BASELNEWS 2011A unique piece: The 2 MILLION € BB
A secret project, the 2 MILLION € BB started life as a simple design hand-sketched around the table in Jean-Claude Biver's office at the Hublot stand at BaselWorld last year, as a "light-hearted confidential challenge" between Hublot's CEO and our master gemstone setters. Finished the day before BaselWorld 2011 opened, it would take no less than 12 months to bring this exceptional piece to life, made up of 637 baguette diamonds and a rose cut diamond on the crown, and featuring a Vendôme Tourbillon movement to appeal to lovers of fine watchmaking.
A tour de force of patience and perfection, it was a long process. It consisted firstly of bringing the gemstones together, selecting them one by one to achieve perfect uniformity in terms of purity and colour (the diamonds selected by Hublot are of a remarkable quality, with colour graded as TOP WESSELTON and clarity of A VVS), then cutting each of them to the technical designs of the piece, and finishing by patiently setting each of them in a "Clou de Paris" setting, an extremely meticulous process, taking the master gemstone setters 9 months. All the diamonds used in this watch come from the same mine, located in Yakutsk in the Russian Far East, on the same latitude as Beijing and a 9-hour flight from Moscow. More than 270 carats of rough diamonds were chosen from a lot of 1500 carats, and from these the stones used were selected. For about a month, the expert hands of 45 gemcutters worked hard to create 637 baguette diamonds, totalling just over 141 carats..
Today, at BASELWORLD 2011, the result is something which surpasses all expectations, a piece which crystallises the considerable creative and emotional investment, rendering it a true masterpiece, a perfect symbol of the fusion between jewellery and watchmaking. Before going on to achieve its ultimate destiny, as hinted at by the two little Vendôme columns on its dial which symbolise the most beautiful place in the world, the ultimate symbol of international luxury, the piece shall first go on display in the Hublot boutique at 10 Place Vendôme. A celebration of the creativity, ingenuity, skill, confidence, madness, perseverance and passion… needed to make the wildest dreams a reality.