WATCH ANATOMY
INKED IN, ALL OUT
31st January 2024
Nyon’s watchmaker extraordinaire triples-down with Dalston’s tattoo artist non-pareil in an OTT reimagination of the Spirit of Big Bang. It’s the third collaboration in seven years between Hublot and Sang Bleu studio’s founder Maxime Plescia Buchi, and the most outrageous yet, projecting his hyper-geometric, anatomically architectural ink creations onto the barrel-chested contours of the chronograph. Words by Alex Doak.
The 42 mm-diameter case comes in a choice of three materials: titanium (200 units), All Black ceramic (200 units) or King Gold (100 units), as well as two models set with 180 diamonds weighing approximately 2.4 carats, in titanium and King Gold.
It was 2014 when Spirit of Big Bang evolved Hublot’s eponymous ‘porthole’ design – 6 H-shaped screws battening down a sandwich of bezel and hull – from octagon to oblong. Maxime Plescia Buchi has revisited every facet of this barrel or ‘tonneau’ architecture, even enhancing ergonomics despite the cyborg-like transformation, by arching both caseback and sapphire dome.
The HUB4700 calibre is a skeletonised update of Zenith’s legendary El Primero: the movement that integrated stopwatch functionality within self-winding timetelling mechanics for the first time ever, back in 1969 (while ramping-up its ‘tick’ from the usual 4Hz to 5Hz, for extra precision). The two brands are stablemates under the umbrella of Paris’s LVMH group.
Sang Bleu’s geometric take on Da Vinci’s ‘Vitruvian Man’ for Hublot collab’ no.1 (2016) switches up several gears for no.3 (2023), plus a whole dimension too, playing with relief and depth through polished, satin finished, engraved, chiselled and bevelled gold facets. A flawless 3D jigsaw.
In terms of dial legibility, the structure of the Spirit of Big Bang hands has been enhanced and the hour and minute markers have been refined. A sapphire dial displays the openworked ‘HUB4700’ automatic chronograph movement through disc hands.
“Without losing what makes our barrel watch so distinctive, he gives it a new identity , a spatial redesign and a more architectural dimension”
RICARDO GUADALUPE / HUBLOT CEO
“I have been able to question and review each component, from the case to the crystal, the bracelet to the clasp, considering each shape and proportion through a holistic reflection”
MAXIME PLESCIA-BUCHI / SANG BLEU FOUNDER
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