Twice a year, a glittering, roiling New York Fashion Week descends upon Manhattans most exclusive sartorial enclaves, beckoning well-slicked industry notables and convening armies of hungry, diaphanous sylphs. But take a moment to peel away its chimeric overlay and youll find a well-oiled machine of appointments, productions and sponsorshipsall running like clockwork, you might say.

Timing is everything when it comes to fashion. Thats why sponsoring it is a business, one that luxury Swiss watchmaker, Hublot, knows well. As timekeeping partner of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, Hublots array of strategically-placed timepieces tell the likes of Anna Wintour, Kanye West and Daphne Guinness where to go and when.

Exceedingly gregarious and larger-than-life Hublot CEO, Jean-Claude Biver, believes his company engages directly with brand loyalists and potential customers alike at Fashion Week. Where they are, he wants to be.

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If our customer goes to Fashion Week he should meet us there. If he is in Las Vegas he should meet us there and if the customer is on Fashion Avenue, he should meet us there, too, Biver said.

The clocks that meet Spring 2011 Fashion Week attendees are enlarged replicas from Hublot collections. Five black sport watch faces guard the main hallway entry, each set to reflect the time of a different fashion capitol and Geneva, home to Hublots corporate headquarters (watch the video from our day at Fashion Week).

Across the room, lofted above the registration terminal, a sparkling, bedecked Hublot watches tells of lifes fleeting minutes to revelers in the main exhibition hall. Bivers insistence on a marriage of style and functionality seems befitting of this biannual crossroads of artistic license and corporate showmanship.

With nearly 40 years in the luxury watch business, Biver has surrounded himself with a trusted inner circle of marketing wunderkinds. Bivers managing director has been at his side since 1989 and communications maverick, Valerie Servageon, since 1993. It was this team, spearheaded by Servageon, that cemented Hublots official timekeeping sponsorship with Mercedez-Benz Fashion Week beginning in Fall 2010.

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Biver acknowledges a substantial partnership fee, not unusual for this level of corporate affiliation, though the amount varies with the season (for fall, Hublot is designated official timekeeper while in the spring, the company is simply a sponsora calculated decision based on the notion that the fall season is slightly more influential).

The high fashion exposure has significantly improved Hublots sales and overall brand recognition, according to the company. Biver says the partnership will extend at least until 2012, adhering to his belief in the efficacy of long-term sponsorship relationships and fostering lifelong bonds with consumers.

He must get the feeling that Hublot is part of his world, Biver said of the companys mantra. If Hublot becomes part of his world, half the sale is already done.

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