Hublot has reinterpreted the Big Bang Sapphire Tourbillon many times over the years, but there has never been an expression quite like this. Limited to just 50 pieces, the Hublot Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic Orange Sapphire sports the world’s very first through-tinted orange sapphire case, bringing a new perspective and true innovation to the Big Bang Sapphire Tourbillon.
This aesthetic is unprecedented in watchmaking, playing on Hublot‘s storied love of the creation and machining of sapphires with exclusive shades, adding to the previous year’s offerings of black, yellow, blue and red.
The case of the Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic Orange Sapphire was achieved via a deft manufacturing process, incorporating titanium and chromium. The watch has been completed with an entirely new tourbillon movement, not only equipped with self-winding but featuring a substantial rethink to the architecture with a grey 22-carat gold micro-rotor visible on the dial side and three sapphire bridges – a barrel bridge, an automatic bridge, and a tourbillon barrette.
Entirely designed and manufactured in-house, the Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic Orange Sapphire follows in the footsteps of the Big Bang Unico Sapphire, All Black Sapphire, and Big Bang Red, Yellow, and Blue Sapphire editions – in that it is a dramatically transparent timepiece giving wearers (and admirers) complete visual access to all the sophisticated mechanics inside. This is complemented by the technical tone of the six H-shape titanium screws that typify the Big Bang.
And that is very much the aim of the Hublot Big Bang and its swift evolution over the years – to truly expose, admire and celebrate the heart of the watch. It is, after all, the engine that makes this watch possible, delicately crafted in a way that entirely justifies the pride and position to which Hublot’s technical achievements are elevated. It’s a quest for the perfect harmony and balance between the case and movement, demonstrating Hublot’s mastery of the industrialisation of synthetic sapphire and their deep love of obtaining such a pristine material – one without impurities, bubbles, and cracks – and tempering its extreme hardiness with specific machining methods.
Moving away from the traditional tourbillon movements – what you get here is a unique calibre with a self-winding system that ensures a power reserve of up to 72 hours, complemented by ceramic ball bearings and the latest Hublot technical advances required to build such a delicate system. Impressive for a watch that was first developed in 2007.
Notably, the lightweight effect has been achieved by heavily open-worked and sandblasted platinum, making it so that the tourbillon cage at six o’clock, revolving on its axis every minute to reflect the earth’s gravitational pull on the movement, can represent pure geometry and add a thick layer of theatre to the visible heart.
On the surface, the dial features hands and indices with luminescent coating for better legibility at night, while other features include an orange rubber strap – also transparent – with a lined relief and a patented express One-Click interchangeability system with a titanium deployant buckle. These small details round out the rather unique timepiece, which is priced in Australia at a not-insignificant $225,000.
