Hublot is a unique brand in many ways, combining innovation and craftsmanship in a product segment that has a long legacy of tradition and exclusivity. To meet this combination we were inspired to use a mix of technologies that are both mainstream as well as cutting edge. This together with a hacking mentality where we used channels and technologies in unexpected ways to create a unique experience that meets the target group’s needs and expectations, and ultimately made the solution work in the Hublot brand world from day one. Considering the value of selling just one €50.000 watch, the budget can be considered very moderate and a low-risk investment for the brand while the brand value of pushing the unique, personal high-end product presentation space is invaluable.

Buying a 120.000 dollar watch is as much about the experience as the actual purchase. Luxury retail has a great challenge in transferring that experience into a digital environment.

How can you maintain the emotional part of the retail experience and at the same time be relevant in the modern digital market?

Hublot Digital Boutique is a digital service where people all over the world can experience the exclusive watches up-close. Both the soft- and hardware is custom-built to give the customer a personalized, high-end demonstration. Through Skype or Facetime, the customer gets to speak face to face with an Hublot expert. A wide range of tools and cameras then lets the expert switch seamlessly between interactive 3D-models and details.

Hublot Digital Boutique opens the door to a new kind of retail experience, bringing the customer closer to the craft than ever before in the digital market.

The luxury fashion industry has long struggled with how to present their products online. There’s little, if anything, that can motivate the gap of a €100 and €80.000 watch in an online product presentation. Only the direct contact with a trained sales expert who knows the product can meet the expectations from a demanding client. This is what most luxury brands have missed in their digital strategy and that Hublot has been perceptive enough to see and agile enough to develop.

The results have been way higher than expected and with product value like that of an Hublot watch, the project breaks even quickly after the first finished sale using the system. Hublot also finds that the system possibilities reaches further than being a presentation tool, it also works as a support and technical diagnosis tool where watch owners can easily reach support and talk to a well-informed expert.

The Hublot Digital Boutique is implemented as a kind of back office mini studio where the trained sales staff of the Hublot Flagship store in NYC are able to connect to customers through video call services easily available to the customer base. Primarily this is Skype and Facetime since it covers a vast majority of clients. The channels can easily be expanded into more platforms like Wechat when new markets are opened up for the service. For Hublot this is a figurehead solution to show their strive to push the product presentation experience within the digital realm to suit the level of quality of the watches they make.

Based on a mix of off the shelf solutions like Microsoft Surface Studio and Logitech BRIO cameras combined with a capable and tactile interface developed in Unity and finished off with a custom designed, laser cut polycarbonate casing it is a solid mix of versatile and exclusive. The team employed an agile process to move fast and meet a solid first product release that could be tested and evaluated. The key was working in a small, autonomous team on both the agency and client sides where equal trust and a clear goal were factors for success. From first contact to final, the fully working beta product took approximately 12 months to create including ideation, design, content creation, development, testing and launch.