Designer Giorgetto Giugiaro spotted wearing a Hublot

Automotive legend Giorgetto Giugiaro, born in 1938 and responsible for some of history's most celebrated car designs, has been photographed wearing a Hublot MDM Chronograph in yellow gold. The sighting, shared by Italian Watch Spotter, captures the designer at work with sketches, underscoring a pairing that bridges two design disciplines separated only by scale: the mechanical watch and the motor car.

The Hublot MDM (Manufacture de Montre Design) Chronograph represents a pivotal moment in the brand's evolution. Introduced in the early 1980s, the MDM series featured an integrated case and bezel design—a signature Hublot philosophy—paired with a quartz chronograph movement. The reference shown here exhibits a yellow-gold case with applied hour indices and a prominent tachymetre bezel calibrated to 200 units per hour. The black dial presents a clean three-register layout typical of chronograph architecture: hour, minute, and small-seconds registers positioned at 12, 9, and 6 o'clock respectively. Water resistance typically rated at 50 metres suited the MDM's position as an elegant dress chronograph rather than a professional timing instrument.

Among collectors, the Hublot MDM occupies a unique space: it bridges the brand's pre-Big Bang era with contemporary design language. Yellow-gold variants in good condition remain scarce, as precious-metal chronographs of that period suffered higher melting rates than steel counterparts. The MDM's quartz movement—reliable but non-mechanical—diverges from modern Hublot positioning, lending it a certain historical purity for those seeking 1980s haute horlogerie without the service demands of automatic mechanisms.

Giugiaro's choice of the MDM resonates with his design ethos: geometric clarity, functional surfaces, and the marriage of art and engineering. His sketches visible in the photograph—likely for automotive projects—sit alongside a wrist instrument equally concerned with proportion and utility. The pairing underscores how industrial design and horological design shared aesthetic and philosophical DNA during the 1980s.

The Hublot MDM Chronograph in yellow gold commands grey-market prices between 3,500 and 5,500 USD depending on condition and service history. Retail pricing at issue (early 1980s) ranged from approximately 4,000 to 6,000 USD in equivalent dollars, making this a luxury instrument then and now. Availability remains episodic; collectors seeking a period-correct example must monitor specialist dealers and auction houses focused on vintage Hublot.