Jean Claude Biver is one of the Swiss watch industry’s more remarkable figures.

In the 1980s, he surfed the anti-quartz backlash and revived Blancpain – the company had been dormant during the quartz era – boasting it had never made a quartz watch and never would.

Having sold Blancpain to the Swatch Group, he spent the 1990s rebuilding Omega. The early 21st century sees him resurrecting Hublot.

Hublot was a cult 1980s brand identified by its then daring juxtaposition of precious metals and rubber.

Mr Biver has brought it back into fashion with the large and aggressively contemporary Big Bang – a wedding cake of a watch executed in ceramic, Kevlar, gold, rubber, titanium – and now magnesium.

Mr Biver sees himself as a prophet of fusion watchmaking, the mixing of “trad and rad” materials. He has not been afraid to court controversy; once he has a concept he pursues it ruthlessly.

One challenge was to circumvent its disconcerting propensity to burst into flames

Now in his 60s, he fizzes with the energy of a man 20 years younger. In the two years since he took over, turnover has tripled. Now he wants to make it a leader in experimental materials.

In terms of marketing activity, this is signalled by a sponsorship arrangement with the futuristic yacht brand Wally. Of more interest to horolophiles is Mr Biver’s quest to tame the more exotic elements and include them in his designs.

“I was interested in magnesium because of the super-light concept and because nobody had ever done it.” That was a spur rather than a deterrent. Mr Biver is a man who likes a challenge.

“Nobody had ever worked on that material in the watch industry. So there was no experience and no appropriate machinery.”

It was only after months of asking round and pestering his sub-suppliers that GTF, an Italian casemaker, gave him the name of specialist racing motorbike wheelmaker Marvic, which had experience of working with this difficult, yet weight- saving material.

Happily for Mr Biver, Mr Marvic happened to be a watch fanatic and said he would be happy to help.

“We worked as group: Marvic, GTF and ourselves. He gave us the magnesium, and taught our people how to work it.” One challenge was to circumvent its disconcerting propensity to burst into flames.

“It burns easily in powder form and requires new tooling and new working processes that avoid oil or water for cooling. We finally made a prototype case and were surprised by the lightness and the soft touch. It is 2.7 times lighter than titanium,” he says triumphantly. But there was a further problem.

“How could we make a case of 35 grammes and fit it with a 42 gramme movement? It would have been nonsense to have the movement heavier than the case.

“We started thinking about a magnesium movement.” It was an idea that he quickly discounted.

The base calibre for the Big Bang is the trusted Valjoux 7750, a good workhorse, but not suitable for reworking in magnesium. It was too much of a fire risk. “There are more than 50 holes in a Valjoux plate and bridges, and each time you make a hole you have a fire. That’s what brought us to the grade six titanium movement,” he says. Grade six is the purest titanium and used for surgical instruments.

“With a small artisan, we made 10 plates and 10 bridges for the Valjoux in titanium grade six.” Mr Biver says it is the first chronograph movement in titanium. However, “producing 10 pieces in titanium costs the same as 100,000 plates made the usual way.”

But he thinks the time and money were justified. “At Basel, we were able to show a double world first in the same watch: the first case in magnesium and the first movement in titanium. A watch of 77 grammes,” he adds with obvious pride.

Although he had orders for at least 350 Mr Biver will probably only make 100 and even now he has his magnesium case and his titanium movement, the problems are far from over.

The Big Bang is a water- resistant sports watch and the links with Wally Yachts as well as the name Hublot (porthole in French) position it as a maritime product. However, he has found that magnesium has an alarming tendency to corrode in contact with salt water.

Undeterred, Mr Biver has engaged Lucien Trueb, a professor of metallurgy, to overcome this inconvenience by developing a special coating or treating the magnesium.

He is urging Prof Trueb to write a book about new materials. “He is inspirational,” enthuses Mr Biver. “He gives me ideas all the time for new materials to use in watchmaking.”

Even before the first Big Bang Magnesium is delivered Mr Biver is ransacking the periodic table for elements to make into watches.