Nine months have passed since Julien Tornare took on the top job at Hublot. The long-time LVMH executive was appointed CEO of the brand in September 2024, in a reshuffle that saw him move from TAG Heuer.
“It’s been great,” says Tornare of his journey with Hublot thus far. Describing the brand as energetic, he tells Options that all teams are constantly coming up with new ideas to push things forward. “That level of dynamism is really the most exciting part.”
As for his day-to-day work, Tornare says that he was initially up to “a lot of listening [and] a lot of meeting people from all over the world” to better understand the brand and what it needs.
This consultative approach, he adds, is what he’s prioritised in his first phase as CEO. “When you join a brand, you need to come in with a lot of humility. You need to listen to people first, and I’ve been doing that for quite a while.”
See also: A visit to Richard Mille's watchmaking facility in Les Breuleux, Switzerland
Now, Tornare is ready to start taking “concrete actions”. The broad direction, he says, is to “keep pushing forward with a fresh perspective that honours [Hublot’s] past while embracing the future”.
Being a relatively youthful brand — it turns 45 this year — things have to be calibrated with an eye towards the future, says Tornare. He adds that while older brands might look more to the past with reissues and re-editions of vintage
pieces, “it’s a different roadmap” at Hublot.
That said, there has been — and will continue to be — some emphasis on some of the brand’s icons.
See also: Van Cleef & Arpels’ latest watches mark a new chapter in the maison’s love story on a dial
For instance, five limited-edition versions of the Big Bang were released this year in honour of the watch’s 20th anniversary. To bridge yesteryear with today, all five models, launched in Geneva at this year’s Watches and Wonders, have a redesigned case that combines elements from the original Big Bang with the current Big Bang Unico.
More recently, the brand unveiled the Big Bang MECA-10 Concrete Jungle, a 44mm edition encased entirely in matte concrete. “Concrete has long been misunderstood as cold and industrial, but in the world of high design, it has become something else entirely: tactile, refined, even expressive,” says Tornare.
The 53-year-old joined Hublot after nine months as head honcho at TAG Heuer; he spent the seven years before that at Zenith, where he oversaw a rise in annual sales from CHF80 million in 2017 to over CHF120 million in 2023.
Asked about his rotations among three of LVMH’s biggest watch brands, Tornare says the move to Hublot came as a surprise initially.
“There was a decision to make a change at Hublot at the time, and they came to me,” he recalls. “There was a need for transformation, to bring the brand to the next level … I felt that with my background, personality and way of doing business, Hublot was a better fit for me, so I accepted naturally and very quickly.”
For more lifestyle, arts and fashion trends, click here for Options Section
Tornare admits that there are “challenging times” ahead in watchmaking. LVMH posted 0% year-on-year growth in its watches and jewellery segment for the three months ended March 2025, though it’s worth noting that this was the only segment that did not record a dip.
“It’s an opportunity to rework your key fundamentals that have been successful, as well as your potential weaknesses that you still need to improve on,” says Tornare of this period.
Speaking on what’s next for Hublot, he simply says there’s “plenty” in the cards, adding that there are plans for “new innovations, new products, new materials, new movements, and new manufactures”.
He sees all of this as the “gas that you put in the tank for a machine like Hublot”, which he hopes will fuel the brand towards its next chapters.
“We’re not just continuing the story; we’re taking it to the next level.”
