Swiss watch manufacturer and frequent collaborator Hublot has once again teamed up with Floridian luxury cigar brand Arturo Fuente. Continuing a partnership that began in 2012, the Hublot Big Bang Unico Arturo Fuente Ceramic pays homage to Arlos A. Fuente Sr., a legend in the cigar industry and the patriarch of the Fuente family.
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“You have a choice: give up or fight on,” Carlos A. Fuente Sr. once said. “The first is not an option.” Born in Ybor City, a Cuban émigré neighbourhood in Tampa, Florida in 1935, Carlos Sr. began working on his father Arturo’s small cigar business while he was in primary school. Carlos Sr. worked alongside his father for just over a decade before taking over the reins of the family business in 1956, expanding the company across Florida and to New York City. Despite countless setbacks (including the company’s factory burning down twice), Carlos Sr. persevered, with Arturo Fuente cigars being known as one of the most renowned brands in the world. Since his passing in 2016, his son Carlos Fuente Sr. has overseen the company.


Paying tribute to the life and legacy of Carlos A. Fuente Sr., the Hublot Big Bang Unico Arturo Fuente Ceramic infuses the signature Big Bang with design codes of the cigar company. Created alongside Fuente family designer Manny Iriarte, the 44mm case features an engraved tobacco leaf pattern on black ceramic and houses the HUB1242, a flyback chronograph movement with a 72-hour power reserve. Eschewing the usual Arabic numerals, the timepiece utilises Roman numerals favoured by the Fuente family, taken from the clock that appears on the family crest which references the Fuente motto: “We will never rush the hands of time.” At 9 o’clock, another emblem appears in the form of a crowned lion, a nod to the fact that the brand once supplied cigars to the Spanish court.


Flip it over and you’ll find the caseback engraved with “Big Bang Limited Edition” along with the number of the piece in the limited edition run of 100 pieces. Fuente’s historic logo appears in the centre, with its current initials “AF” (for Arturo Fuente) replaced with “CF”, in reference to Carlos Fuente Sr., along with the words “Edición de homenaje” (Spanish for “edition in homage”). In quotation marks, the dedication by Carlito Fuente Jr. reads: “Our Father, Our Friend, Our Hero.”


“Arturo Fuente cigars are consistently rated among the best cigars in the world,” said Ricardo Guadalupe, CEO at Hublot. “It was therefore natural that – brought together by our common desire to push the boundaries of excellence, each in our own field – our two companies joined forces and have been partners since 2012. It is in this same spirit that we are taking this opportunity to pay tribute to the patriarch Don Carlos Sr.”
Words by AR Staff