Hublot's Classic Fusion Tributo revives the 1980 gold-on-rubber MDM

Hublot has gone back to its first watch with the Classic Fusion Tributo, a standard-production revival of Carlo Crocco's 1980 MDM that restores the design's dozen bezel screws after two earlier attempts that used six. The founder himself, now 82, consulted on the release.

Two references arrive, both in 38mm: one in 18k yellow gold, the other in white. The case has grown 2mm from the 36mm original and thickened from 6.5mm to 9.5mm, though the first watch ran on quartz where the new one is automatic.

The movement is Hublot's calibre HUB1711, built on the Zenith Elite 670 and carrying 185 components at 4Hz. Hublot gives it a 60-hour reserve, ten hours more than the HUB1710 sibling thanks to an optimized gear train. One source lists 50 hours instead.

What the Tributo brings back

The defining feature is the bezel: twelve domed screws echoing a ship's portholes. They double as hour markers on a dial that otherwise carries no indexes, only a date at three o'clock and the MDM signature at six. The screws are H-shaped, like the counterweight on the seconds hand.

That three-letter mark matters. In 1980 the company was not Hublot but MDM Genève, and the dial printed that name. Crocco says the letters became Main dans la Main after Edmond Kaiser of Terre des Hommes read the logo differently from the original Montres des Montres.

Crocco also traces them to his first company, Montres Danielle-Marie, named for his wife. Three letters, three chapters: the woman, the watches, and the children's foundation he set up in 1998, which began with a program in India.

The yellow gold reference stays closest to the original, with a black dial, the MDM signature at six and an 18k gold rotor. The white gold version is more formal: a polished black onyx dial, black-plated titanium screws on the bezel, and a black tungsten rotor.

An openworked H-shaped rotor shows through the sapphire caseback. Hublot deliberately dropped its One-Click strap system and fitted an integrated black rubber strap with vertical corrugations, plus a black-plated titanium foldover clasp. A larger screw-down crown supports 100 meters of water resistance.

That rubber is the detail collectors remember. Crocco worked with Italian engineer Guido Gamberini, a maker of caoutchouc for wheels, who spent two years reaching watch-strap tolerances. Steel inserts went inside, and a drop of vanilla masked the smell.

The pairing provoked open disbelief in 1980. Crocco's Swiss case manufacturer told him it was not possible and that he was crazy. Basel nearly proved it right: his stand, opposite Cartier, drew nobody for two days before word spread on the third.

How the brand got here

Crocco sold Hublot to LVMH in 2008. The brand is known for the Big Bang of 2005 and for the Art of Fusion, which Jean-Claude Biver coined in 2004. Crocco says the ethos existed in 1980 unnamed: Italian design meeting Swiss watchmaking. Current chief executive Julien Tornare brought him in as consultant.

This is the third pass at honoring the MDM. The Classic Fusion 40 Years Anniversary of 2020 ran to 45mm, halved the screws to six and came in gold, titanium or ceramic. The 2023 Classic Fusion Original offered 38mm, 42mm and 33mm but kept six screws.

Neither carried the MDM signature, which returns here. One quibble from collectors: it reads only "MDM", not "MDM Genève", understandable since Hublot now works in Nyon, a half-hour drive north of Geneva, rather than in the city.

Hublot will donate CHF 100,000 from sales to the Main dans la Main Foundation, Crocco's charity for vulnerable children. He said the gesture, and the MDM back on the dial, made him proud. He also said the brand has become more visible than the understated company he started.

Crocco admitted he rarely wore a Hublot, favoring his later Thorr chronograph of 1988, which found little success. That changes: from now on, he said, he has to wear Hublot again because of the Tributo.

Pricing is CHF 25,000, £23,600, EUR 30,200, USD 30,900 or A$44,600 for either version. Both are standard additions to the catalog, sold through select retailers and hublot.com, and are not limited, which may seed future editions in more accessible metals.