Hublot’s recent triumph at the Red Dot Design Awards reminds us that there is more to a good watch than movements and finishing. Hublot won the Red Dot Award for Product Design for the “ingenuity and exceptional design,” of the MP-10 Tourbillon Weight Energy System (we like to call this watch the MP-10 WEST. Cast your eyes over any assortment of watches and you might wonder why the designs are not more compelling.

By way of contrast, this most recent Hublot MP-10 (it debuted this year at the LVMH Watch Week in Miami) easily stands apart. Of course, the watch is an incredible technical innovation, daring to challenge that most sacred of mechanical watchmaking cows, the automatic winding system.

The Red Dot award itself likely does not pay too much attention to the horological thinking behind the Hublot MP-10 WEST. More likely than not, the fact that this watch features no dial and no hands, and is not round, makes it the perfect timepiece for the Red Dot jury. Watches, especially precious ones, need not be slaves to utility and utilitarian aesthetics. Nor do they need to break out the flash, despite being very exclusive.

Hublot has already demonstrated an advanced understanding of what watch buyers want, and the brand is no stranger to success at the Red Dot Awards; the Big Bang Meca-10 Magic Gold took home the Best of the Best award in 2017. A good part of Hublot’s winning aesthetics formula is on show with the MP-10 WEST, which is a radically different watch to the 2017 winner. Indeed, it is quite different from anything out there besides exotic winding systems employed by Corum and Moritz Grossmann.

Red Dot itself has not said much about the winners this year, with some news on the subject being embargoed till August. We look forward to reading more about what the judges thought of the MP-10 WEST, especially its not-inconsiderable dimensions; the watch clocks in at more than 54mm in length, which is effectively the lug-to-lug distance, and we imagine this will make the watch difficult to wear. We have not seen this watch in person, at The Hour Glass, or at any of the trade shows. A limited series of 50, the MP-10 WEST is more of a statement piece than anything else.

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