Hublot debuts smartwatch

It looks like there really is a market for luxury smartwatches. Who are these people? The tech nerds in silicon valley who just discovered fashion? In any case, LVMH has taken note of these luxury smartwatch customers and Hublot has introduced their first smartwatch retailing for 5200 dollars. The story first broke on Business of Fashion.

5200 dollars is almost triple the price of competitor and fellow LVMH brand Tag Heuer's smartwatch and around the same price as Rolex Oyster Perpetual. Compared to Hublot's five and six figure price tags, this is actually one of their more affordable ones. The watch will be unveiled today at the Baselworld trade fair.

LVMH is known for making the world's most expensive smartwatch, a 200,000 dollar diamond encrusted Tag Heuer Connected that is a limited-edition of five pieces. While the production of Hublot's smartwatch won't be so scarce, LVMH does plan on restricting the number created to 2018 pieces.

“It’s a unique one-shot,” Jean-Claude Biver, LVMH's watch chief, said to Business of Fashion of Hublot’s first smartwatch. “It will be a collector’s watch in 20 years.”

The watch will only be on sale this year in alignment with the FIFA World Cup which will take place in Russia in June and July. The watch will tell wearers who is playing and who scored.

The original smartwatch maker Apple is still going strong with its Hèrmes strap Apple watches. However, at a price point of 1150 dollars, they have a different customer from Hublot's very high spending customers. We'll see if Hublot can sell all 2018 of these opulent time pieces.

photo: via Hublot.com