Another nod to the club is the Chelsea lion in gold in 12 o’clock. The applied hour markers are rhodium-plated and filled with white luminescent material. Similarly, the rhodium-plated hour and minute hands will also be full of white luminescent material to help legibility in dimly-lit environments. Completing the dial is a date window at 4:30. The movement inside is the caliber HUB4100, that is really based on an ETA 2894 or Sellita equal and fitted using a chronograph module. Obviously, an in-house Hublot Unico movement would have been preferred and would have made the opinion more desirable, but the HUB4100 is a dependable mix and it does help keep the price down, if just a little. The motion is visible through the watch’s sapphire display caseback where a logo of the crest of the club is printed.Like last year’s Classic Fusion Chronograph Chelsea FC watch, this brand new Big Bang Chelsea FC watch was created specifically for Chelsea fanatics. In comparison to last year’s version, this new watch comes in a shade of blue that I think is more true and faithful to the house colors of the club. The Hublot Big Bang Chelsea FC watch is limited to 200 bits and can be priced at #13,000 (now around $17,000).Each year in Munich, the steins are stuffed (and re-filled), and the men don their short leather breeches to celebrate Oktoberfest. This year, Hublot combined the festivities by partnering with local tanner Meindl to make a distinctly Bavarian incarnation of its popular Big Bang watch that has had so many versions resulting from various collaborations. The Hublot Big Bang Bavaria is the initial Big Bang to include a bronze instance, and it appears as though the material was selected for its rustic color and properties to coincide with the hand-embroidered deer leather strap in the Bund design, evoking a link with the German region of Bavaria’s conventional garb.
To mark the 30th anniversaries of the Hong Kong offices of both Ferrari and Hublot, the watchmaker has created a limited edition Hublot Big Bang Ferrari Hong Kong with a distinctive red ceramic bezel.
Since its inauguration last year, Hublot’s partnership with Ferrari has produced a slew of limited edition timepieces, the latest of which is the Hublot Big Bang Ferrari Hong Kong. It is fitted with a bright red ceramic bezel, which Hublot says is the first time a brightly coloured ceramic has been used in a timepiece. The sapphire case back features the Hong Kong 30th anniversary logo, referring to both Hublot and Ferrari, which simultaneously mark 30 years in Hong Kong this year.
The rest of the watch is standard Big Bang – a 45.5 mm black ceramic case with resin and carbon bits and bobs. The movement is the modular and in-house UNICO flyback calibre. And the watch is delivered with rubber two straps covered in Schedoni leather (the supplier of Ferrari leather goods), easily interchangeable via the seat-belt buckle inspired buttons on the lugs.
30 pieces of the Hublot Big Bang Ferrari Hong Kong will be made, with the price yet to be announced. But with the recently launched Big Bang Ferrari Singapore edition retailing for about US$38,000, expect this to be in the same range. – SJX
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| The irrepressible and irreplaceable Chairman of Hublot, Jean-Claude Biver |