Shaquille O’Neal has owned the high-end Audemars Piguet luxury watches featuring his own name. Not to be outdone, Kobe Bryant has started his partnership with a new Swiss luxury watch brand Nubeo. As the former best teammates and now the opponents to each other, Shaq and Kobe has competed out of the court. In fact, it is quite rare for a basketball star to be a brand ambassador for a luxury watch brand. Watch companies seem to prefer the likes of golf and racing stars.
As with Nubeo, this relatively new luxury brand was started in 2004 by Spain born Ivan Castro, an extremely skilled jeweller. Nubeo is based in Basel, Switzerland, central to luxury timepiece manufacturing and host to the world’s foremost watchmakers’ annual fair and exhibition. With Basel proximate to the Jura mountain range, at the base of which reside a number of prestigious manufacturers of watch components. Nubeo works closely with its suppliers to ensure quality production of its complex designs. And its designers believe that such direct collaboration has been vital to the success of the Black Mamba project.
Basel is also home to notable design and engineering firms, such as Herzon & de Meuron, renowned architect of the 2008 Olympics Beijing National Stadium and other distinguished landmarks worldwide. Distinctly reflecting the trademark Bauhaus style, Nubeo’s headquarters are strategically placed in a 13th century building with a showroom that has been renovated to embrace this avant-garde design.
Ivan Castro, the founder of Nubeo, believes that Kobe Bryant was a best sports celebrity to partner with and cultivate new marketing and partnership opportunities, while Kobe has commented that he has actively been involved in the style and design of the watch – even the title “Black Mamba” is taken from his court nickname.
Nubeo’s collection is famous for the world’s most complex watch case, and the Black Mamba features a 131-component case made of titanium treated with DLC. Taking inspiration from Jellyfish and the ocean environment, the Black Mamba is just like a oceanic sea snake, for its bold snakeskin look. There are three versions of Nubeo Black Mamba available: Basic Black Mamba (a chapter ring with hour and minute markers), Black Mamba Ultimate (black sapphires lining the outer dial, with Arabic numerals on the bezel), and the Black Mamba MVP (black sapphires lining the bezel).
As a stunning blend of materials such as ceramic, grade five titanium and rubber, the Black Mamba embodies the value of sports and luxury watchmaking. This is also the main purpose for the collaboration of Nubeo and Kobe Bryant. The prices are set at $25,000-$285,000, so don’t think you can easily get your hands on one of these babies. But once you’ve seen it, you’ll totally agree that the price is well worth this masterwork.
