Hublot Watches Rescues BNB Concept, Sort Of

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed)
Jan 27th 2010 at 7:01AM

I recently reported that the Swiss highly respect complex watch movement maker BNB Concept declared bankruptcy. All in the watch industry agreed it was sad and uncomfortable news. Not long after I am not too surprised to hear that someone has come to the watch movement maker's rescue - one of their biggest clients no less. LVMH owned Hublot has announced that it will buy BNB Concept. What this means is not 100% clear to me. Hublot has announced recently that it wishes to become a movement maker itself, adding to in-house made movements to its higher-end offerings. Reports indicate that Hublot is purchasing BNB Concept for some of its technology and staff, as well is its machinery. It is unclear whether BNB Concept's manufacture will continue in operation, or this will all be transferred to Hublot's new space.

What is clear is that Hublot is not going to be able and save all of BNB Concept. So there will still be technicians and watch makers looking for work, as well as a host of other BNB Concept clients that will have to look elsewhere to get complex watch movements. There are only a handful of competitors.

Via Business Montres (in French).

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tags: bnb concept, BnbConcept, hublot, movement, watch