Daily Front Row

2010 April 26

Miller Time for Hublot

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Jean-Claude Biver, Veronica Varekova, Bode Miller
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(NEW YORK) It’s a very sports-flavored year for Hublot, LVMH's luxury Swiss watch brand. Earlier this month, it was announced that the brand has become the official watch of FIFA, as well as the World Cup for South Africa 2010 and Brazil 2014. On Friday, the brand announced its new ambassador Bode Miller, the most decorated male skier in US history. “I never bought myself a fancy watch,” Miller told us at Hublot's lunch at Cipriani Wall Street on Friday. “This is the first nice one that I've had. Hublot is a great company, and I think we both share a lot of the same beliefs so it just feels right for me and my charity."

Hublot’s animated CEO Jean-Claude Biver explained that hiring Miller was a very personal decision. “I was a ski teacher when I was 18 years old, so this is definitely one of my favorite sports,” Biver said. “At 21, I started racing. When I watch Olympics, I root for individual athletes and not nations. I was rooting for Bode, of course, even though he's not Swiss. I'm not a nationalist.” Expect when it comes to soccer, of course. “I’m rooting for the Swiss!" he smiled. As for Miller? He enjoyed a white table-cloth lunch of capriccio and mozzarella, a far cry from his regular portions. “I've been living on the boat in San Diego and I've been working on rebuilding that,” he shared. “It's an old boat, so it requires a lot of involvement!”
VALENTINE UHOVSKI