Hublot was founded in Switzerland in 1980 by Carlo Crocco. Carlo left Binda Group (known for Breil watches) in 1976 to create a new watch company.  He moved to switzerland and formed MDM Geneve to design the first watches he termed "Hublot."  In 1980 they debuted the watch, which had the first natural rubber strap in the history of watchmaking (which took three years of research to create).  The watch debuted a Basel and not a single customer had interest that day, however over the next year sales reached $2,000,000.  Crocco ran the business and grew the brand before 2003 when Jean-Claude Biver came on board and took the CEO position.  Biver grew the brand tremensly with the debut of the "Big Bang".  The brand expanded with 96 boutiques from London to the United States. In April 2008 the brand was purchased by LVMH.