Entrepreneur Luca Cordero di Montezemolo spotted wearing a Hublot

At the unveiling of Ferrari's LaFerrari hypercar, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo — architect of the Prancing Horse's modern era and its chairman at the time — was photographed wearing the watch created expressly for that moment: the Hublot MP-05 LaFerrari in sapphire, reference 905.ND.0001.RX. The image is a rare instance of a watch sighting carrying genuine documentary weight; the man on whose watch the collaboration was built, wearing the result at its public birth.

The MP-05 LaFerrari is one of the most technically audacious pieces Hublot has ever produced. Its manually wound HUB9005.H1.PN movement stacks 11 mainspring barrels in series along a vertical axis, generating a 50-day power reserve — a figure that set a world record for a hand-wound wristwatch at its 2013 Geneva debut. A vertical tourbillon sits at the base of the barrel column, regulated at 21,600 vph. The time display uses two revolving cylinders rather than conventional hands, reinforcing the engine-inspired architecture. Total part count: 637 components across 11 barrels alone.

Reference 905.ND.0001.RX takes the already extreme movement and encases it in full sapphire crystal — top plate, bezel ring, and case middle — leaving the entire barrel train exposed to view. It is one of the most demanding sapphire machining exercises in series production watchmaking, requiring weeks of CNC grinding to achieve the curved forms. The case measures 57.7 × 39.5 mm with a 20 mm lug-to-lug height, wearing more like a piece of kinetic sculpture than a conventional watch.

Montezemolo's relationship with Hublot was not merely ceremonial. He championed the Ferrari-Hublot partnership from its earliest stages, and the MP-05 was the tangible expression of that alliance — its architecture directly referencing the LaFerrari's F140 hybrid V12 powertrain layout. Wearing it at the car's unveiling was a deliberate signal about how seriously both brands took the collaboration.

The Hublot MP-05 LaFerrari sapphire 905.ND.0001.RX carried an official retail price of $285,000 at launch, placing it firmly in the apex tier of Hublot's catalogue. Production was limited to 50 pieces. On the secondary market, examples trade in a range consistent with that scarcity and the ongoing collector appetite for transparent-case complications, with prices broadly holding near or above retail depending on condition and provenance.