Hublot is laying bare its Unico calibre. The Hublot Big Bang Unico Sapphire chronograph has nothing to hide and everything to show … A fragile peace of art manufactured in an impressive series of 500 pieces …
We all know that sapphire is an extremely difficult material to machine. Therefore it has until now been reserved for one-of-a-kind pieces or very small collections. Richard Mille has done a watch in a saphire-case and recently also Hublot with its ambitious MP05 “LaFerrari” Sapphire project.
Now Hublot presents a series of 500 pieces. This is a first! As far I know sapphire had never previously been cut “on such a large scale”.
The case middle, bezel and back of the 45 mm Hublot Big Bang Unico Sapphire are cut from blocks of sapphire, a material which is almost as hard and scratch-resistant as diamond (9 on the Mohs scale as opposed to 10 for diamond). Only a few pieces forming the spine of the watch are made from titanium: the screws, the crown, which is over-molded with silicon, and the deployant-buckle.
Its skeleton dial, made from transparent resin, reveals the Hublot Unico HUB1242 calibre. A flyback chronograph with column wheel and double clutch visible on the dial side, with a power reserve of approximately 72 hours
Complementing its ethereal silhouette, its strap – transparent – is invisible so that the skin can be seen through it. Cool, but we will have to discover if this looks sexy in case of excessive body hair on the forearm … 🙂
The Hublot Big Bang Unico Sapphire is available as a 500-piece limited edition and is water-resistant to 50 metres.
If you now ask yourself what will happen, when the chronograph falls on a hard surface you are for sure not alone. Unfortunately I have now answers for you …
Beside this theoretic issue … what do you think? Do you like the watch? Cool?
Let me know!
I must say it is one of the ugliest watch I’ve seen so far!
Buona giornata a tutti
Luciano
I will suggest you discuss this with Mr Biver, put forward some idea and may make you a watch special made for you.
I think from a technical aspect this is very high standard. No it does not look like plastic. What I would like to know is the grade of purity of Saphire. It can not be 100% otherwise it would split in 100 pieces if it falls down. Mr Biver and his team are always pushing the edge further. Like with the new Carrera Tourbillon the price is very attractive. Mind more then half the price of RM.
By the way, I know meanwhile that the chronograph will be sold for around 60.000 CHF
After Baselworld, or even during, I will have live pictures of the watch. Unfortunately I missed the first occasion to take pictures of it …
Miss Hublot looks stunning in her bikini, Mr Biver as done an excellent job with the make up and will get lot of attention. I strongly believe MIss Hublot will get lot of offers to be taken out for a dinner, but the man need a fat bank account.
I think it is a fantastic watch, truly exceptional. I am sure those 500 pieces will be sold out immediately. Hublot demonstrates the ability to do such “crazy” things, and it is the right brand to do so – neither TAG Heuer nor Zenith nor any other classic brand you might think of can do it.
Would I buy it, if I had unlimited funds? Probably not. But it is nice to look at.
The man with crazy ideas is Mr Biver that control Zenirh and Tag Heuer as well, know how to get world attention, come on the newspaper front page and how to make money out of stone.
I know it isn’t, but it looks like a plastic Swatch with transparent case.
BTW, why can’t Hublot ever get their screws/bolts to line up attractively? Other manufacturer’s get it right so….
You are absolutely right, this watch does look like one of those plastic transparent Swatches.
Truly ugly.
NO! I have to disagree, this watch is not ugly. I know tastes are very different, but this is not an ugly watch …
Its an interesting achievement.
have Richard Mille done this twice already, once in transparent aluminium and once in sapphire with atourbillion. And they machined many of the internatl components from Sapphire as well IIRC?
Ultimately though, no, I think it isn’t an attractive watch and doesn’t look like its worth $60k
Which is odd, given people’s fascination with skeletons and clear case-backs