Hublot Releases New Versions Of The ‘Big Bang’ At LVMH Watch Week
Including new additions to the Spirit of Big Bang watch and an update to the MECA-10.
LVMH Watch Week brings with it no shortage of surprises, and a peek behind the curtain into the minds of the luxury watch world. For Hublot, it’s a chance to reinterpret a modern favorite, as a revamped Big Bang MECA-10 debuts alongside a slew of other impressive timepieces in Los Angeles by way of Switzerland.
Hublot just debuted a new Year of the Snake Big Bang, and it’s far from the only eye-catching release to debut this month. A new trio joins the Spirit of Big Bang collection, along with a vivid green Big Bang Tourbillon, but it appears the Big Bang MECA-10 is the timepiece the Swiss watchmaker places front and center, at least this week.
As the company says, the Big Bang MECA-10 “stunned the world of watchmaking” upon its 2016 debut, with a twist on the conventional watch dial (it has none to speak of). The launch also served as a “masterclass in micromechanical engineering,” and its second iteration hopes to live up to that same impressive billing.
More precisely (quite literally, in the case of the watch complication), the Big Bang MECA-10 puts its manual-winding skeleton movement on visible display, all in a more compact 42mm case that hues closely to Hublot’s original design aesthetic. The more compact size presented a distinct challenge to its designers, and the watch is an intricate work of art (and wrist candy) in its own right.
A stunning 10-day power reserve is plenty innovative, and the MECA-10 indicates the remaining reserve using two mainspring barrels driven by a linear-gear-meets-circular-gear rack system, all positioned in a straight line. It speaks to barrel-driven complications from the likes of Urwerk, but with a distinct Hublot sensibility.
With the rebooted MECA-10 watch (available in King Gold, Titanium or Carbon Black and starting at $23,000), the watchmaker says it has “reinvented creativity in a modern interpretation of the mechanical watch movement,” a lofty statement and perhaps a challenge for its future watchmakers. The new Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic Green also pushes the boundaries of Hublot watchmaking, using sapphire-esque SAXEM in an emerald green case.
Just 18 units are available of the “vibrant and crystalline green” timepiece in a groundbreaking material, while the Spirit of Big Bang trio is a touch more recognizable, at least in fabrication if not color scheme. The same sport-meets-luxury appeal certainly appeals to the latest iteration of a favorite among watch enthusiasts.
The chronograph build of the Spirit of Big Bang plays off the iconic silhouette, but a trio of “new tones for a familiar form,” shake up the offering (the new shades were previously only found in the Big Bang main line of watches). With plenty of departures from the expected, in ways large and small, suffice to say that Hublot’s LVMH Watch Week offering offers up more than one grail-worthy watch.