Table of Contents
Rubber
The material caoutchouc
The word origin of caoutchouc comes from the American Indian (cao = tree and ochu = tear), which means “Tears of the tree.” The material was thus produced from tree or plant juices. In the 18th Century the knowledge about the collection of this material (rubber) came from Central America to Europe.
Rubber comes in a natural (natural rubber) and in an artificial (synthetic rubber) form. Taking the total rubber demand the second variant delivers about 60%.
Rubber in the field of watches
Lately rubber is used more and more as a basic material for watch bracelets. In the field of luxury the introduction of natural black bracelets made from rubber by the Italian Carlo Crocco stired much attention in the 1980 years, who equipped the “Hublot” (porthole) models of his brand MDM with this, and hereby created an innovative link between gold and synthetic. Jean-Claude Biver, who came to Hublot in 2004, has developed this approach further with his “fusion” concept and in the success model Big Bang has united a whole series of natural and synthetic materials together.