Watches & Wonders Edit: Hublot unveils new models of its iconic Big Bang design, from the first-ever square shaped Square Bang Unico to the limited-edition Tourbillon Automatic Purple Sapphire
The in-demand Big Bang collection has gained models with a translucent purple case and monobloc limited editions – and inspired the Square Bang Unico too
After artists Shepard Fairey, Maxime Plescia-Buchi, Marc Ferrero and Takashi Murakami, the Hublot Loves Art initiative is now saluting sculptor Richard Orlinski
Since it was introduced in 2005, Big Bang has become Hublot’s best known and most sought after collection, distinguished by its trademark combination of traditional watchmaking complications with highly innovative materials and design.
For Watches and Wonders 2022, the Geneva manufacture has introduced two additions to the collection to carry this tradition forward, alongside an innovative marvel inspired by the Big Bang, as well as a piece that marks Hublot’s commitment to celebrating the best of contemporary art.
The Hublot Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic Purple Sapphire shows all its workings.
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The Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic Purple Sapphire lives up to the iconic collection’s promise by combining a tourbillon – the most traditional and celebrated of watchmaking complications – with a highly innovative material, an exclusive version of synthetic sapphire. It comes in a colour never seen before in fine watchmaking, translucent purple, concocted from a combination of aluminium oxide and chrome. This translucent case meets an openworked dial to provide a view into the heart of the machine, above which the carriage of the self-winding tourbillon is located at 6 o’clock, opposite a micro-rotor at 12 o’clock. It’s available in a limited edition of 50 pieces.
The Hublot Big Bang Integral Ceramic shows off its rugged monobloc architecture.
In 2020, the Big Bang collection received one of its most noteworthy updates when a version with an integrated bracelet was introduced. The Big Bang Integral Ceramic released this year takes this monobloc architecture a step further, rendering it entirely in a single material – ceramic – which combines hardness and scratch resistance with unparalleled lightness and low thermal conductivity. The new model is offered in four new nature-inspired colours – blue indigo, sky blue, sand beige and jungle green – that recall inspiring locations from city to desert to ocean. Coming in 42mm cases, the four new editions are available in limited editions of 250 each.
It isn’t just the Big Bang itself that pushed back aesthetic boundaries at this year’s Watches and Wonders: a new piece inspired by the collection takes Hublot’s watchmaking in a radical new direction. The Square Bang Unico not only features a square case; rather than hiding the movement, which most square watches do to avoid the circular movement clashing with its housing, the Square Bang Unico pushes things in the opposite direction, making the in-house Unico chronograph movement completely visible. It comes in five 42mm models, including an all-black collectors’ edition limited to 250 pieces.
The Hublot Classic Fusion Orlinski Bracelet is the latest in a series of collaborations with the French sculptor Richard Orlinski.
