SpotlightThat Wintry Feeling: The Hublot Classic Fusion High Jewellery 42mm White Gold

Swiss watchmakers Hublot produce sports watches and jewellery watches with equal dexterity. The official timekeeper for FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, Premier League, UEFA, and such great sporting events, also manufacture sparkling stone-set iterations. Prominent Hublot collections have select bejewelled iterations issued under the tag, ‘High Jewellery’ that showcase the same calibre, functions, and features as the mainline editions of the the said collection. There’s the Big Bang Unico High Jewellery, Spirit of Big Bang High Jewellery, and Classic Fusion High Jewellery. Now extending the Classic Fusion line—usually known for its dress and chronograph watches—is the Classic Fusion High Jewellery 42mm White Gold, which appears reminiscent to a lush forest of icicles catching the pale winter light in cold climes.

An Exercise In Patience: Hublot High Jewellery

The Classic Fusion High Jewellery 42mm White Gold iteration goes steps further than its predecessors in the realm of diamond watches. There’s the Classic Fusion Aerofusion Titanium Pavé iteration featured diamonds on the bezel, case, and lugs; the Bang Bang Unico Titanium and Spirit of Big Bang High Jewellery had diamonds even on the hour markers and outline of sub-dials. In the 2023 Classic Fusion White Gold iteration, with a total of 431 baguette-cut diamonds collectively weighing 14.6 carat, covers the fully-paved dial, raised baton indexes, raised bezel, 42mm case, broad lugs, and even the deployant buckle. Work of hands, it takes 120 hours to set the dial in neat concentric circles with 241 diamonds. The bezel features 60 diamonds, and the case in white gold features 94 diamonds. Overall, it takes 200 hours to meticulously pave each model of the Classic Fusion High Jewellery watch.

The three-handed watch features pencil-shaped hour and minute hands, and a slim seconds hand with the Hublot logo as a small counterweitght. A faint imprint of the logo also figures on the transparent sapphire crystal glass protecting the ‘iced’ dial.

The Devil Is In The Details

Hublot design their watches from scratch, including the movements. The Classic Fusion White Gold iteration runs on the HUB1710 calibre, a self-winding movement that beats at 28,800vph and offers upto 50 hours of power reserve. Glimpses of the calibre, 27 jewels and H-shaped screws on the lugs are the notable sightings on the reverse. The watch comes attached to a black rubber-lined alligator strap with the buckle encrusted with 36 diamonds.