Hublot Antikythera Calibre 2033-CH01 Watch

One of the things I really appreciate about Hublot is that they don't do everything directly to sell watches. A lot of their events and projects are for charity or to further development in the horological world. Yes of course there is a branding element to each of these projects and it gets people write about the brand that might not otherwise cover a wrist watch story, but in the end it makes for a very dynamic Hublot.

I recently joined Hublot for the official unveiling of the Antikythera movement that Mathias Buttet worked on making for the last several years. In French they call it the Anticythère, and the movement reference is the Calibre 2033-CH01. Lets start with some history, both recent and ancient.

Before being at Hublot Mathias Buttet ran BNB Concept. When the economic crisis hit and BNB Concept went out of business, Hublot (a large customer of theirs) bought up much of their resources and hired Mathias. While still at BNB he was working on the replication (not exact in terms of shape, but in terms of function) of something that was known as the Antikythera. The project was never completed and when Jean-Claude Biver hired him, he made promises to Mathias that he could still pursue certain pet projects such as this. Mathias was happy to inform me recently (as he has a few times actually) that Jean-Claude has kept his promises.