a common bond. The chef, of French nationality, however, explained, “All the Savoys comme from Attalens,” a small commune situated on the road to the high mountains. “The only sport that I participated in was rugby, in Bourgoin Jailleux, in the Isère.” There, it is very much like the Argentine Pampa, the region where polo ponies are raised. Those that came to the Polo de Paris are of the ‘Criollo Argentino’ race according to a young man, himself Argentinean, wearing a large woollen hat called a ‘boina’ that seemed to be a compromise between a Basque beret and a rasta hat.



The event’s organizers had the good idea to bring Argentinean wines for their celebrity guests—among whom was a young French film star and television personalities, etc. Of the wines that could be sampled were: a Piedra Negra, an exquisite red Malbec and an 1884, a robust white Viognier grape. Not to be drunk, though, before riding the horses.
Sitting on the sidelines of the polo field was Joël Blanc, an artist who uses watercolour to capture sports events ranging from Roland Garros to the Tour de France, and including popular soccer matches. With a few strokes of his paintbrush, Blanc immortalized the ballet of the socialites and the horses on his canvas. While the painting may last for eternity, the moments of the polo event inescapably passed quickly. As for me, I had to catch the Paris metro.


Source: Europa Star August-September 2009 Magazine Issue