Hublot Celebrates 25 Years of OpusX with Classic Fusion Chronograph Arturo Fuente King Gold

The best wristwatches and best cigars have quite a bit in common when you think about it. Both are made largely by hand by specially trained artisans, employing traditional techniques whose roots reach back more than a century. Both have their own esoteric language and have cultivated a singularly devoted and well-educated coterie of connoisseurs worldwide. Many watch and cigar brands, even if they’re parts of large, corporate conglomerates today, started out as small, family-owned-and-operated workshops that grew into multi-generational businesses. All this considered, it’s almost a little surprising that there haven’t been more collaborations between luxury watchmakers and premium cigarmakers — but the most high-profile and prominent one, between Hublot and Arturo Fuente, which was established in 2012, is still going strong, releasing its sixth specially branded limited edition this week. And as per tradition, the Classic Fusion Chronograph Arturo Fuente King Gold, limited to 50 pieces, melds the worlds of haute horology and tobacciana in a spectacularly ornate manner that will speak to enthusiasts (like your humble writer) of both.

For those not yet inducted into the cigar-enthusiast fraternity, the Arturo Fuente Cigar Company is a four-generation family-owned enterprise, founded in 1912 in Tampa by Cuban immigrant cigarmaker Arturo Fuente, Sr., and now based in the Dominican Republic. Today led by Arturo’s charismatic grandson, Carlos (“Carlito”) Fuente, Jr., the company makes some of the world’s most exclusive and highest-rated premium cigars, none more legendary or coveted than the Fuente Fuente OpusX, the world’s first Dominican puro, i.e., a cigar with all of its tobacco grown in the same country — yes, the tobacco equivalent of a true manufacture watch. The FFOX turns 25 years old in 2024, and Hublot gives it a fitting tribute with this timepiece, the first Fuente edition to use the maison’s proprietary, platinum-heavy King Gold alloy for its 42mm Classic Fusion case. 

Like its most recent predecessor in 2021, a ceramic-cased Big Bang Unico edition paying tribute to Carlito’s father, Carlos Fuente, Sr., the new watch features a laser-engraved tobacco leaf motif, but executed in a slightly more understated manner, only on the bezel rather than the entirety of the case. The dial is also more conventionally styled than the openworked version on the Unico, albeit no less eye-catching — in emerald green with a sunray finish and a gradient “fumé” effect (that means, “smoked,” of course, in case you’re missing the theme here) that darkens at the edges. On the subdial at 3 o’clock for the running seconds, you’ll find another unifying element of the Fuente editions, the OpusX emblem, here in green and gold.

The movement inside the satin-finished, microblasted, 11.9mm-thick case is the self-winding HUB1153 caliber, which is based on the ubiquitous ETA 2892-A2 and used by Hublot in many of its Classic Fusion Chronograph models. Beating at 28,800 vph (4 Hz), the movement amasses a power reserve of 48 hours and does its business behind a solid King Gold caseback, artistically engraved and lacquered with a specially created OpusX 25th anniversary emblem. The watch is mounted on a dark green strap — with an alligator leather top surface and a rubber base, held together with tone-on-tone green stitching — which fastens to the wrist with a deployant buckle that combines King Gold with black-coated stainless steel. 

As someone who has covered all of the Hublot Arturo Fuente editions, and worn most of them, this Classic Fusion King Gold model stands apart from the rest in several significant ways, most of which I’ve touched on above. The predominant use of bright green in this timepiece’s ensemble is a departure from the mostly darker color palette of its predecessors, which tended toward browns, grays, and other cigar-evocative tones — and is perhaps inspired by the verdant vistas of tobacco fields before harvest, like the ones at Fuente’s own Château de la Fuente in Bonao in the D.R., where the OpusX wrappers are grown. None of these Fuente watches have been what you’d call subtle — except, perhaps, 2015’s “Forbidden X” edition, which looked mostly like a standard gold-and-brown Classic Fusion, sans engravings, with a tobacco-leaf-textured dial — but this year’s edition takes the aesthetic boldness to a new level.

The Hublot Classic Fusion Chronograph Arturo Fuente King Gold Edition retails for $40,500 and comes in a handsome, green-lacquered wooden watch box that doubles as a cigar humidor.