Why Summer Has Become Watchmaking’s Favorite Season

Even in the thick of summer, Malibu can be chilly in the evenings. I was reminded of that on a sunny but wind-whipped Friday in late June, when my boyfriend, Jim, and I arrived at Villa Dume, an $18.5 million modernist estate on Point Dume, a luxury enclave beloved by surfers and elite homeowners alike. We were there to attend Hublot’s first Big Bang Summer event in California. Since 2017, the annual celebration has popped up in coastal hot spots such as Mykonos and Saint-Tropez—I can only assume the Malibu party had a much different vibe. (Cooler in more ways than one?)

As we admired the sun-drenched backyard—including a front-and-center display of wristwatches with summery pastel hues, framed against the backdrop of a glamorous pool, a distant row of palm trees, and the Pacific Ocean—young women wearing chain mail gloves offered to shuck oysters for us on the spot. They wore these funny getups, complete with multiple buckets to hold the oysters, condiments, and discarded shells. I know you’re not technically supposed to eat oysters in months that don’t have the letter R, but I’m an oyster fiend, so I indulged in several helpings, topped with everything from Champagne mignonette to a dousing of mezcal.

Summer 2026 had, after all, just started, and Hublot, the luxury watch brand that has made its association with summer (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) a cornerstone of its marketing, was seizing the moment. It was a good party—lively and filled with excellent people watching. Special guest Patrick Mahomes made a brief speech (“This is Hublot to me: This is creativity, this is boldness”), while collectors such as the L.A. restaurateur Jesse Gomez circulated through the crowd.

In his welcome remarks, Franck Suznjevic, president of Hublot in the Americas, referred to the brand’s long-running “Art of Fusion” philosophy. “We like to mix unexpected materials, unexpected culture for the sake of creating something unique,” he said.

The brand’s products certainly attest to that. Founded in 1980 by Carlo Crocco, Hublot made watchmaking history by producing the first luxury gold watch on a natural rubber strap. While Switzerland’s watchmaking establishment initially dismissed Crocco’s creation as unrefined—rubber, after all, was more associated with flip-flops and bottle stoppers than luxury timepieces—Europe’s aristocrats, King Juan Carlos of Spain among them, embraced the bold new watch, which carried a faint vanilla scent. Its corrosion resistance, lightness, flexibility, and durability only added to the appeal.

Budget manufacturers quickly copied Crocco’s concept, and the major houses weren’t far behind. By the mid-1990s, rubber and similar composite materials had found their way into the sport lines of many prestige brands (Patek Philippe famously introduced the Aquanaut, its first watch to come on a rubber strap, in 1997). Fashion houses joined in too, putting their own spin on the trend: Dior’s Christal Rubber, for instance, paired a sapphire-set rubber strap with a grooved pattern meant to evoke traditional link bracelets.

The industry took notice of Hublot again in 2005, when the brand introduced the Big Bang, a sports chronograph that combined gold, ceramic, Kevlar, carbon, tungsten, tantalum, and rubber in a single design. Driven by the vision of Hublot CEO Jean-Claude Biver—the legendary watch marketer who had just spent 11 years at the Swatch Group—the Big Bang reflected the concept of “fusion”—merging classic watchmaking craftsmanship with modern design sensibilities. “When tradition meets the future, then you are progressing and that’s how you keep the art alive,” Biver told The New York Times in 2007.

Over the years, the Big Bang has evolved into a platform for Hublot’s most summery creations. Exhibit A: the new 42 mm Big Bang Titanium Peach Ceramic, a serious watch—powered by a self-winding Unico flyback chronograph movement—with a downright frivolous vibe.

And I suppose that’s the point. Summer watches—officially a thing, if IWC’s new Ingenieur Automatic 35 with its “pool blue dial,” is any indication—are playful by definition. Look, for example, to Louis Vuitton’s new Monterey ceramic watches. Featured at the brand’s Men’s Spring/Summer 2027 fashion show, the pieces—one green, the other black—transform the 2025 re-edition of the Louis Vuitton Monterey in yellow gold—a contemporary but still-sober take on the house’s first wristwatch, with a Grand Feu enamel dial and an in-house automatic movement—into charm tags.

Maybe that’s why watch brands are increasingly claiming summer as their season. Against the backdrop of Malibu sunsets, Mediterranean beach clubs, and wrist candy in sorbet shades, they’re selling more than a timepiece—they’re selling a state of mind, one where technical excellence doesn’t have to take itself too seriously.

This article originally appeared in Robb Report US.