Close Up: Hublot’s Classic Fusion Skeleton Haute Joaillerie
Today we’re taking a close up look at a Haute Joaillerie piece unveiled by Hublot at BaselWorld 2013. From its openworked dial to its strap, this skeleton tourbillon movement timepiece is covered with 1185 baguette diamonds specifically sourced from Yakutsk in Russia’s Eastern Siberia.
The Classic Fusion Skeleton Haute Joaillerie watch was developed and produced at the Hublot Manufacture workshops, allowing the brand’s craftsmen to demonstrate their mastery of traditional joaillerie. For example, the three rows of baguette diamonds (comprised of 322 stones with a total weight of 17.39 carats) which form the elegant design of the case required 1800 hours of cutting, plus 200 hours of dimensional checking and quality control by a team of fifteen.
The specs of this watch read like a labor of love, knowing how much work went into each detail; the bezel has 120 diamonds weighing (for a total of 5.77 carats), the case middle has 122 diamonds (for a total of 7.24 carats), the two end-pieces have 66 diamonds (for a total of 3.77 carats), the crown has 24 diamonds (for a total of 0.61 carats), and the openworked dial has 62 baguette diamonds (for a total of 2.31 carats). Finally the bracelet, which took a team of twenty-five 2300 hours of cutting, plus 300 hours of dimensional checking and quality control, features an astounding 791 baguette diamonds.
From stone-setting to machining, polishing, and rhodium-plating, the assembly of this watch took craftsmen from nine different fields just over 4 months to create. Because of that tremendous complexity, only eight pieces of this remarkable model will be produced.
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The Hublot Classic Fusion Skeleton Haute Joaillerie is reference 505.WX.9000.LR. Photos courtesy Hublot.
