Colourful offerings from Hublot
High watchmaker Hublot in its 2020 novelties – which were unveiled at the LVMH Watch Week in Dubai – has covered the colour spectrum. While its Spirit of the Big Bang Rainbow offered a plethora of colours in one timepiece, the brand also debuted a Big Bang in a striking red case, a Classic Fusion in Gold Crystal, and a new iteration of the Big Bang Sang Bleu. We offer you a look at these masterpieces of horology…
Big Bang MP-11 Red Magic
Drawing the gaze with its striking bright red case in high-tech ceramic, entirely developed and produced by Hublot, the Big Bang MP-11 Red Magic reinvents horological performance, with a manufacture movement offering an unparalleled power reserve of 14 days via seven barrels that are visible from the dial side. Available in a limited edition of 100 pieces, the new Big Bang MP-11 Red Magic embodies the full splendour of Hublot’s Art of Fusion.
In 2018, Hublot revolutionised the world of watch design and technology with the creation of a new material: the first-ever brightly coloured high-tech ceramic. This world-exclusive material – entirely developed and produced in-house at the manufacture’s R&D department and its Metallurgy and Materials laboratory – was protected by three patents covering both the material itself and its machining processes for case components. The secret was finding the right balance between temperature and pressure so as to keep the red pigments intact. Up to this point, only black and white ceramics had been used in watchmaking. The manufacture gained a significant lead in materials research, opening up new avenues in terms of both aesthetics and performance.
Hublot is adorning the Big Bang MP-11 with its exclusive red ceramic symbolising passion, power, endeavour and glory. Fully polished, this original case and bezel material offers a distinctive contrast with the iconic H-shaped screws of the Big Bang in black titanium, and with the crown and the strap in black rubber – another of the manufacture’s signatures. The result: a bold, striking, and innovative design in the true spirit of Hublot.
Effortlessly embodying the Art of Fusion, this state-of-the-art red ceramic is paired with a Hublot manufacture movement offering unrivalled performance and design. Featuring an innovative and spectacular construction that can be admired through the transparent dial, the Hublot calibre HUB9011 manual-winding skeletonised movement offers an exceptional power reserve of two weeks via seven series-coupled barrels. To enable energy to be transmitted between the horizontal barrel arbor and the vertical gears controlling the hour and minute display, the designers made use of a system rarely employed in watchmaking: a 90-degree helical worm gear. To create an aesthetic balance with this helical gear – visible at 10 o’clock – the balance, made from anthracite ruthenium, was moved to the dial side in a symmetrical position at 2 o’clock.
This movement, comprising 270 components, is also notable for its patented index-assembly system, its silicon escapement and its black platinum bridges. The Big Bang MP-11 Red Magic is wound manually using the large fluted crown with worm screw type relief that echoes the helical gear, or an electric Torx stylus inspired by the world of motor racing.
Classic Fusion Gold Crystal
Hublot’s latest offering is the Classic Fusion Gold Crystal – a watch whose dial boasts the rarest form of gold on Earth: gold crystal. Unique, delicate, and flamboyant, the dial of the Classic Fusion Gold Crystal is decorated with gold crystal made from flakes of gold. Like a precious work of art, which needs to be framed, the dial is fitted into the black ceramic case of a Classic Fusion Gold Crystal watch, available in 38 mm or 45 mm diameters. It houses the HUB1112 calibre, a mechanical movement with automatic winding, and a 42-hour power reserve. A black alligator strap stitched onto rubber allows you to wear this rare object on your wrist.
Gold has always intrigued mankind. To understand this love of the yellow metal, you need to dig deep, deep in the history of time and our planet. Gold has been part of the Universe since shortly after its birth with the Big Bang. This means that all of the atoms on the Earth have been here since it was formed, some 4.6 billion years ago. A long time after, nearly 50 million years ago, auriferous veins appeared following the formation of mountain chains. Under the surface of the Earth, water wended its way, carrying with it mineral salts and metals that were deposited in conducive spots. These metals included gold. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, glaciers eroded the igneous rock that held these gold-bearing veins. Carried away by the water in rivers, the gold was then deposited on riverbeds.
When it is collected, the gold is in the form of flakes. The conditions required to form a crystal are very rare, and gold crystals scarcely occur in nature. This is where Hublot’s engineers come into play by giving gold its most exclusive form: gold crystal. The Research and Development Department at the Hublot manufacture heats gold in the purest form possible – 24 carats – to melting point, which creates emanations of gold that we could compare to steam carrying atoms of gold. These particles rise through this emanation, then set in a crystalline form when they reach the cold surface. They agglomerate there as crystals with completely random shapes that are never the same twice.
The master dial maker then delicately picks up the crystals to lay them on the dial, cluster by cluster. Only 20 per cent of these crystals are kept. Once they have been sorted, they are very delicately placed by hand on a black dial then imprisoned in a fine transparent lacquer that took years to develop. This is a complex operation as it must be carried out in a vacuum to avoid any air bubbles appearing. The process is repeated again and again as twenty different layers of lacquer must be applied to completely hold the crystals. Then this plate just needs to be polished to make the lacquer invisible and give a perfectly flat surface.
Hublot Big Bang Sang Bleu II
Blue is the new black! A true piece of sculpture for the wrist, the Big Bang Sang Bleu II is available in new limited editions. Evolving from ancestral practice to worldwide cultural phenomenon, tattooing is now an art form in its own right, thanks in large part to the work of visionary artists such as Maxime Plescia-Büchi, the founder of Sang Bleu. The Big Bang Sang Bleu II is a horological expression of his perfect mastery of geometry and volume. A timepiece crafted as a sculpture or a work of art to tell the time, these concepts overlap to create a unique, timeless watch brought to life by Hublot’s expertise in materials.
These new versions are blue, just like the ink used by the tattoo studio, Sang Bleu. The colour appears on the dials and straps, embellishing the web of geometric lines that criss-cross the hands, bezel and case. Available in titanium or King Gold, with or without stone setting, and boasting a generous diameter of 45 mm, the case houses a Unico manufacture movement, the HUB1240 automatic chronograph, which offers a 72-hour power reserve.
