Summering On Your Yacht? Hublot and Richard Mille Open Seaside Boutiques

By Valerie Jack | July 1, 2013

Summer is officially here, and two luxury watchmakers are celebrating la dolce vita with new port-side boutiques. Hublot and Richard Mille both opened boutiques in the prestigious village of Porto Cervo in Sardinia, Italy. Every year the tiny seaside village of Porto Cervo, whose Hotel Cala di Volpe featured in the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, swells far beyond its regular population of just two hundred. With some of the most expensive hotels and houses in Europe, the Marina Di Porto Cervo has become a favorite destination for large luxury yacht-owners. Now the village has two new attractions with the opening of the Hublot and Richard Mille boutiques. Here’s the rundown:

Hublot has opened not one but two new boutiques in Porto Cervo, with one space in the Hotel Cala Di Volpe (where the presidential suite costs about US$32,700 a night) and another in the Harrods Prestige Village in the heart of Porto Cervo’s marina. In honor of these new boutiques the Swiss manufacture has installed a large Hublot clock on the marina’s main pontoon to welcome the movie stars, millionaires and jetsetters who stop at Porto Cervo on their superyachts. The manufacture has also decked out the marina’s staff and sailors in Hublot colours, and decorated the “white tenders” (the small launches that welcome visitors onto the water each day) with the Hublot brand.

Ricardo Guadalupe, the CEO of Hublot, told us, “The Costa Smeralda is synonymous with quality, beauty, prestige, relaxation, joie de vivre, happiness and freedom. These are all qualities that we are aiming to perpetuate through our art. A Hublot watch is not created simply to display the time. Most importantly, it is an object displaying quality, beauty, prestige, relaxation, joie de vivre and happiness. This is why the partnership between Hublot and Costa Smeralda has such resonance!”

Meanwhile Richard Mille is also celebrating its first season in Sardinia with a space in Harrods. The manufacture, which also has a London boutique located in Harrods’ Fine Watch Room, has a new 50 square meter boutique which showcases Richard Mille’s tourbillons and limited editions (like the rare RM 003 Boutique Special Edition and a unique RM 016 White Gold with a geometric patterned case). Also worth noting: the new RM 11-01 Roberto Mancini Flyback Chronograph and the RM 39-01 Automatic Aviation E6-B will be on view, the only place these timepieces can be seen.