Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Blue

Hublot’s penchant for celebrating, commemorating or generally revelling in anything that can possibly result in a Big Bang variant brings us the Spirit of Big Bang Blue. Said by the company to capture “the essence of summer,” this latest exclusive model arrives in a blue so vivid that you cannot help but picture sea and sky.

As such, it is a watch that has, more than any other current luxury timepiece, appropriated the zeitgeist of the playboy culture of the 1950s and 1960s. It begs to be worn on the wrist of an arm nonchalantly hanging out of the window of some two-seat roadster, its top down, wending its way along the coastal roads of the Mediterranean or Caribbean. It begs for Factor 50 weather, a Hawaiian shirt and rattan espadrilles.

Offered solely through Hublot boutiques – including the recently opened location in London’s New Bond Street, a two-floor affair with VIP suite and the broadest selection possible for the Big Banger – this beauty is certainly the model to consider if your idea of a summer break involves any hot resort, but especially those which Hublot cites. From Lake Geneva to the Côte d’Azur, elegant Capri or the Emerald Coast, all will serve as a backdrop for this chronograph – and it will cause a stir when the wearer happens to pop into one of Hublot’s boutiques in, say, Monaco or Porto Cervo. Discreet it is not.

But colour is only part of it; the gorgeous azure blue is applied to a fabulous skeletonised Big Bang that will captivate any connoisseur of chronographs. Its ceramic/titanium fusion tonneau case forms the stage for the HUB4700 manufacture automatic skeleton chronograph movement, with a 50-hour power reserve, its rotor visible through the open-worked caseback. But it’s hard to take one’s eyes off the front, to look at the underside, because there’s just so much going on dial-side.

A classic compax layout, the Spirit of Big Bang Blue offers the sort of details that excite those obsessed with sub-dials and such. Its oversized 30-minute counter at 3 o’clock qualifies for what collectors now call “Big Eye” status, while each sub-dial has its own unique surround. The 30-minute counter has a stepped bezel, the 12-hour counter at 6 o’clock is encircled by a bold bezel with white stencil-font numerals and the real-seconds counter at 9 o’clock has a skeletal, toothed ring for its 3D indices.

Adding to the visual drama is the date display. An aperture at 4:30, where the date is highlighted, fills with a numeral arriving in skeleton form on a fully exposed ring. As for the rest, every signature element of the iconic Big Bang range is present, including the six H-shaped screws that establish its “sandwich” case construction.

Sure to sell out on release, the Spirit of Big Bang Blue is limited to a run of 100 numbered pieces.

Technical Specifications

Movement

HUB4700 self-winding chronograph movement with skeleton calendar display

Case

42mm, micro-blasted and polished blue ceramic case and bezel; white ceramic lugs

Strap

White rubber with blue alligator and blue stitching; titanium deployant clasp

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