ven though I was already very familiar with the brand, I’m still learning. But above all, I didn’t hang around before initiating change!” Having taken up the reins of Hublot in September 2024 after several years with Zenith and a brief stint at TAG Heuer within the LVMH Group, Julien Tornare embodies a real break for the brand, which through two decades had experienced a certain continuity, between its global breakthrough in the early 2000s, led apace by Jean-Claude Biver, then the leadership of his protégé, Ricardo Guadalupe.

If we were to cite the major horological successes of the 21^st century, “Hublot would certainly be among them, because everything it did was disruptive, from its creations to its touchpoints: when I worked for other brands, I was forever saying, ‘Another stunt by Hublot, how do they do it!’ For example, they were the first to remove the glass from the showcases in sales outlets,”, says Julien Tornare. But for the CEO, the brand runs the risk that inevitably goes hand in hand with permanent stunt-staging: that over the years, it’s going to become the norm.

Enter the “Hublotistas”

One example is the advertising campaigns, a reflection of brand image. They “have to surprise again”. In everything it does, Hublot has to be “different from the others”. Because if the brand becomes “normalised”, it won’t gain ground. “So, you’re going to say to me: it’s easier to be disruptive in marketing than in production. No, I disagree! And the first thing to do is to approach our community of passionate supporters, the Hublotistas.”

Shortly after his arrival, Julien Tornare sent an email to all the members of this community inviting them to meetings in a world tour which has taken him, and will continue to take him, to virtually every continent – meetings that can take the form either of intimate meals with five people or events with several hundreds of people. “When we travel, we usually meet the press or retailers. That has to change. It’s very important to reach out directly to the end customer, even for the head of a large brand. The smaller, independent brands realised that a long time ago.”

Determined as ever to step outside the box

On the watchmaking circuit, there are rational brands and emotional brands. Hublot clearly belongs to the latter. If it becomes too rational, it risks losing its identity: “I want to invoke the more emotional aspect of the brand and art is a perfect vehicle for that. Our collaborations with Samuel Ross and Daniel Arsham on watches or extraordinary objects are magnificent examples. Another essential, emotional vector is music. We intend to go back down that path in a big way and recreate a Hublot vibe.”

Over the years, this emotional and deliberately provocative aspect of the brand has attracted not only a community of passionate aficionados but also one of haters, an effect amplified by the social media. “I didn’t react antagonistically. I invite them too and listen to them, because we have things to learn. We’re generally very highly rated marketing-wise, but we also need to promote our purely horological legitimacy, because we’re also the kings of R&D!”

This legitimacy reposes on several pillars: the Unico founding movement, of course, and the Meca-10, presented early this year with its smaller, 42mm diameter, but also the continuing research into materials with, for the first time, multicoloured ceramic. “And Hublot will go on striving to be different, taking risks. I want to go on hearing people say: ‘Only they’d dare do that’.” For the 20th anniversary of the Big Bang, the model which perhaps best embodies the brand’s singularity, Hublot is again determined to step outside the box.