Why Is Hublot So Hated by Watch Collectors? -

Watch collectors tend to have their favorites when it comes to watches, depending on their tastes. They have their preferences of movements, designs, and what they consider value for money. But there’s a nearly universally persistent, vocal dislike for Hublot watches in the community.

Watch collectors hate Hublot because they see the watches as needlessly expensive, poorly made with generic parts, and having unoriginal and gimmicky designs. Collectors also hate the brand because they believe it ignores the watchmaker’s tenets of heritage, quality, and reputation.

In this article, I’ll detail each of the factors that influence people’s dislike of these watches to explain why watch collectors hate Hublot so much.

Factors That Influence the Dislike of Hublot

The main factors that influence the dislike of Hublot are the designs, quality of make, value for the money, and the brand’s image. Let’s look at each one in more detail.

Designs

When it comes to design, Hublot has come by the unfortunate moniker of being unoriginal. Although Hublot was the first brand to introduce the rubber strap, the design for the Classic Fusion was heavily influenced by Audemars-Piguet.

Despite the brand’s efforts to focus on its USP – the rubber straps – and the fusion of materials from above and below ground – using both gold and rubber on the same watch – the unoriginality of the designs stained the brand.

The watch’s face, designed to look like a ship’s porthole, closely resembles Audemars-Piguet’s Royal Oak Jumbo Ref 5042ST, as well as the Patek Philippe Nautilus Ref 3700. Ever since, the brand hasn’t been able to escape the unoriginal tag, especially since many other watches it has released continue to borrow from AP.

Hublot’s modern designs have also been criticized for being gimmicky novelty pieces rather than wearable designs. They have a lot of limited edition watches as part of the multiple partnerships the brand has cultivated.

While the brand presents these limited editions as representative of the brand’s central ethos of the art of fusion, watch collectors disagree. Instead, these designs are seen as proof of the brand’s efforts to grab attention rather than build its reputation with well-designed watches.

Make Quality

A common criticism of Hublot is that the parts used are generic, and the finishing isn’t what would be expected from a luxury brand. Additionally, while the brand does have its in-house movements as any watchmaker worth their salt should, they’re not completely original and not used in all their watches.

The Unico movement developed by Hublot has been, but many of their watches function on modified Selita movements, which is bad form from a luxury watchmaker.

Learn more about the quality of movements in Hublot watches in this YouTube video by watch collectors Theo and Harris:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OEq1Ze-m-E

Hublot does refine some of the materials they use, like gold and ceramic, but the watchmaker does not mention the actual gears that keep their watches running. This is because all the parts are generic, and Hublot makes no further adjustments to them.

For a watchmaker, where the components are essential to functionality, this is a big indicator that they care for the form of their watches far more than the function. And this is one of the main reasons why Hublot is disliked as a brand.

Value for Money

Issues of design and movement wouldn’t be as much of a concern if Hublot didn’t present itself as a luxury brand.

But when it comes down to it, watch collectors expect a level of quality that includes well-thought-out designs, in-house movements, exclusive parts, and a certain refinement. Hublot relies heavily on the visual to grab the attention of watch collectors.

This isn’t a bad strategy since watch collectors are looking to collect interesting and unique pieces. But this means that they’re looking for unique movements and dials, which Hublot can’t provide because of the general unoriginality in their designs. Even when the designs are original, the workmanship isn’t up to the mark, making the watches a poor choice for any collector.

While watches from Hublot like the Big Bang or Classic Fusion may be perfectly serviceable for those who like the design, the price tag attached doesn’t line up with the quality of movement. The price tag in relation to the quality of components and movements makes some Rolex watches look like a bargain, which is hard to do.

Watch a full comparison of the Big Bang and Classic Fusion to other watches with similar or better movements by Bark and Jack on this YouTube video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPn_SYRP3rE

Brand Image

Reasons of design, quality, and value for money explain the general dislike, but the hate for Hublot boils down to the brand’s image.

Apart from the fact that hate for Hublot is so widespread that any new watch collector would be instantly exposed to it, the fact remains that Hublot is seen as the watch for the nouveau riche.

The impression among watch collectors is that the Hublot is loud and crass, a reputation that has developed due to the brand’s many collaborations and limited editions. The designs being as loud as they are and the combination of rubber and gold as part of Hublot’s ‘Art of Fusion’ ethos doesn’t help Hubolt’s case.

Hublot’s marketing strategies that attempt to appeal to people across bases have also not endeared them to watch collectors, especially with the brand’s focus on form rather than function.

Overall, Hublot is hated for marketing itself as a serious watchmaker when most collectors would set the brand aside as a manufacturer of overpriced fashion watches.

Final Thoughts

The main reason watch collectors hate Hublot is that the brand’s image has developed into a brand everyone loves to hate. Watch collectors have perfectly reasonable reasons to dislike the brand – the unoriginal, gimmicky designs, lack of attention to the quality of the parts, and price tag are all good reasons.

But Hublot also tries to woo customers without actively focusing on developing their reputation or heritage with good quality watchmaking, which is why watch collectors hate the brand.

Ultimately though this is just one opinion and if you love Hublot their is nothing wrong with that!