Nothing beats an evening at the penthouse of The Joule Hotel here in Dallas surrounded by an exclusive group of watch collectors, the team at the Hublot Dallas Boutique, Rick De La Croix —Hublot's President for Latin America—, amazing watches and us. Yesterday evening, we gathered at this exclusive setting, to host a 'Watch Collectors Night' and a special viewing of all the Hublot Baselworld 2016 novelties in partnership with our friends from Hublot. In what we can only describe as a memorable evening, watch collectors were able to see and play with pretty much almost all the Hublot novelties released earlier this year —with the exception of the MECA-10 reviewed here— as well as some other special watches from the brand, including the MP-05 LaFerrari Sapphire we reviewed here.

While the downtown views from the two terraces at the penthouse were quite captivating, the array of Hublot Baselworld 2016 novelties were even more impressive with a lineup that included: the new Big Bang Unico Sapphire and Big Bang Unico Sapphire All Black reviewed here, the Classic Fusion Berluti Scritto and the Classic Fusion Berluti All Black reviewed here, and the Big Bang Unico Italia Independent 'Camouflage' reviewed here. To make things even better, Hublot made sure that the Classic Fusion Berluti watches were properly displayed next to the legendary Berluti shoes that served as their inspiration, along with the special presentation box that comes with these exclusive limited edition timepieces.

Along with these Hublot Baselworld 2016 novelties, other special pieces —like the Hublot Classic Fusion VanDutch and the Dallas Cowboys collection, just to name a few— were also available during our watch collectors night. And for those of you already wondering if we served any Negronis, yes we did. At the end of the day, a watch collectors night without our usual Negronis is like perusing a watch with no mechanical movement inside. As the Negronis flowed through the night, so did the champagne flutes, the signature cocktails, the decadent hors d'oeuvres and some tasty macarons almost as good as those from Ladurée.

After a few greetings, introductions and remarks, we all gathered around the watches to enjoy what in the first place had brought us together. While a nice setting, good drinks and delicious food are always key in having a good time, the love and passion for horology is what keeps us going and feeds our soul. As all watch collectors enjoyed perusing —for the very first time in person— the Hublot Baselworld 2016 novelties that were available for the night, the majority of us spent extra time looking at the two stars of the night: the $595,000 USD Hublot MP-05 LaFerrari Sapphire and the Hublot Big Bang Unico Sapphire.

And just as if all of what we've described above —as far as the experience goes— wasn't exciting enough, there's one last touch that made this watch collectors night even more memorable. Seeing a watch collector purchase on the spot that very special watch he had been eyeing for hours at our event, was simply priceless. Especially, when the Hublot on his wrist, was already a very special watch that was a unique one-off custom timepiece and that we have below.

Well, I guess when you can't leave that one watch behind at an event, you just have to buy it. Congrats to our good friend, whom today is enjoying that favorite of ours from Baselworld 2016, the Hublot Big Bang Unico Italia Independent Camo in green, such a crazy awesome piece.

Special thanks to everyone that was able to join us —even with the rainy weather— and to the team at Hublot that made this partnered event such a huge success. All in all, a perfectly orchestrated evening with Hublot and the Hublot Dallas Boutique.

Stay tuned for the video recap that will go up on the site in the next few days.

For more info on Hublot click here and for the Hublot Dallas Boutique here.