Running Time: Olympic Hero Usain Bolt Gets His Own Hublot Watch


Usain Bolt with Hublot watchJamaican sprinter Usain “Lightning” Bolt became known as the world’s fastest man back in 2008, when he won a gold medal and set new Olympic records at the summer games in Beijing. Now, as Bolt prepares to defend his title this year in London, he will have his own personalized Hublot watch to record his lap times: the King Power Usain Bolt.

The new watch, which was designed in collaboration with the Olympic athlete and contains Hublot’s HUB4100 chronograph movement, incorporates several signature elements that are representative of Bolt. On the dial, a silhouette of Bolt in his recognizable sprint pose is applied in anthracite gray transfer atop a black background in the small seconds subdial at 9 o’clock. In the 12-hour chronograph subdial at 6 o’clock, the numbers and indices are in the green color of the Jamaican flag. The dial also has a 30-minute chronograph counter at 3 o’clock and date window at 4:30. (Click on watch photos for larger images.)

Hublot King Power Usain Bolt

The huge, predominantly black, 48-mm King Power case is made of micro-blasted ceramic. Touches of gold, the color of Bolt’s “lucky” running shoes, are evident on the dial (whose flange features a 2n gold powder coating) and the strap, which sports an outside layer of the same gold-colored synthetic leather as Bolt’s shoes stitched onto Hublot-standard black rubber. The Bolt silhouette figure is also inscribed on the sapphire caseback window. The watch will be a limited series of 250 numbered pieces, priced at $24,000 each.

Usain Bolt wearing Hublot
Usain Bolt with Hublot watch and gold sneakers
The strap of Bolt’s Hublot watch matches the gold of his lucky running shoes.

Bolt, who turns 25 this year, is off to a good start in his quest to defend his three titles, in the 100, 200, and 4×100 meter events, this summer in London. He recently completed his first individual 100 meters in just 9.82 seconds at Kington, Jamaica’s National Stadium, beating 2011’s season-opening time of 9.91 seconds.

Hublot chairman Jean-Claude Biver, cleverly referencing Hublot’s other popular watch models, said,”It is perfectly natural to be associated with the fastest man, not just on the planet, but the fastest since the Big Bang.”

Hublot KIng Power Usain Bolt front

Technical characteristics:

Movement: Caliber HUB4100, automatic, chronograph; 252 components; 27 jewels; 42-hour power reserve

Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, chronograph, date

Case: Micro-blasted black ceramic, diameter = 48 mm, sapphire crystal with gray minute-track transfer and double-sided nonreflective coating, black PVD titanium crown and push-pieces with black rubber inserts, black composite resin lugs and lateral inserts, water-resistant to 100 meters; black rubber strap with gold-colored synthetic leather, folding buckle in black micro-blasted PVD titanium

Dial and Hands: Matte black dial with satin-finished, 2N gold-coated flange; satin-finished hands and indices coated with black Super-LumiNova; Usain Bolt silhouette in gray transfer in small seconds subdial at 9 o’clock; chronograph 12-hour subdial at 6 o’clock; chronograph 30-minutes subdial at 3 o’clock; date window at 4:30

Limited edition of 250 numbered pieces

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  1. Patrick Blair

    I like the look of the Hublot for Usain Bolt, but would be more impressed if Hublot could have really pushed the boat out to create a movement like Tag Heuer (Mikrograph) or (Mikrotimer) to record times of 100th or 1000th second respectively.

    Surely, this would be a more fitting tribute to an amazing athlete who needs to be recorded to such times? Without the Bolt logo, on the surface, the watch looks and performs as most others in the Hublot range.

    Reply
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