“We want to occupy the Mediterranean,” states Jean Claude Biver, CEO of Hublot, with all the determination of a military commander. “In English, our name means porthole, so with a name like porthole you would think that the relations with the sea are quite obvious.”

His career has embraced the relaunch of veteran brand Blancpain; a stint as member of the board and marketing manager of Omega during which time he allied the brand with James Bond; and in the past 30 months he has brought Hublot, a brand launched in the early 1980s on the then revolutionary concept of a luxury watch on a rubber strap, from a turnover of SFr26m to an estimated turnover this year of SFr150m.