2 MILLION € BB

2 MILLION € BB

More than 140 carats
637 baguette diamonds
1 rose cut diamond on the crown
A Vendôme Tourbillon movement to appeal to more expert eyes

This is a unique piece, a one-off, an even more audacious master stroke,
a breathtaking expression of expertise providing a level of purity, colour,
cut, finish and uniformity of the whole piece which is a truly rare feat.

Its creation required 45 gemcutters, working non-stop for 1 month, to cut the
stones, as well as 2,000 hours of work by master gemstone setters.
Each diamond could be used to adorn a ring.
Those set at the centre of the bracelet weigh more than 0.40 carat.

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 "lighthearted 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.

Dubbed the "Tourbillon Vendôme", it was developed in tribute to the recent opening of the Hublot boutique at 10, Place Vendôme. On the dial side, two small columns (2 for 200 years) frame the tourbillon cage - replicas of the column recently illuminated by Hublot to celebrate its bicentenary. The flying tourbillon movement dubbed HUB6003 was entirely developed and manufactured within the Hublot manufacture. With 210 components, it boasts a 5-day power reserve.

Now on show at BASELWORLD 2011, the result has surpassed all expectations, a synthesis of the considerable creative and emotional investment required to create such a masterpiece, a perfect symbol of the fusion between jewellery and horology, a celebration of the creativity, ingenuity, skill, confidence, madness, perseverance and zeal needed to make the wildest of dreams come true.