STYLE Edit: Why Fifa World Cup referees wear Hublot watches – the Big Bang e Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022 marks the Swiss watchmaker’s fourth outing as the tournament’s official timekeeper

It won’t have escaped your attention that there’s a football tournament going on. No top-level sporting event can take place without accurate timekeeping, and the 129 official referees officiating at the 64 World Cup matches in Qatar are relying on the supreme accuracy and reliability of Hublot timepieces to keep the game moving.

The watch they have on their wrists – the Big Bang e Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022 – is a genuine groundbreaker. Launched to mark the event, these Gen3-connected watches allow their owners to combine a love of fine horology with their love of the beautiful game, keeping them in touch with all the action in Qatar and instantly capturing the most exciting moments.

The fun began even before the tournament, with the watch counting down the moments to the start of the first game. It provides the wearer with team line-ups and player profiles 15 minutes before each match, and then switches over into so-called “timeline” mode once the match kicks off. Each time something important happens – a goal, a penalty, or a yellow or red card – the watch will launch a special animation featuring the player’s name, and mark the event with a football symbol on a scale around the edge of the dial, which indicates when it took place. The wearer can replay the animation at any point by scrolling around the dial using the watch’s crown.

Taking its aesthetic cues from the Big Bang, Hublot’s best known timepiece, the Big Bang e Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022 comes in a 44mm case in black ceramic and titanium. It’s available in a wide range of dial and strap options: the official version comes in the colours of Qatar’s flag, but fans of other countries can also choose from versions in the colours of each of the 32 teams taking part.

At the timepiece’s heart is a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100 processor powered by Google’s Wear OS. The watch features a range of useful functions that include an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a microphone, a speaker, GPS and a heart rate monitor. It also comes pre-loaded with a range of handy apps.

As the Hublot Loves Football campaign launched for the 2022 World Cup suggests, Hublot’s support for the game runs deep. This is the fourth time that the Swiss luxury watchmaker has been the official timekeeper at a World Cup, and it also has official relationships with many other important football competitions, from UEFA’s European Championships and Champions League, to the English Premier League.