Let the bells chime: a look at one of the contestants for the “Striking Watch” category at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève 2014, the Hublot Classic Fusion Cathedral Minute Repeater.

Better known for its association with Ferrari and myriad sports teams and tournaments, Hublot has a lot cooking in its manufacture. And while the brand still outsources ebauche movements for the majority of their standard collection (save for the Unico in-house chronograph movement that is making its way to more and more collections), Hublot has taken tremendous strides in building up its manufacture and especially its R&D and High Complications departments.

So it should come as no surprise that Hublot has two pieces up for awards this year, the first being a new version of last year’s MP-05 LaFerrari, and the latter which is a much more traditional kind of watch, the Classic Fusion Cathedral Minute Repeater.

Using the brand’s Classic Fusion case inspired by the very first Hublot timepieces from the 1980’s, the Cathedral Minute Repeater is done in a 45mm King Gold or Titanium as seen here. Less dense metals like steel and titanium are actually much better suited for striking or musical watches since they provide better acoustics properties and generally sound louder. Just ask Francois-Paul Journe.

Under a sapphire glass set with faceted and polished applied indexes and matching hands, one can fully take in the micro-mechanical landscape that is the Cathedral Minute Repeater movement. In contrast to classical minute repeaters that generally don’t sound impressively, a cathedral minute repeater’s gongs are almost twice as long and produce a much more musical, reverberant chime that can be likened to cathedral bells.

The Classic Fusion Cathedral Minute Repeater’s completely in-house developed and manufactured HUB8001 movement is actually a new iteration of Hublot’s original Cathedral Minute Repeater movement released a few years back, which featured components made in carbon fiber. A few fundamental changes have been made here, including a bridged tourbillon escapement and a different gear train layout and winding mechanism.

Compared to some of their more contemporary pieces, Hublot have given the Classic Fusion Cathedral Minute Repeater’s movement a more traditional haute horlogerie finish including chamfered and polished edges on the bridges, polished screw-heads, and a circular-graining perlage pattern on the main plate. The bridges give that modern touch with circular satin-brushing and grained recessed centers.

One of the most original features of the Hublot Classic Fusion Cathedral Minute Repeater isn’t actually in the movement at all. In the large majority of watches with a minute repeater or other chiming complication, the activation “slider” protrudes out of the case, throwing off the overall balance and aesthetic of the watch. With the Classic Fusion Cathedral Tourbillon Minute Repeater and actually all Hublot minute repeaters since 2008, the sliding trigger has been ingeniously integrated into the case design by means of the resin bezel lug on the left-hand side of the case.

While I highly doubt the jury will vote for this in the “Striking” watches category, I do believe Hublot deserve some recognition for just how far they’ve come as a manufacture in a short few years, as well as their ability to continuously think out of the box from a purely design perspective.

The Classic Fusion Cathedral Minute Repeater in titanium will be produced in 99 examples with a price tag of  230’000 CHF, though I reckon it will take at least a year or two to complete the run since each minute repeater requires 2 to 3 months of assembly to complete.

More information on www.hublot.com

Don’t forget to cast your vote for the GPHG 2014 “Public Prize” HERE and enter the draw to win a Girard Perregaux watch!