If you want to see professional journalists – your correspondent included – act like overgrown schoolchildren, just place them in the vicinity of professional footballers. Once the frenzied flurry of requests for selfies and autographs subsides, five teams are picked, with each one allocated a suspiciously talented ringer. (FashionBeans got Hazard. We’ll let you decide whether that is a good or bad thing this season.) Then, donning a pair of incongruously bright red trainers with his sober suit, Hublot CEO Ricardo Guadalupe steps up and, with aplomb, slots the first penalty through the 75-point hole like a boss.

“Football is a very important sport for Hublot,” Guadalupe explains to FashionBeans after Traoré’s team has unexpectedly claimed victory. (Eden, what happened?) “To partner with iconic teams is a key element in our strategy, and particularly to be linked with London.” Indeed, between Chelsea and its other clubs – Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus and Ajax – Hublot could set up a pretty respectable European Super League in its own right. And with its bets broadly spread, tribalism is less of a concern. It’s not so much tactically astute, more an open goal to tap into the supporter bases of some of the most followed sides in the most popular sport on the planet. But if you turn the clock back to when Hublot made its football debut in 2006, it looks more forward-thinking. With the exception of Roy Keane’s prawn sandwiches, the game was, despite its beauty, not readily associated with luxury. And for Hublot, a brand that in Guadalupe’s description was looking to be promoted from the fourth division to the first, it was a shot at the big time.

Perhaps realising that sponsorship of the Swiss national team wouldn’t provide the desired level of exposure, Hublot became the timing partner for Euro 2008 in Switzerland and Austria, plus the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. For the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Hublot devised referee boards in the shape of its timepieces, which got it the kind of airtime that even billionaire Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich couldn’t buy. (Somewhat surprisingly, he’s not really into watches, according to Guadalupe.) Now literally and metaphorically in the Champions League, as official watch partner, Hublot’s association with football will also extend to this summer’s Euro 2016. But it’s not just a numbers game, nor is the relationship as arbitrary as that of the aforementioned noodle sponsors: football befits the high-octane nature of Hublot as contrasted with its staid rivals. “I always take the example of polo,” says Guadalupe. “It’s very luxurious, but watching it is much less exciting. That’s why we said, ‘Let’s do football.’” It has to be said that football-supporting watch brands often score own goals by just slapping a club crest on the dial. “We always want to be different,” smiles Guadalupe. So, in the case of the Chelsea chronograph, instead of a badge, there’s a lion at 12 o’clock (the team’s mascot) and a blue face that is bang on Baselworld trend. It’s a robust blend of swagger with elegance – much like the team’s play in its pomp. “It’s understated: a Chelsea touch but not too ‘fan’,” says Guadalupe. “It’s a great result.”

Like a fox in the penalty box, Hublot has positioned itself intelligently: not only are footballers among its potential customers, but they’re also, rightly or wrongly, contemporary tastemakers. Years after his retirement, David Beckham continues to exercise an enormous influence on how men dress, while trends from man-buns to tattoos can be traced back to the pitch (and usually Beckham). Thankfully, the players themselves are fans of the Classic Fusion – not that they’d admit to being anything else. “It’s beautiful, like Chelsea,” says the impudent Hazard, self-consciously toeing the party line with an air of mischief, before adding more sincerely, “It’s not too heavy, it’s not too big; for small guys like me, it’s good.” Mati? meanwhile provides a level of insight beyond that of most obvious-stating football pundits: “I think you can wear it casual and also smart. It’s good for every moment.”