Lausanne, November 5^th 2008 — You thought you’d seen it all with regard to watch display systems. But that was reckoning without he tenacity and entrepreneurship of several professionals, inspired and supported by Jean-Claude Biver, Hublot’s CEO. Christened “Fusion Explorer” the new system troduced in Lausanne today enables net surfers to manage, via the Hublot website, display windows located worldwide. It brings unprecedented interactivity and the first worldwide application of Web 3.0 to the watchmaking world.

Two years after the introduction of the Raptor window (the first watchmaking display window without protective glass), Hublot and Dietlin Artisans today presented their new avant-garde development in watchmaking product displays. The Fusion Explorer system, created after several months of collaboration between the Dietlin and FiveCo companies, thus introduces a completely innovative view of the displayed item, thanks to a mechanized micro-camera circulating 360° in the area around the product.

For the first time, internet surfers can view displays located on every continent, and directly run the Hublot products displayed there, via the www.hublot.ch website. When they log on, they take control of the display for two minutes, and control the camera directly. The powerful incorporated zoom even allows the field of vision of the surrounding items to be enlarged, therefore showing the direct vicinity where the display is located (Hublot, Yacht Club, Foire de Bâle workshops, exhibition, etc.). A waiting list thus enables each one to register to become, within the space of a few moments, the product manager.

Thanks to this system, Hublot therefore becomes the first watchmaking brand to use Web 3.0. As a reminder, Web 1.0 enables the internet surfer to look up information on the web (train times, company brochures etc…). Then Web 2.0 created exchanges of information like YouTube and blogs. Now Web 3.0 enables remote control of robots or machines with a return of intervention. For example, in a few months’ time, we could be able to switch on the oven at home, and check whether it’s switched on or not via the internet.

A touch-screen enables the visitor standing in front of the display to navigate as he or she wishes, and explore the most hidden details thanks to a 40x zoom. The images obtained are projected directly onto a large screen.

This new technology thus enables the smallest and most hidden details of a product, such as a watch, to be directly displayed for the first time, not by making the object turn on itself, but by making the camera turn around the item, and enlarge it by 40x.

Jean-Claude Biver, Hublot’s CEO, has supported this project from the very start: “It’s a fantastic project, managed by true entrepreneurs. It enables a much greater number of people to discover a unique product via the internet along with the environment that goes with it. We thus move from the infinitely small to the infinitely large. The technology serves the watchmaker’s art, and enables each person, wherever they are, to share their mutual passion for the beauty of the watchmaker’s art”.

Xavier Dietlin, director of Dietlin Artisans, says: “The Raptor display window has enabled the watchmaking profession to lift the obstacle of the window in watch displays. Fusion Explorer today enables the product to be shown from every angle, and to focus on the minutest details of the items. It is without a doubt a giant step forward in the demonstration of watchmaking savoir-faire.”

Antoine Lorotte, director of Fiveco, sums up their performance: “The two greatest challenges taken up by FiveCo in the completion of this viewing system were the size and weight of the camera (not more than 100g) and the laying of the 10 cables. The result of this research is a perfect, highly dynamic image”.

The camera circles the watch over 360° in less than two seconds.
Camera measurements: 5 x 5 cm. Length 8 cm. Weight: 100 grams
10x optic and 4x digital zoom
Independent electronic lighting by LED
6 programmable viewpoints
Automatic navigation if no-one is connected.
Analysis of visitors (geographical location of internet visitors).
Management of waiting lists
System reaction time via internet: approx. 2 seconds
Minimum rate: 300 kB