Filip Brabec represents a new generation of watch collectors who approach horology through the lens of technology and design innovation. Working in the high-tech industry, his perspective on timepieces differs markedly from traditional collectors who gravitate toward vintage pieces and classical complications. Instead, Brabec finds himself drawn to contemporary watchmaking that pushes boundaries in materials science, modular design, and technical innovation.
His collection tells the story of a collector who values bold design choices, advanced materials, and the intersection of technology with luxury craftsmanship. From his first Hublot Big Bang Red Magic to his prized Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar in titanium, each piece reflects his appreciation for watches that make statements while delivering technical excellence.
We sat down with Brabec to discuss his collecting journey, his thoughts on luxury watch investment, and why he believes Hublot deserves more respect in the horological community.
Beyond Watches: The Complete Enthusiast
Yanko Design: How would you describe yourself to our readers on Yanko Design?
Filip Brabec: “I’m a car enthusiast, a watch enthusiast, a design enthusiast, and a tech enthusiast. I’ve always been drawn to technology and industrial products. At the core, it’s design and mechanics that truly fascinate me.”
Brabec’s interests extend well beyond horology into broader areas of design and engineering. “I also love fashion and style. I’m drawn to the aesthetic qualities, the sense of luxury, and the lifestyle that comes with it. All of these things come together for me.”
This multifaceted approach to collecting and appreciation helps explain his attraction to brands like Hublot that operate at the intersection of multiple disciplines. “They somehow come together for me in vehicles and in what I do. But they also come together for me in watches, because you have all these elements there. You have design, mechanical precision, esthetics, and materials. There’s so much depth, and it’s incredibly rich.”
The connection between his professional background in technology and his collecting preferences creates a coherent philosophy that values innovation, materials science, and functional design over pure tradition or heritage.
The Technology Behind the Bold Design
YD: What initially drew you to Hublot when most collectors focus on traditional Swiss brands?
FB “I like new and modern watches because I like technology. I work for a very high tech brand, and so my fascination with Hublot is really the tech, the bold design, and actually very clever use of materials.”
Brabec’s attraction to Hublot stems from the brand’s approach to modern watchmaking, which aligns with his professional background in technology. Unlike collectors who seek the heritage and tradition of established manufacturers, he gravitates toward innovation and contemporary design solutions.
“The motto of Hublot is the art of fusion,” Brabec explains. “It was started by Jean Claude Biver, who bought the brand in its very beginning. I had the pleasure of meeting Jean Claude and having a fairly extensive lunch with him, and so he told me about the brand, and I got to tour the brand.”
Jean Claude Biver, who served as CEO of Hublot from 2004 until his retirement in 2018, transformed the brand from a niche 1980s watchmaker into a global luxury powerhouse. Under his leadership, Hublot became known for its “Art of Fusion” philosophy, which involves combining unconventional materials in watch construction.
“Art of fusion actually means fusing different materials together,” Brabec notes. “For example, in the beginning, even before the modern era, they had gold with rubber, so gold watch with a rubber strap. And later on, of course, they got to mix different things.”
This material innovation extends beyond aesthetics into functional design. Hublot’s modular construction allows owners to customize their timepieces in ways that traditional watches cannot accommodate.
“What I also like about all of these is that they’re modular, so you can actually take this bezel, take it off and put a different bezel,” Brabec explains. “The beauty of it is that in its life as the watch gets serviced, you don’t have to replace the whole watch. You can just replace a certain piece of it. So the modularity was part of a clever idea around the design.”
The First Piece: Big Bang Red Magic
YD: Tell us about your first Hublot and what made it special.
FB: “My first Hublot was Big Bang Red Magic, and I absolutely thought it was the coolest watch ever. First of all, Hublot was kind of an inventor of an All Black Watch, and it was also part of a statement.”
The Big Bang Red Magic represents Hublot’s bold approach to color and materials in luxury watchmaking. The watch features a black ceramic case with red accents, including red markers and a red-tinted crystal, creating a striking visual contrast that exemplifies the brand’s willingness to challenge traditional watch aesthetics.
“What’s very funny about All Black Watch is that Jean Claude would say, you know, it’s funny. Average price of a new Hublot is about 20,000 euros. And he said people would buy them, but they couldn’t read what time it is, because it’s black on black,” Brabec recalls with amusement. “But that kind of is part of what speaks to this, which is it’s also a statement, and it’s also piece of jewelry, and it’s also this lifestyle thing.”
The Red Magic variant addresses the legibility issue while maintaining the bold aesthetic. “Red magic is basically a Black Watch, but it had red markers. It also had a red face. And then the coolest thing about it, it had stitching on the strap, on a black strap. But the coolest thing about it was red crystal glass over the top.”
This red sapphire crystal represents a significant technical achievement in watchmaking. Creating colored sapphire crystal requires precise control of trace elements during the crystal growth process, resulting in a material that maintains the hardness and scratch resistance of traditional sapphire while adding visual impact.
The Strap System Revolution
For Brabec, Hublot’s modular strap system isn’t just clever engineering. It’s the gateway to a more personal kind of watch ownership. “The other thing that I love is the whole release strap concept. It lets you swap in a lot of different straps, not just in terms of color but also material. You can go with rubber, leather, crocodile, or even fabric like cloth. Some come in beautifully stitched leather, for example. There’s a huge variety available.”
That variety isn’t just theoretical. Brabec owns more than ten straps for his Hublot tourbillon, each radically shifting the look and feel of the watch. “I love them because they’re all so different. It’s like having different watches.”
His collection ranges from refined leather finishes to playful, unconventional styles. “In Japan, very popular, and I really love those straps, are camo straps. So I have a blue camo, for example. I have a green camo. I also have a very bright green camo, which is different shades of green, and it’s creative and cool and fun.”
The quick-release mechanism turns a single case into a wardrobe of design expressions. Brabec explains how this supports his natural instinct for coordination. “The whole lifestyle aspect of it is also great, because you can change them often, and wear different colors together, and I’m big on color matching. That’s how my brain works. I’m not trying to make it a statement. It’s how I like things. And so it works for me esthetically.”
There’s also a comfort factor that traditional luxury brands often overlook. “It’s greatly wearable, partially because of the rubber straps. They’re super flexible and really easy to put on.” The adaptability of the system, both visually and physically, reflects a shift toward watches that integrate more naturally into a fast-changing, style-conscious lifestyle. For Brabec, that translates to enduring value. “That watch will forever be special. I doubt I would ever get rid of it.”
The practical benefits extend beyond aesthetics. “It’s greatly wearable, partially because of the rubber straps. They’re super flexible and really easy to put on,” Brabec notes. This focus on wearability represents a departure from traditional luxury watches that often prioritize appearance over comfort.
The Prized Possession: Limited Edition Tourbillon
YD: Your current favorite watch is quite special. Can you tell us about it?
FB: “The watch we looked at this morning is Hublot Big Bang Tourbillon. It was my first tourbillon, which is an amazing complication and one that only few are privileged to make. They made only 18 pieces. It was a limited edition developed for Japanese market.”
This limited edition Big Bang Tourbillon represents the pinnacle of Hublot’s technical capabilities. Limited to just 18 pieces for the Japanese market, it combines the brand’s signature bold aesthetics with one of watchmaking’s most prestigious complications.
“What’s cool about it, and what speaks to me so much is because it’s quintessential Hublot. It’s Big Bang. The case is Big Bang. It’s carbon, and the movement is suspended, so it’s a skeletonized watch. And with that tourbillon complication, and the fact that it’s an automatic watch, which many tourbillons aren’t, makes it a super attractive watch.”
The tourbillon, invented in 1795 by Abraham-Louis Breguet, was originally designed to counteract the effects of gravity on pocket watch movements. In modern wristwatches, it serves more as a demonstration of watchmaking prowess than a functional necessity. The addition of an automatic winding system to a tourbillon movement represents a significant technical challenge, as the delicate tourbillon cage must be balanced against the weight and motion of the automatic rotor.
“It’s also black on black with black markers. That was also unique about the edition,” Brabec continues. This monochromatic approach exemplifies Hublot’s distinctive design language while creating a sophisticated backdrop for the tourbillon complication to take center stage.
The watch’s carbon fiber construction further demonstrates Hublot’s material innovation. Carbon fiber offers exceptional strength-to-weight ratio, corrosion resistance, and a distinctive visual texture that traditional watchmaking materials cannot match.
“Because I had a chance to visit the factory, I have seen their room, where only the top of the top masters get to work, because tourbillon is such a difficult complication to develop and to build,” Brabec explains. This insight into the manufacturing process has deepened his appreciation for the craftsmanship involved.
The Crown Jewel: Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar
YD: You mentioned having a piece that you’ll truly never sell. Tell us about that watch.
FB: “The most amazing piece that I have is a limited edition Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar. It’s made out of titanium, which means it’s very light for what it is. And the most fascinating thing is that it’s quite thin, and the movement is incredible in that it has so many manual functions.”
The Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar in titanium represents the intersection of Audemars Piguet’s design heritage with modern materials science. Titanium offers approximately 45% less weight than stainless steel while maintaining superior strength and corrosion resistance. For a complex watch like a perpetual calendar, this weight reduction significantly improves wearability without compromising durability.
“I went to a master class with AP, and I got to work on metal, and so I got to see how difficult it is. And so you have a completely new level of appreciation for that amazing product,” Brabec explains. This hands-on experience with titanium machining has given him insight into the technical challenges involved in creating such timepieces.
Understanding Perpetual Calendar Complexity
The perpetual calendar complication represents one of the most sophisticated achievements in mechanical watchmaking. Unlike simple calendar watches that require manual adjustment, a perpetual calendar automatically accounts for the varying lengths of months and leap years.
“This is a mechanical watch that is tracking day, month, year, calendar, week as well as leap year. So 1, 2, 3, 4, leap year, as well as moon phase and all in one housing and being automatic,” Brabec explains. “So it’s basically the Swiss Army knife on your wrist with this incredible design with this incredible technology that’s behind it.”
The mechanical complexity required to achieve this functionality is staggering. A typical perpetual calendar movement contains hundreds of components working in precise coordination to track multiple calendar functions simultaneously. The movement must “remember” which months have 30 or 31 days, account for February’s 28 days, and automatically adjust for leap years every four years.
“The craftsmanship of that product is absolutely insane and it does all of that mechanically, and that’s what’s so fascinating to me,” Brabec continues. “It’s one thing that you’re able to see something like that on your phone or wherever, but for the actual mechanical machine to be able to track all that and think how smart it is, the fact that it tracks leap years, 1, 2, 3, 4, and that’s why it’s called perpetual calendar, because as long as you keep winding it, it will run forever.”
The programming of leap year cycles into a mechanical movement requires extraordinary precision. The watch must track a four-year cycle and automatically adjust February from 28 to 29 days every fourth year. “It knows that this year is the year when February will have 29 days, and after 29 it jumps to number one of the next month, and it jumps to March one. And it does all of that every four years, because it knows that’s how the calendar works.”
This level of mechanical intelligence, achieved without any electronic components, represents centuries of horological development and refinement. The fact that Audemars Piguet can package this complexity into a relatively thin titanium case demonstrates the brand’s mastery of both traditional complications and modern manufacturing techniques.
Collecting Philosophy: Passion Over Profit
YD: What advice would you give to someone starting to collect Hublot watches?
FB: “Don’t try to make it an investment. Hublot is not necessarily a brand that fares super well in secondary market. So the way to buy, from a value standpoint, is used because if you can find a good used Hublot, you’re probably in pretty good shape, and your discount will be pretty sizable.”
Brabec’s approach to collecting emphasizes practical considerations over speculative investment. His strategy of purchasing pre-owned pieces allows him to acquire watches that would otherwise be financially out of reach while avoiding the steep depreciation that affects many luxury watches in their first years.
“The watch market is tricky, and I think a lot of people try to make it an investment, but I think that’s the wrong way to go,” he continues. “You should not make it about investment. You should make it about what you love.”
This philosophy extends beyond Hublot to his entire collecting approach. When discussing Audemars Piguet, he clarifies: “I would consider AP as an investment, yet I would not purchase an AP as an investment. I would purchase AP as something I love, and it also happens to be an investment. I would not be motivated by the investment unless I have to explain it to my partner.”
The Evolution of Taste
Brabec’s collecting journey illustrates how preferences develop and refine over time. “When you’re developing your collection, you’re developing esthetic and kind of a direction and opinion and what you like and what you want to have and what you aspire to have,” he explains.
This evolution involves both acquisition and divestment. “You acquire certain things, and you love them, and you kind of have them and then you realize over time that there are some pieces that you love and that will probably be with you forever, and there are some pieces that you bought and you like them, but you all of a sudden realize two years later that you really hardly wore them.”
The natural progression leads to portfolio refinement. “You kind of start feeling like, you know what, maybe I need to sell this watch, because this is maybe not speaking to me as much as I thought, and that’s how, for me, it’s a kind of evolution of taste, evolution of philosophy of how you piece your things together.”
Practical Collecting Strategies
Beyond emotional attachment, Brabec considers practical factors in building his collection. “For me, it’s also a fashion statement. So for me it’s also how it fits other things that I wear. So I also think about that, and I also think about similar style watches.”
His most important rule involves avoiding redundancy: “You should try not to have two similar style watches, because they’ll always fight, and you’ll tend to always prefer one. The other one will naturally always be sitting, and then it’ll be like that thing that you wore one Saturday. And you think, yeah, that’s kind of cool. But then nine out of 10 times you wear the other one.”
This insight reflects years of collecting experience and highlights the importance of considering how each piece fits within the broader collection rather than evaluating watches in isolation.
Defending the Polarizing Brand
YD: Hublot seems to generate strong reactions in the watch community. How do you respond to critics?
FB: “It’s to some degree a polarizing brand, because I think typically you either love Hublot or you hate Hublot. There aren’t very many people that are like, Hublot is in between, I’m okay with Hublot. You don’t get that often.”
The criticism often centers on Hublot’s departure from traditional watchmaking aesthetics and techniques. “There are haters who are saying, basically they’re not at all in line with the classical sort of watchmaking. But you know, Jean Claude would tell you that they’re not trying to be classic. They’re a young brand, and as a result, they want to be doing new things.”
This perspective highlights a fundamental divide in the watch collecting community between those who value heritage and tradition versus those who appreciate innovation and contemporary design. Brabec firmly places himself in the latter camp, viewing Hublot’s willingness to challenge conventions as a strength rather than a weakness.
The brand’s approach to materials exemplifies this philosophy. While traditional Swiss watchmaking relies heavily on precious metals and established techniques, Hublot has pioneered the use of ceramic, carbon fiber, and unconventional material combinations. This innovation requires different manufacturing processes and design approaches that may not align with classical watchmaking traditions but represent genuine technical advancement.
The Future of Collecting
Brabec represents a growing segment of watch collectors who approach the hobby through a contemporary lens. Rather than seeking connection to watchmaking’s past, they appreciate brands that push the boundaries of what’s possible in modern timepiece design and manufacturing.
His collection strategy of focusing on pieces he genuinely loves, purchasing pre-owned to maximize value, and avoiding redundancy offers practical guidance for collectors who want to build meaningful collections without falling into common traps of speculation or impulse buying.
The modular nature of his Hublot pieces, with their interchangeable straps and bezels, reflects a modern approach to luxury that prioritizes versatility and personalization over static perfection. This philosophy may well represent the future direction of luxury watch collecting as younger collectors seek pieces that can adapt to their lifestyles rather than requiring lifestyle adaptation to accommodate the watches.
Through his thoughtful approach to collecting and his willingness to defend unconventional choices, Filip Brabec demonstrates that there are multiple valid paths through the world of luxury timepieces. His collection tells the story of a collector who has found his own voice in a hobby often dominated by conventional wisdom and traditional preferences.
The post Inside the Mind of a Tech-Savvy Collector: Filip Brabec on Hublot, Audemars Piguet, and the Art of Watch Collecting first appeared on Yanko Design.