Hublot carries along with it, let’s say, an interesting stigma within the watch collecting community. They’re generally known for creating rather extravagant watches, with designs that veer far away from familiar classic shapes produced by other brands in similar price segments like JLC and Vacheron Constantin. Today we have with us one of their new creations, the 42mm Classic Fusion in Essential Grey.
This is clearly a watch on the tamer side for Hublot, which is apparent in both it’s name as a “Classic”, and it’s overall design language follows this trend with a more simple and elegant layout on the dial and case of the watch.
Initial Impressions
If you search through some of our archives on the WRB you’ll notice we haven’t covered many Hublot watches here, so I was quite excited to finally receive a sample of the new Classic Fusion for a close up look, and to test it out on wrist during daily routines. My very first impression of the watch left me with a Jewelry type of vibe, and less so as a sports watch or a dress watch. It’s a little difficult to explain without actually seeing the watch in person but it seems to straddle the line between a sports watch and a dress watch – it’s large and carries with it the presence of a sports watch, but the design language and watchmaking artistry is that usually found on dress watches. Interestingly enough, the water resistance of 50 meters is also right in-between as well, with dress watches frequently around the 10-20 meter mark, and dedicated sports watches more towards the 100 meter range.
The more I wore the watch during daily activities, the more it grew on me. It really struck me as uniquely styled, as I don’t know any major brands that have this same blend of sporty and dressy characteristics. Even a model like the Rolex Yacht-Master, that is known to be a dressier version of the Submariner, is still not really as flashy as this Classic Fusion. This is a watch that seems to have built its own little segment in the world of higher-end Swiss watches.
Dial and Case
The “Essential Grey” dial on this watch is absolutely stunning with its neatly brushed sunburst light reflections. It looks smooth like silk in various light settings, and it seems very susceptible to picking up colors around it and re-emitting the hue through the dial and even the wide bezel of the watch. I took one photo of it where the watch nearly looks like a salmon pink color, I’m assuming this hue was reflected from my skin when I was outdoors in morning sunlight but I’m still not quite sure.
As mentioned before, the layout of the dial is very simple but it’s executed with high horology finesse. The single applied markers are evenly strewn around the dial except for a double baton marker at 12 o’clock. The markers are baton shaped but have been cut specifically to reflect light and seem to emulate the sparkle of baguette diamonds – I’m assuming this was Hublot’s goal. The minute and hour hands are quite wide and have a similar angular cut to them like the markers, also reflecting light. The seconds hand is a long slender needle with the signature Hublot H insignia on the tail end of it.
The intentional light play of the dial is very much designed like a dress watch, but the kicker is that it’s quite large, and the surrounding chunky bezel brings with it hints of a sports watch. The rest of the case is really well done, mind you very much infused with Hublot DNA with the sharp angular lugs that integrate into the strap. One aspect that really surprised me with this watch, both when on and off wrist, is the remarkably slim case at 10.4mm – this aspect alone augments the design of the watch exponentially.
Fit on Wrist
At first I gawked at the size of this watch, but when I laid it on my wrist without fastening the strap I was quite surprised to see that it would be at least wearable for my 6.5 inch wrist. The watch does not wear as large as one would suspect, its sporty appearance helps it look acceptable on smaller wrists. When I fastened the strap, the watch contoured very well and it felt very comfortable, again mostly due to the very slender case thickness.
The Classic Fusion has immense wrist presence, it is absolutely an attention grabbing watch with its slightly oversized look being accentuated by all the shimmering polished facets – these aspects combined with Hublot’s unmistakable DNA really make this watch pop on wrist. It’s also surprisingly lightweight, and the ultra-wide strap provides great support for the watch stopping any side to side sloppy movements, it felt secure and well balanced on wrist.
Partial In-House Movement
The Classic Fusion Essential Grey uses the HUB1110 automatic movement to power its time and date display. This is actually a Sellita SW300-1-a base movement, but considered a partial in-house movement due to the finishing done by Hublot – I’d consider this another grinding point for enthusiasts who generally prefer fully in-house movements – especially at this price point of $8,500 USD. If Nomos can produce fully in-house movement at much lower price points, many prospective collectors will be looking up to Hublot for at least the equivalent.
Mind you with that said, this particular Sellita movement is not bad per-say, and actually is a rather great fit for the watch as it’s allowed Hublot to create a very slender case. It is indeed viewable through the small display window on the back, mind you with a big cumbersome stainless steel border around it to take up space of the smaller sized movement.
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