Hublot Classic Fusion Essential Grey Review

If you asked me what my favorite five watch brands of all time were, I'd reply with Audemars Piguet, IWC, Ulysse Nardin, Blancpain and Hublot. When I started really becoming a true watch collector and turning my hobby into a career, watches like the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore and Hublot Big Bang were the most sought after watches on the market. This was the early to mid 2000s and big brash watches were by far the most popular watches.

What I loved about the Royal Oak Offshores and Big Bangs of the time were all the limited editions and also how each watch was used as a test bed for new materials and designs. As the years went by, Audemars Piguet reined the Royal Oak Offshore in, making the watch more buttoned down and sterile. I do own my favorite Offsore of the time, the Juan Pablo Montoya in Titanium. This limited edition Offshore featured pioneering use of carbon fiber, titanium and materials found in and around F1 racing to make a truly unique and innovative watch. A little known designer named Richard Mille also pitched in on the design of the Montoya.



While Audemars Piguet was having less fun with the Royal Oak Offshore, Hublot continued to go full steam ahead with the Big Bang. In the years since, Hublot has done just about everything imaginable from unthinkable case materials to creating mind bending in-house movements. Hublot has also expanded their core Big Bang and Classic collections into a nicely balanced core lineup of four distinct collections. The watch we're going to be looking at today falls in their Classic Fusion collection, which are watches that share the most DNA with the original "Hublot" watch released by Carlo Crocco in 1980.

Hublot was actually first founded as MDM Geneve in 1980 by Italian Carlo Crocco. Crocco already well known for his work at Breil watches envisioned creating a watch that would challenge the norms of watches of the day. His general idea was to create a timepiece that was both sporty and elegant at the same time. What Crocco ended up landing on was the "Hublot", which means porthole in French.



The first model known as the Classic Original featured a luxurious gold case on a revolutionary for the time rubber strap. The porthole name referenced the bezel that was circular and set with exposed bezel screws, resembling the porthole of a ship. The watch was branded as both Hublot and MDM Geneve and went on to be a huge hit for Crocco and his new company.

As the brand evolved, eventually MDM Geneve was dropped from the branding and the company was just known as Hublot. While the Classic line did just fine for Hublot, it took newly appointed CEO Jean-Claude Biver to really springboard the brand into the global spotlight.



Biver had just finished up time at Blancpain and Omega, doing an amazing job of revitalizing both brands after the quartz crisis. Biver's major contribution to Hublot was heading up the creation of the Big Bang. The Big Bang took the trend of the time for larger and more technically advanced watches and perfected it. The Big Bang used such innovative materials as ceramic and carbon fiber and like the original Classic, came on a rubber strap. In no time, the genre leading Royal Oak Offshore had a real challenger on its hands.

The Big Bang went on to become the best selling line in the Hublot's history and to this day is still the most recognizable and popular model. 2008 saw Hublot purchased by LVMH after posting a fivefold increase in sales in just a few short years after Biver's arrival. Hublot now had access to unlimited growth potential being part of the LVMH group. This saw the development of such unheard of materials of scratch proof gold in Magic Gold and in-house movements featuring tourbillions and 50 day power reserves.



While my wife and I have both owned various Big Bangs, we aren't as familiar with the Classic Fusion collection. When Hublot and their PR agency (Paul Wilmot) reached out and offered to send us a Classic Fusion to review we were genuinely excited to get know the collection better. The model sent to us was the recently released novelty, the Classic Fusion Essential Grey in 45 mm.

The first thing that caught my eye about the Classic Fusion Essential Grey was its rubber strap. The strap of the Essential Grey is crafted out of a greyish silver rubber with its upper exposed side being textured to look like a stainless steel Milanese bracelet. It isn't until you get close to the watch that you notice it isn't steel, but rather rubber.



I'm a huge fan of titanium watches, so the next thing that grabbed my attention was how Hublot used a mixture of both polished and satin-finished titanium on the Essential Grey. Typically titanium watches, including all of my personal ones, are either brushed or satin-finished, so seeing polished titanium was super interesting to me.

Finally the size and case shape of the watch took me by surprise. Being used to the case shape of the Big Bang, it was really interesting to see a similarly styled watch have a rounded case on its sides. The Big Bang for example has a very sharp case, while this Classic Fusion had a much more organic look to it. I thought for some reason we were getting the 42 mm version of the Essential Grey and until I put my calipers to it, I had thought all of a sudden 42 mm watches were huge. Don't get me wrong, the watch fit my tastes and wrist perfectly… I was actually concerned the 45 mm would be too big for my wrist. I had even owned a 48 mm Hublot King Power Oceanographic, and thought the 45 mm Essential Grey would be larger… but being this was the 45 mm version, everything made more sense.



Now that we're past my initial thoughts, let's take a look at the technical details of the watch. The Classic Fusion Essential Grey has a case diameter of 45.5 mm and lug to lug measurement of 52.3 mm. The case is 10.8 mm thick and the watch weighs 106 grams on our scale. This large watch manages to have such a low weight due to being crafted out of titanium.

Under flat sapphire crystal coated with anti-reflective material is a gray sunray dial with applied hour markers. The hour markers, hour, minute and seconds hands are all polished, making them really standout on the gray dial. The seconds had also features a Hublot "H" counter-balance. Hublot does not use any lume on the Essential Grey, so additional lighting will be needed to tell the time in low light situations.



At 12 o'clock you have the Hublot logo and at 6 o'clock you have the "Automatic" and "Swiss Made" text. At 3 o'clock you have a date window with a white background, which I wish they would have done with a dial matching gray background. Overall the dial is all business and nothing additional has been added to the keep the monochrome look.

The bezel is all Hublot, meaning the bezel is fixed to the case using 6 bezel screws. People mention that the screws not being lined up bothers them and brands like Audemars Piguet can line up the screws, so why can't Hublot? This actually isn't true, since Royal Oaks do not have exposed screw heads, but instead exposed bolts, which are set and do not turn. This is a huge difference and I feel the misaligned screw heads actually give Hublot's some character.



The top of the bezel as well as the lugs are satin finished. The strap is attached to the case with matching screws to the bezel. The sides of the bezel along with the sides of the case are high polished titanium. As mentioned earlier the sides of the case are also nice and rounded. At the lugs, the case angles down sharply to follow your wrist.

The Classic Fusion Essential Grey features a polished crown with nicely cut out grooves to give your fingers good grip. The crown is not screw down and offers manual winding. Pulling the crown out to position one allows you to set the date while position two allows you to set the time. Pushing the crown back in is very sure and the time does not jump at all.



Flipping the watch over shows off the movement through a sapphire crystal display back. The case back is screwed down and the bezel around the sapphire is rather thick and makes the windows into the movement somewhat small. The case back has engravings for the serial number of the watch as well as "Hublot" and "Classic Fusion". With the display case back and non-screw down crown, the Essential Grey offers 50 meters of water resistance. Good enough for a swim, but not intended for any diving.

The Classic Fusion Essential Grey is powered by a HUB1112 automatic movement. This movement is based on the Sellita SW300-1 A and features 42 hours of power reserve while beating away at 28,800 vph (4 Hz). The functions are hours, minutes, seconds and date. While the movement is provided by Sellita, Hublot does all of the finishing, including the skeletonized Hublot winding rotor. On our timegraph, the HUB1112 recorded an accuracy of 0 to -2 seconds per day. This is exceptional accuracy and among the best we've tested.



The grey rubber strap starts at 25 mm at the lugs and tapers down to 22 mm at the polished stainless steel deployant clasp. The clasp features two pushers to engage the clasp and open the strap. As mentioned earlier, the rubber strap has an amazing Milanese texture to it that resembles vintage stainless steel bracelets. There is also grey stitching down each side of the strap. The strap is somewhat thick and stiff, but is still very comfortable. I actually do prefer rubber straps like this on larger more expensive watches.

While I had the Classic Fusion Essential Grey I tried to wear it often as if it was my own watch. This mostly included mundane tasks like running errands and going out to dinner and drinks. The monochrome design of the Essential Grey fit in perfect with my typical outfit of a t-shirt (mostly black), shorts and sneakers. This watch will pretty much go with anything and I don't see it clashing with any color choice. During the brutally hot Texas summer, the Essential Grey's rubber strap was a treat. With a well over 50 mm lug to lug measurement, the watch wore right in my wheelhouse of watch sizes which includes Big Pilots and Offshores. Although the case diameter and lug to lug are large, the watch is relatively thin, making the watch actually feel smaller than it is. Also being made out of titanium drastically lowers the weight, making the Essential Grey manageable. I've mentioned a million times that I like large watches, but all of my personal watches are made from lightweight materials such as titanium, carbon or ceramic since I don't like heavy watches.



With the wide strap and lightweight titanium construction, the Essential Grey never gave me a case of wrist fatigue, even on extended wears. I also appreciated that the watch never favored one side of my wrist over the other and pretty much stayed centered and balanced.

The Classic Fusion Essential Grey is no wallflower of a watch. With its large size, polished titanium case and stunning grey rubber strap the watch will and does get noticed. It's been a while since a watch got as many comments as I got with the Essential Grey. Really only the Ulysse Nardin rose gold Freak X and Skeleton Diver X OPs got more attention. Most people said they noticed the strap first and all the comments I got about the watch were overly positive. Surprisingly with Austin not being a huge watch town, a lot of people had heard of Hublot and knew of the Big Bang. The Classic Fusion was new to most, but people seemed to really like it. I guess you could put the watch on a black rubber strap and have it be a little more incognito if that's your thing.



At $8,500 the Classic Fusion Essential Grey offers a lot for the money. The case is just finished so well and the polished titanium is stunning. The watch just feels super solid and the monochrome look of the dial and strap is super unique. The Milanese rubber strap alone makes the Classic Fusion Essential Grey stand out from the pack.

As for alternatives, we can take a look at three watches from other big names in the watch world that feature more of an industrial design like the Classic Fusion Essential Grey. First up is the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak 15510ST which is a 41 mm stainless steel watch on a stainless steel bracelet. The Genta designed octagonal bezel with case bolts resembles the Classic Fusions design and both share basic complications on a clean dial. The Royal Oak does have an in-house caliber but also has a retail price over three times of the Hublot at $28,600.



Next up we have the Laureato Chronograph TI49 from Girard-Perregaux. This watch measures in at 42 mm and is also crafted out of titanium like the Essential Grey. The TI49 does come on a titanium bracelet instead of a rubber strap and offers an in-house movement with an added chronograph. This Laureato is also over two times the price of the Essential Grey at $19,400.

Finally we have the Ingeniuer Automatic 40 from IWC. This watch is another Genta designed piece like the Royal Oak and is crafted out of titanium with a titanium bracelet. The Ingeniuer also offers basic complications and has a clean and simple dial like the Essential Grey and Royal Oak. The Ingeniuer is once again powered by an in-house movement from IWC and is almost twice the price of the Classic Fusion at $14,600.



Looking at the competition, you can see something glaringly missing from the Classic Fusion is the use of an in-house caliber. Hublot does offer in-house calibers for a lot of their watches that are chronographs, high complications or those featuring long power reserves, but not really anything for simple time only models. The Sellita found in the Classic Fusion does run extremely accurate, but not being in-house does hurt that tiny bit when you're playing in the high horology leagues. I'm sure Hublot is working on a time only in-house movement, but when that does come the additional R&D costs will raise retail pricing, which is a nice advantage the Classic Fusion Essential Grey currently has over its competitors.

Would I recommend the Hublot Classic Fusion Essential Grey to somebody looking for a larger time only luxury sports watch? Yes, I would definitely tell somebody to check out the Essential Grey if this was a segment of watch they were interested in. The dual finishing of the titanium case, monochrome look and fantastically designed rubber strap are really worth checking out. Despite the large case size, the low weight makes the Essential Grey a great daily candidate. Hublot also offers this watch in a 42 mm size if the over 50 mm lug to lug is too large for your preference.



Is the Classic Fusion Essential Grey for me personally? If the Big Bang didn't exist, I'd say yes, but the Big Bang does exist. While the I love the industrial design and call backs to original Hublot designs of the classic fusion, I'm still a sucker for the more aggressive look and feel of the Big Bang, especially the UNICOs and MECA-10s. With those you also get the cutting edge of Hublot's in-house movements, but once again they are a lot more expensive than the Classic Fusion Essential Grey.

In the end the Classic Fusion Essential Grey is a great all around watch with top notch finishing and accuracy. It was a great introduction to the Classic Fusion line for us. I would really like to thank Hublot for sending us this Classic Fusion and really can't wait to see what they send us next. We'd certainly love to get our hands on a Big Bang UNICO or MECA-10!



For more information about the Classic Fusion Essential Grey please visit : Hublot

Technical Specifications

Reference Number: 511.NX.5610.NR.HEC24

Retail Price: $8,500

Case Size: 45.5 mm

Lug to Lug: 52.3 mm

Thickness: 10.8 mm

Weight: 106 Grams

Case Material: Titanium

Bezel: Titanium

Strap: Rubber Strap with Stainless Steel Deployant Clasp

Movement: HUB1112 Automatic (Based on Sellita SW300-1 A)

Functions: Hours, Minutes, Seconds, Date

Power Reserve: 42 Hours

Water Resistance: 50 Meters