Presented as a world first in 2011, and exclusive to Hublot, Magic Gold remains the only scratch-resistant 18K gold alloy. Developed in partnership with EPFL (the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne), it is the hardest gold in the world. While “standard” 18K gold has a resistance of 400 Vickers and hardened steel is rated at 600 Vickers, Hublot’s patented Magic Gold comes close to 1,000 Vickers. For this material entirely produced in-house thanks to a high-tech foundry installed in the Hublot Manufacture in Nyon, the complex manufacturing process sees boron carbide and 24K gold “fuse” into Magic Gold. In addition to its scratch-resistant nature, Magic Gold has an original golden hue that makes it immediately recognisable.

Materials are essential design attributes at Hublot, both for their aesthetic and their technical qualities. The Manufacture has thus developed a high-tech ceramic to shape its cases and bezels. Simultaneously strong, light and fashionable, this hard and scratch-resistant (except by diamond) material is made from zirconium fired at very high temperatures. As a pioneer in the field for over 15 years, Hublot has been exploring the exceptional properties of this anti-allergic, inalterable and stainless material, and uses unique procedures to develop bright ceramic colours - scarlet red, and royal blue - that have never before been obtained.

Although Hublot did not invent the sapphire watch, it was the first to master its industrialisation. This ultra-sophisticated material, which offers transparency, radiance and robustness, is in fact extremely demanding to produce. The challenge lies in how to produce sapphires of a large size, with a perfectly homogenous hue and faultless transparency. Hublot’s engineers and chemists thus developed a synthetic sapphire with unique aesthetic properties. Having become expert in sapphire after making a significant investment, the Manufacture can today produce hundreds of watches in sapphire on an annual basis and regularly creates new colours – black, yellow, blue, or even pink – while developing exclusive procedures in its laboratories.

"More watchmaking, more mastery, more innovation, more audacity, more fusion!" Under the impetus of Jean-Claude Biver, Hublot integrated a new department dedicated to complications to its Manufacture in 2010. The watches created in this laboratory are produced in very limited series and obey no codes. In their conception and their design, real freedom of expression is the order of the day. Perfectly in keeping with this ideal, in 2013, the MP-02 Key of Time demonstrated Hublot’s innovative approach in the field of watches with complications. This ultra-modern creation proposed setting and indicating the time according to one’s desires. Made in a series of 30 pieces in titanium or King Gold, the MP-02 Key of Time houses a mechanical memory movement that enables the wearer to modulate the speed of the hours and minutes as appropriate, via a crown with three positions. In its first position, the hands slow down, with an hour being displayed like quarter-hour. In the second position, the speed of the hands remains normal. And in the third, the hands accelerate, with a quarter-hour being displayed like an hour – to make moments last longer or shorter, or simply to follow the course of normal time.