Hublot was founded in 1980 by Carlo Crocco, the first person to ever put an 18kt gold watch on a black rubber strap. By the mid-1990s many different watch brands were starting to use rubber when manufacturing their timepieces. In 2004 Jean-Claude Biver took over as CEO of the company when Carlo Crocco became too preoccupied with other things. Hublot is most well known for its “Big Bang” collection, which consists of both 41mm and 44mm watches. The brand was just recently purchased by LVMH and will make approximately 30,000 watches in the year 2008.