RUBBER SOUL

WHEN IT COMES TO FUNCTIONALITY, NOTHING BEATS THE COMFORT OF A WELL-MADE RUBBER WATCH STRAP.

- LUKE BENEDICTUS

BLAME IT ON FETISH CLUBS, swimming caps or mud-splattered gumboots. But rubber (and its ilk), it's fair to say, hasn't always enjoyed the most debonair of reputations.

And, for many years, that bothered luxury watch brands, whose livelihoods depend on creating products that convey a sense of tangible opulence. More specifically, this mindset influenced their choice of watch straps, encouraging them to stick with the gentlemanly associations of leather, the utilitarian sheen of the metal bracelet or the old-school military vibe of the trusty old NATO strap.

The fearless disruptor in this space was the Swiss watch brand Hublot that launched in 1980 with an attention-grabbing product. Founder Carlo Crocco unveiled a watch that melded two materials in an unlikely combination. The case of the Hublot Classic Fusion ticked all the upmarket boxes through being hewn from 18k yellow-gold. But where this precious-metal timepiece subverted the status quo was by arriving on a black rubber strap.