It is, says Hublot, “one of the most important contracts in its history”, and certainly the ability to call yourself “officialwatchmaker to the World Cup” did nothing but good for the likes of Seiko and Casio.
Fifa has taken its time about selecting its 2010 watch, a surprise in itself given the alacrity with which president Sepp Blatter and his merry band of bureaucrats generally jumps on the money-making opportunities that come their way. Indeed, the golden licensing deal appears to be the one temptation capable of luring them away from the dessert table at the myriad World Cup knees-ups that precede the competition.
With Hublot, though, they are making a sound choice on all sorts of levels. For one thing, the ties between the Swiss marque and football might not go back a long way but they do run deep. Indeed, it is one of the few luxury watch brands that seems to view football as a viable marketing tool rather than a potential pr catastrophe.
So, it has connections with the national teams of Switzerland and Mexico, France and Spain, all of which have proved fruitful. On a club level, it recently signed on as the “official timekeeper” of English champions Manchester United, though on this one the jury is still out.
Though the glamour and success of Manchester United and the size of its fan base were clearly behind Hublot’s decision to buy in last year, it might not have been the best of times to pin your colours to that particular mast. The increasingly powerful and passionate fan campaign against the club’s absentee American landlords will surely turn on its major sponsors sooner or later.
Similarly, we’re not sure whether to be impressed with their boldness or frightened for their future when we learn that they recently signed a partnership deal with Argentina’s Diego Aramando Maradona, once the world’s greatest player and now perhaps its most eccentric, explosive and, on occasion, expletive deleted national team manager.
The World Cup, though, is a gimme, a feelgood festival of international sport even when the quality of the football is dire, as in Italia ’90. When the football lives up to the hype – and everyone will be hoping it does in the first African World Cup this summer – it is marketing gold.
What is more, Hublot also has the rights to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and will produce a series of limited-edition World Cup specials in the meantime. This being Hublot, they are likely to be worth waiting for.