Following on the success of the inaugural edition of LVMH Watch Week in Dubai last year, the group’s watchmaking maisons Hublot, Zenith and Bvlgari shared their latest creations and developments with press and clients around the world to start the year on a positive momentum. During the 2021 edition of LVMH Watch Week – which took place January 25-29 digitally from the various Manufactures – haute horlogerie marque Hublot once again achieved a world-first by adding a completely new shade to its palette of tinted sapphires. Read on for a peek at what Hublot has on offer this year…
Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic Orange Sapphire
With the new Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic Orange Sapphire the brand has again achieved a world first by adding a completely new colour to its palette of through-tinted sapphires. The new orange shade was achieved thanks to the incorporation of titanium and chromium in a skilful manufacturing process. The translucent bezel and case in finely polished orange sapphire is enhanced by the technical tone of the six H-shape titanium screws characteristic of the Big Bang.
A new tourbillon movement beats at the heart of the orange sapphire, completely designed and produced by the brand. Unlike traditional tourbillon movements, equipped with manual winding, this exceptional calibre makes a name for itself thanks to its self-winding system ensuring a minimum power reserve of three days or 72 hours. It is equipped with ceramic ball bearings and the latest Hublot technical advances in its winding system.
The manufacture has reconstructed the movement in its entirety in order to make the micro-rotor visible from the dial side. The perpetual movements of the micro-rotor set at 12 o’clock echo the rotation of the tourbillon, its regulating organ, positioned in perfect symmetry at 6 o’clock. The grey 22-carat gold micro-rotor is set off by exquisite decoration (bevelling, sunray-brushing and sand-blasting), as well as by signature Hublot openwork in the precious metal.
The calibre of the timepiece is equipped for the first time with three sapphire bridges – a barrel bridge, an automatic bridge and a tourbillon barrette. The lightweight effect of the skeleton work is accentuated by heavily open-worked and sandblasted platinum. The tourbillon cage at six o’clock, revolving on its axis every minute to compensate for the pull of the earth on the movement’s direction, is distinctive for its pure geometry affording a glimpse into the mechanical heart of the model. The legibility of the open dial is enhanced by hands and indices with a luminescent coating. The transparent orange rubber strap with a lined relief – with a patented express One Click interchangeability system and titanium deployant buckle – completes the cutting-edge look of this limited-edition release of 50 pieces.
For those wanting technical style and audacity in other futuristic materials, Hublot is offering the Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic in a limited edition of 100 pieces with a case and bezel in Texalium – an exclusive lightweight and ergonomic material that combines carbon fibre and aluminium – and a Black Magic 100-piece limited edition made from black ceramic.
Big Bang One Click 33mm
Hublot is now offering the Big Bang One Click 33mm, available in stainless steel or in King Gold, with seven interchangeable straps. Its case has been refined to wrap itself around slender wrists and can change appearance in no time at all to suit your mood. In evening dress or understated black, nautical style or immaculate white, smart in pink or sky blue, wide-ranging in red, royal blue, green or orange, rubber rubs shoulders with the most prized of gems no matter the style of the Big Bang One Click 33mm.
In the pop version, the brilliant calfskin sparkles in electric blue, raspberry pink or terracotta orange. The simplicity or the gloss of the natural materials encompasses the precious aspect like a silhouette that we take on for ourselves. There are more diamonds and their aura illuminates the bezel.
The feminine and versatile Big Bang One Click 33mm adopts the patented “One Click” fastening system, allowing the watch to take on an alternative appearance in just a click. Dressed in the codes of its alter ego, the emblematic Big Bang Unico, and its big sister launched in 2016 as a 39mm model without chronograph, it combines screws, a crown, indices, stylised numerals and a bezel set with 36 diamonds, in a masculine-feminine model of Haute Horlogerie. A dial in black or white depending on the material of the case, stainless steel or King Gold, houses the HUB1120 self-winding movement with the date at 3 o’clock, and 28,800 vibrations per hour beat in its heart over 40 consecutive hours. A mechanical gem with a certain character.
Big Bang Unico Integral Ceramic
Hublot has launched its Big Bang Integral in three new ceramic colours: white, navy blue and grey, all with built-in scratch-resistance, durability and hypoallergenic properties. A signature material at Hublot, ceramic represents the perfect fusion of hardness and lightness (two to three times harder than steel and 30 per cent lighter). A high-tech material that is difficult to machine, ceramic is used here to create a case, bezel, case-back and bracelet. An unparalleled material in perfect harmony with the skin – soft to the touch and a delight to wear thanks to its low thermal conductivity. A watch made entirely from ceramic except for the bezel lugs, which are in black, dark blue or grey composite, and the rubber elements on the crown and the pushers, for added user comfort.
The Big Bang Integral can be distinguished from the other Big Bang models by its fully integrated bracelet, which is fused with the 42-mm case. Launched in 2020, this represents a historic first for the 15-year-old Big Bang. Its aesthetic signature is powerful enough for it to be instantly associated with that of the Big Bang. Three links: one central and two lateral, the polished and satin-finished surfaces, and the bevelling and chamfering of the links create the same effect of depth and contrast as between the case and the bezel lug. Other stylistic retouches include the pushers, which mirror those found on the 2005 original, and whose bevels and chamfers lead into the bracelet with alternating polished and satin finishes.
The model is powered by the Unico proprietary manufacture movement in its V2 incarnation, the HUB1280, a modified version of its predecessor, the Unico HUB1242. Changes include the loss of the escapement platform, a thinner automatic winding system with a slimmer 1.3-mm movement, four new patented technical innovations (oscillating seconds clutch, chronograph friction system with ball-bearing adjustment, ratchet retaining system with unidirectional gears and index-assembly fine adjustment system). This updated version of the Unico features a redesigned architecture for easier assembly and more legible functions.
BIG BANG MP-11 : Magic Gold
The Big Bang MP-11 14-day power reserve Magic Gold, available as a limited edition of just 50 pieces, reinterprets the ultra-technical and contemporary design of the Big Bang case in the world’s first ever version of scratch-resistant 18-carat gold, an alloy invented and patented by Hublot. To achieve this unprecedented resistance in the traditional world of precious metals, the brand’s engineers have combined pure gold with boron carbide, an extremely hard high-tech ceramic. The exclusive colour of the Magic Gold case is enhanced on the bezel of the watch, by the contrast with the six H-shaped black-coated titanium screws. The marriage of an 18-carat gold case and a black rubber strap serves as a reminder that Hublot was the first brand, in 1980, to boldly combine these two materials on the same watch, at a time when these two materials were considered to be incompatible!
Blue Sapphire
Playing on transparency, the Big Bang MP-11 14-day power reserve Blue Sapphire, also released as a limited edition of 50 pieces, takes its radiance and inimitable colour from one of the manufactured sapphires that Hublot has developed in-house. With unique knowledge and complete mastery of the industrialisation process, Hublot is able to offer sapphire in a range of innovative colours (transparent, black, blue, red, yellow and orange). The extreme hardness of the sapphire requires specific machining methods – a further challenge on this watch due to the profile of the middle and the bezel to accommodate the shape of the cylindrical barrels. The lined and structured blue rubber strap echoes the innovative colour of the sapphire case.
Both Magic Gold and Blue Sapphire Big Bang MP-11 models house the calibre HUB9011 manual-winding skeletonised movement, one of the jewels of the 100 per cent Hublot collection. To achieve an exceptional power reserve of two weeks, the brand has developed an original movement architecture integrating seven series-coupled barrels. The power reserve appears directly on a cylinder located to the left of the seven barrels, opposite the ‘Day Power Reserve’ indication in blue or gold on the anti-reflective sapphire crystal. By adopting the shape of barrels, the sapphire crystal creates a magnifying effect on this important indication.
To enable energy to be transmitted between the horizontal barrel arbor and the vertical gears controlling the hour and minute display at 12 o’clock, the engineers made use of a system rarely employed in watchmaking: a 90-degree helical worm gear. To create an aesthetic balance with this helical gear, which is visible at 10 o’clock, the balance was moved on the dial side in a symmetrical position at two o’clock. Composed of 270 pieces, giving a very reasonable thickness of 10.92 mm, the HUB9011 calibre also stands out due to its patented index-assembly system, its black platinum bridges and its silicon escapement combining traditional and innovative elements. The movement 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 Orlinski 40mm
Richard Orlinski’s now emblematic edges, facets and bevels have been artistically sculpting Hublot watches since 2017, when he and the Swiss watchmaker presented their first artwork to be worn on the wrist. The Classic Fusion Orlinski 40mm now comes in a monochrome mode in two limited editions entirely clad in ceramic, with the exception of the strap and the crown. In terms of colorimetry, the flashy blue and gloss black are reminiscent of the colour codes used in the artist’s XXL bestiary.
The material chosen for these two limited editions is ceramic: a material of choice for Hublot ever since the launch of its iconic Big Bang collection in 2005. Hublot is unquestionably the master of materials, and of fusion, an art that the Manufacture is constantly perfecting. For the first time, the faceted ceramic dresses the whole watch, including its dial. The result is a bevelled architecture that gives life to the ceramic in origami style.
If a crease gives clothing a certain effect, in this case it sets the tone for your wrists. These watches are like artworks to be worn, and ones that have naturally taken on the three-dimensional folds of Richard Orlinski’s sculptures. An assumed emphasis, bright colours, encapsulated in two limited editions. In terms of size, these two monochrome models, each released in a run of 200 pieces, keep the 40 mm diameter proportions of their alter ego, beat to the rhythm of an automatic movement with a 42-hour power reserve and are worn on a soft rubber strap.
Spirit of Big Bang Ceramic Beige
After pastel pink and pastel blue, Hublot slides onto women’s wrists the velvety softness of its new Spirit of Big Bang Ceramic Beige. The Spirit of Big Bang Ceramic Beige plays with the layering of its greige alligator strap on white rubber and its sand-coloured sunray dial, with its bezel either in King Gold 18K or polished titanium set with 50 diamonds. Emphasising its emblematic barrel case, the beige highlights the softness of the style in ceramic with a velvety touch.
With its urbanite and contemporary appearance, both uninhibited and neutral, the Spirit of Big Bang Ceramic Beige asserts its timelessness and its mix-and-match spirit. It goes with all outfits and is at home anywhere, from the office to the catwalk, from the sea to the mountains. In formal or sportswear mode, its 39mm diameter elegantly slides onto your wrist and its 50-hour power reserve is like an invitation to forget to wind it up for a whole weekend.
Spirit of Big Bang Tourbillon 5-day Power Reserve Carbon White
With the Spirit of Big Bang Tourbillon 5-day Power Reserve Carbon White, Hublot combines black with white, proving opposites attract. The 42-mm case, case back and bezel are crafted from carbon fibre featuring white composite inclusions. These white inclusions are formed of glass microfibres created as a non-woven fabric (NWF), used mainly to improve the breaking strength of composites: This NWF is then co-impregnated with the carbon fibres using tinted epoxy resin when the composite preforms are created in a special mould.
Released in a limited edition of 100 pieces, the Spirit of Big Bang Tourbillon 5-day Power Reserve Carbon White plays with contrasts and transparency with a sapphire case back and dial that reveal the ultra-aesthetic architecture of the HUB6020 manufacture movement. A skeleton tourbillon specially designed to sit within the tonneau case of the Spirit of Big Bang. A power reserve of 115 hours, hand-wound, with a 5-day indicator set at 8 o’clock. At 6 o’clock, the tourbillon cage completes one rotation per minute. Off-centre hours and minutes can be read at 3 o’clock.
Paired with a white lined rubber strap, the Spirit of Big Bang White embraces interchangeability thanks to its patented “One-Click” system.
