Hublot’s Big Bang Birthday
In 2005, Hublot presented the brawny Big Bang, hoping for a juggernaut that could turn around lackluster sales in a bigger-is-better watch era.
Measuring 44 millimeters, the original chronograph was distinguished by its distinctive layered case construction with pinched lugs and a knurled bezel edge, plus six H-motif screws on the smooth porthole bezel. The designs combined steel or gold with fiberglass, rubber and ceramic with a techy carbon-fiber-patterned dial.
A star was born! Big Bang soon became the brand’s flagship model, now accounting for an estimated 40 percent of sales. This year, Hublot is throwing a banger of a birthday party with a collection of five limited editions, combining emblematic details from the first Big Bang models and the later Big Bang Unico.
All five feature a redesigned 43-mm case with the signature layered case construction and knurled bezel edge. Engraved dials have an enhanced carbon-fiber motif with riveted Arabic numerals and indexes that light up after dark. The seconds counter at 9 o’clock and a chronograph minutes counter at 3 o’clock are driven by the Unico automatic manufacture chronograph movement fitted with a gold rotor. The structured rubber strap embellished with a treaded lozenge pattern echoes the first Big Bangs with an updated One Click strap-change mechanism.
The collection also showcases Hublot’s range of innovative proprietary materials. The most faithful tributes to the original are the Titanium Ceramic ($20,800, limited to 500 pieces, pictured at center) and a ceramic and King Gold (a warmer shade of red gold) version ($38,400, limited to 250 pieces, second from left).
Capped at 500 pieces, the brooding All Black ceramic iteration ($25,200, second from right) offers a nod to a 2006 Big Bang, when black watches were all the rage.
The Red Magic edition ($31,800, 100 pieces, far left) is fitted with a matching red strap, referencing the first in-house, brightly colored ceramic, a vivid red unveiled in 2018.
The Magic Gold ($40,500, 100 pieces, far right) recalls one of the brand’s first forays into advanced materials, a scratch-resistant, 18-karat gold alloy.
Already sold for more than $1 million is a set of five, high-complication Big Bangs in frosted carbon, sapphire crystal, water blue sapphire, red ceramic and carbon fiber with blue Texalium.
