It was only yesterday when the news broke that high-level executives from some of the biggest watch brands will be making moves around the industry. The CEO of Hublot, Ricardo Guadalupe will take a step back from his role as CEO of Hublot and instead take up the mantle of Honorary President. Taking his place will be Julien Tornare, the current CEO of TAG Heuer and his successor will be the current general manager of Bvlgari Watch Division, Antoine Pin.

This was first announced via the LVMH Watches Division and its CEO, Frédéric Arnault as this major reshuffling will effectively take place come 1st September 2024. All these movements are part of an "elevating and upgrading" strategy that will hopefully see growth in the Maisons owned by the French conglomerate.

Despite the major shake-ups, Ricardo Guadalupe’s choice to step back from his role as CEO of Hublot was unexpected. Having been with the brand since 2004, his 20-year career saw him be a key component in Hublot’s exceptional growth over the last two decades as he also oversaw the brand’s takeover by LVMH in 2008. Having been the CEO for more than a decade, Guadalupe was responsible for bringing Hublot to new heights with exciting collaborations and purposeful watches.

These are just some of Hublot’s biggest partnerships and collaborations as we take a look back at how much Ricardo Guadalupe helped shape the brand to be where it is today.

Hublot has become almost synonymous with the world of football since the start of its partnership back in 2006. This saw them become the official timekeeper in not just international tournaments like the FIFA World Cup but also the UEFA European Football Championship, more colloquially known as just Euros. Aside from being showcased throughout the globe with two of football’s biggest international tournaments, Hublot is also the official timekeeper for the English Premier League.

They currently have just one ambassador who is still active in football in the form of Kylian Mbappé, who is arguably one of the best players in the world right now and who just recently signed with 15-time UEFA Champions League holders, Real Madrid. Known for his exploits during the 2018 World Cup, Mbappé is just one of two players as the face of Hublot in the world of football with the other being Pelé.

The list of head coaches and managers who are friends of the brand includes two-time Champions League winner José Mourinho, France’s 2018 World Cup-winning manager Didier Deschamps, Portugal’s national men’s team head coach Roberto Martinez, the French national women’s team manager Hervé Renard, and Gareth Southgate, who had just stepped down as the England national men’s team manager.

The friends of the brand list also feature former professionals of the sport, some of which were the biggest names in the game during its heyday. This includes players like former Real Madrid stars Sami Khedira and Luís Figo alongside the 1998 World Cup winners David Trezeguet and Marcel Desailly. Making up the rest of the list is the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2015 and 2019 winner Alex Morgan as well as the six-time UEFA Women’s Champions League winner Ada Hegerberg.

But aside from just having a host of friends of the brand as well as signing one of the world's biggest footballers to an ambassadorship, Hublot has also elevated the watch industry with its connection to sports. The Hublot Big Bang e Gen3 is a connected watch that was designed to help referees on the field. It is armed with a host of innovative features that have since seen it become the technological breakthrough for the watch industry.

While football may be Hublot’s biggest partnership to date, that doesn’t mean it has missed out on other grand sporting events. It also has ambassadors in both tennis and golf with the former featuring the 10-time Australian Open and the seven-time Wimbledon champion, Novak Djokovic. Hublot also has two friends of the brand when it comes to the professional tennis scene including Elina Svitolina as well as Karolina Pliskova.

In golf, there are two official ambassadors for Hublot, mainly the 2016 U.S. Open and 2020 Masters Tournament winner Dustin “DJ” Johnson and its very own Captain America, Patrick Reed. He is a 2018 Masters Tournament champion but is more known for his performances in the Ryders and Presidents Cup by representing the United States, which explains the nickname. Joining both Johnson and Reed is German professional Olivia Cowan, who was captain of the 2021 team that won the Aramco Team Series - London as well as winning the 2022 Hero Women’s Indian Open.

But it’s more than just tennis and golf that Hublot has a vested interest in. Joining its long line of ambassadors also include the retired eight-time Olympic gold medallist, Usain Bolt. The Jamaican sensation is widely considered the greatest sprinter alive, having achieved 11 World Championship gold medals during his storied career. Joining him as friends of the brand includes the first British woman to win a sprint event, Dina Asher-Smith as well as three-time European Championships medallist, Mujinga Kambundji.

Aside from its venture into the world of sports, Hublot has also spent plenty of time venturing into the arts, specifically when it came to musicians as well as artists, sculptors, and designers. Some of the more notable names include Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami, known for his Superflat movement and the Murakami Flowers floral motif, which has since become a cult classic. Besides Murakami, both Hublot and Ricardo Guadalupe have since decided to work closely alongside many other contemporary artists.