Eyes On The Goal

As Hublot starts the countdown to the 2018 FIFA World Cup, candice chan looks back at their enduring relationship.

FEW MOMENTS ARE as emotionally charged as the victorious roar of a 50,000-strong crowd rallying behind a home team. And there in Krestovsky Stadium, we were right in the middle of it, witnessing the exciting first play-off of the FIFA Confederations Cup between host nation Russia and New Zealand, winners of the 2016 OFC Nations Cup. Seated among patriotic football fans young and old, and some 200m away from Russian president Vladimir Putin, everyone was in a deliriously heightened state of being as the score edged in favour of the Russians. This is what soccer does to people. And having been part of this soccer mania for some 11 years, Hublot fully understands the allure of the sport.

It seemed implausible that prior to 2006, soccer, the world’s most watched sport, had no links to any luxury brand. Tennis, golf and motorsports were supported by several big names “But in soccer — there was nobody,” as pointed out by Ricardo Guadalupe, CEO of Hublot. An opportune meeting between then-CEO (now President of LVMH Watch Division) Jean Claude Biver and Michel Pont, former assistant coach of the Swiss national football team, changed all that: In spite of Biver’s initial reticence, 2006 saw Hublot become the first watchmaker and luxury brand to enter the football stadium.

The alliance of two Swiss entities was a perfect union. In that same year, all 60 members of the Swiss team donned the Hublot Big Bang ASF (Association Suisse de Football) limited-edition watches when they went to Germany for the World Cup.