Hublot has never trafficked in subtlety. The Big Bang chronograph first made its presence known with a 44mm size, hefty ceramic bezel with contrasting screws, and a rare combination of rose gold and rubber, which contrasted different textures with clashing case finishes. So what if it had an ETA movement—which, at the time, seemed more plebeian than the in-house movements of rival luxury chronographs? In that maximalist, McBling era, the stance and the presence were all that mattered.
Hublot has only taken its flagship model to more audacious heights. At this year’s Watches & Wonders Geneva, the Big Bang Reloaded enters the collection, following the 20-year anniversary of the Big Bang, by combining the intricate case with Hublot’s in-house chronograph movement, the Unico calibre, bringing together all the things that Big Bang enthusiasts love.
The Reloaded exemplifies Hublot’s adherence to high-tech materials: available in titanium, scratch-resistant 18-karat “Magic Gold,” and three options of ceramic: black, blue, and dark green. The strap, still in textured rubber, matches the case colors.
Hublot introduced its Unico calibre in 2010, and now the HUB 1280 UNICO makes an appearance from behind a skeletonized and multi-layered dial: redesigned to match the stencil-style numbers, a date window at between 4 and 5 o’clock, and horizontally-placed chronograph registers. It’s an automatic flyback chronograph, with 43 jewels and a power reserve of 72 hours. Prices start at $25,200, with the Magic Gold variant topping out at $44,500.
Big Bang Special Editions
If these five aren’t quite special enough, Hublot is also unveiling two more Reloaded models with iconic sports figures (and brand ambassadors), as well as a jewel-laden tourbillon that rings in at a cool million bucks.
French soccer legend Kylian Mbappé gets a Reloaded that comes in microblasted white ceramic with contrasting King Gold accents that suit this Reloaded’s muted tones. The seconds hand gets the KM logo at one end and a yellow-tipped arrow at the other, while the bezel is subtly engraved at 6-o’clock with Mbappé’s personal credo, “Trust Yourself.” It’s limited to 200 pieces for $30,000 each.
Meanwhile, Usain Bolt’s Reloaded edition comes in black ceramic, with plenty of personal touches: the lightning bolt-shaped seconds hand, reflecting the nickname of the fastest sprinter in the world, as well as his own motto engraved on the bezel: “Anything is Possible, Don’t Think Limits.” Most significantly, on the caseback and suspended between two sapphire crystals is “authentic soil from Bolt’s childhood training ground in Jamaica,” which according to Hublot, “anchors the watch where his destiny began.”
For something smaller and less ostentatious, Hublot’s Big Bang Joyful Amethyst Purple adds a touch of muted violet gemstones to the Big Bang Joyful collection which also includes, blue, orange, and green, and pink variants. It comes in at a modest 33mm with a white dial and surrounded by even numbers.
Similarly, the Spirit of Big Bang Moonphase Impact focuses the difficulty of setting diamonds and crystallized osmium into sapphire, one of the hardest materials on Earth, into a more restrained tonneau case. The fractured shapes of all three watches resemble cracked ice, with glimpses of a date dial and a 6 o’clock moonphase indicator barely peeking through. The All Black in ceramic is limited to 100 pieces at $33,700, the Sapphire with its blue-tinted osmium is limited to 30 pieces at $114,500, and the Sapphire Jewelry with its multi-faceted diamonds, is limited to 20 pieces at $543,000
However, Hublot’s showstopper this year is arguably the appropriately-named Big Bang Tourbillon Impact High Jewelry One Million. 470 diamonds emanate from the central flying tourbillon that’s front and center, surrounded by fancy-cut diamonds on the dial, a ring of baguette-cut diamonds on the bezel, and extending to the sides, caseback, and crown of the familiar Big Bang case (this time rendered in 18-karat white gold). There are an extra 30 diamonds on the black titanium and white gold clasp.
Other than a floating Hublot logo on the sapphire crystal, nothing distracts from the visual explosion of glimmering white: even the tiny hands barely peek above the edges of the tourbillon. At a heady $1,205,000, it’s the fourth Hublot to reach the 7-figure mark. Hublot
