Hublot MP Collection: Extreme Complications and Mechanical Art

The MP (Masterpiece) Collection is Hublot's laboratory — the series in which movement developers and engineers attempt complications that no other brand has attempted, or attempts familiar complications in unfamiliar ways. These watches are not primarily commercial products (though they are sold, at extraordinary prices); they are technical demonstrations that establish the Nyon manufacture's capabilities and provide the brand's most extreme expression of the Art of Fusion.

MP-02 Key of Time

The MP-02 Key of Time addresses a philosophical question about time perception: if you could control the speed at which time appears to pass, what would that mechanism look like?

The MP-02's complication: a lever on the case allows the wearer to select one of four time display speeds:
- 1× speed: Real time — the seconds hand runs at its normal rate
- 1/4 speed: The seconds hand runs at one-quarter normal speed, appearing to slow time
- 1/2 speed: Half speed
- 2× speed: Double speed — the seconds hand runs twice as fast, appearing to accelerate time

The mechanism varies the gear train ratio between the movement and the display hands. Slowing the display does not slow the movement — the barrel still unwinds at the correct rate; only the display ratio changes. The practical application is limited; the philosophical point — that our perception of time is distinct from time itself — is what Hublot is articulating.

MP-05 LaFerrari

The MP-05 LaFerrari is the most technically extreme watch Hublot has produced in regular series:

The 50-day power reserve — achieved through 11 series-coupled mainspring barrels — requires a manual winding operation that cannot be performed by hand; the spring tension in 11 fully-wound barrels exceeds what a winding crown can deliver without damaging the stem. Hublot supplies each MP-05 with a specially designed electric screwdriver for winding.

The display is also unconventional: rather than hands and a dial, the time is shown on four rotating cylinders stacked vertically in the centre of the case — each cylinder marked with digits rather than traditional hour, minute, and second numerals.

The design references the LaFerrari hybrid hypercar: the same approach of stacking energy storage (the car's KERS capacitors; the watch's 11 barrels) for exceptional output.

MP-09 Tourbillon Bi-Axis

The MP-09 features a bi-axial tourbillon — a tourbillon cage that rotates on two independent axes simultaneously:

• Primary axis: 60 seconds per rotation (standard tourbillon rate)
• Secondary axis: 30 seconds per rotation (perpendicular to primary)

A standard tourbillon corrects for gravity errors when the watch is in a single vertical orientation — it averages gravity across all rotations in one plane. A bi-axial tourbillon adds a second rotation, averaging gravity errors across two planes simultaneously. The theoretical accuracy improvement over a single-axis tourbillon is measurable.

The practical effect on a wristwatch's accuracy is debated — the wrist moves constantly, providing averaging in all planes regardless of complication. But as a mechanical achievement, a cage that rotates on two perpendicular axes simultaneously, driven from a single gear train, is extraordinary.

MP-11 Long Power Reserve

The MP-11 develops the power reserve theme of the MP-05 with a different architectural approach:

The seven barrels are arranged in a linear stack visible through the sapphire crystal case — the energy architecture made visible. As the barrels discharge, the power reserve indicator descends across a vertical scale on the movement's open structure.

MP-15 Takashi

The MP-15 Takashi is a collaboration with Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami — the artist responsible for the colourful, pop-inflected mushroom and flower imagery that has appeared in Hublot collaborations:

• Murakami's flower motifs integrated into the movement's decoration
• Coloured sapphire elements
• Limited edition of 200 pieces

The MP-15 demonstrates that the MP Collection is not exclusively a mechanical complication platform but also a vehicle for artistic collaboration — the "art" of Art of Fusion extending to fine art as well as industrial materials.

MP Collection in Context

MP Collection watches are produced in small series — typically 20–99 pieces per reference — at prices from approximately CHF 100,000 to over CHF 300,000 . They serve primarily as technical demonstrations and media vehicles: each new MP reference generates significant watch press coverage and demonstrates the Nyon manufacture's capabilities.

The commercial significance of an MP watch is not primarily its sales volume but its positioning effect on the broader Hublot range: if the manufacture can produce an 11-barrel 50-day tourbillon, the Big Bang's UNICO chronograph seems correspondingly credible.