Haute Complication: Hublot MP-09 Tourbillon Bi-Axis

One of the highlights of Baselworld this year was the Hublot MP-09 Tourbillon Bi-Axis Tourbillon. It might come as a surprise, but this watch houses the brand’s very first multi-axis tourbillon. One thing that Hublot never seem to run out of is creativity, and when you combine that with having a completely vertically integrated manufacture at your fingertips amazing things can happen.

Being a Manufacture Piece, as the MP in its name explains, it means that the watch features an movement that was created especially for this watch. In the mission brief for Hublot’s research and development team one thing was paramount: provide maximum visibility on the multi-axis tourbillon.

The brand achieved this by suspending it in its own space at the lower half of the watch. With its complete rotation per minute around the first axis and a rotation every 30 seconds on the second, there is a constant spectacle to delight the owner. This can be viewed from nearly every angle thanks to a three-sided sapphire crystal which is so complex of shape that it should count as a complication of its own.

While the MP-09 most certainly highlights the multi-axis tourbillon in a unique way, it wouldn’t be a Hublot if that was all it did. To create synergy, the sum has to be greater then all part combined. In the case of the movement, 356 components are contributing to this. While the multi-axis tourbillon resides prominent and glorious at six o’clock, this is not all that the watch has to offer. A dial displaying the hour and minutes is placed in the top right corner of the case. Around it are two semi-circles with numbers, serving as a date display. It can be easily adjusted, back and forth, thanks to the lever of the date corrector. A generous five-day power reserve, indicated on the left of the dial, tops it off.

It is not only the movement that gives this watch a sense of synergy, but also how it interacts with the design of the case. While it ventures a bit off from the traditional Hublot-style, it can hardly be mistaken for anything else. In fact, it is quite fascinating to see a brand constantly pushing its own boundaries further away, in both a technical as well as an aesthetic sense. It is like that perfectly fine-tuned racing machine; everything is done to make it go faster, everything seems to have a purpose and is beautiful because of it. This MP-09 Tourbillon Bi-Axis is exactly like that.

Being a Manufacture Piece, the MP-09 Tourbillon Bi-Axis is also a limited edition with 50 pieces being made in titanium ($169.000,-) and 20 in King Gold ($211.000,-).

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