Going green with the Hublot Big Bang MP-11 SAXEM
James RobinsonHublot has just dropped the Big Bang MP-11 SAXEM, once again demonstrating why they are the vanguards of the horological industry when it comes to innovating new materials for wristwatches.
The stunningly green case of the new Big Bang MP-11 is hewn from a material that has never been used before in a timepiece’s case – SAXEM.
An abbreviation of Sapphire Aluminium Oxide and rare Earth Mineral, the high-tech material receives its brilliant emerald green colour as a result of the Hublot Manufacture mixing materials such Aluminium oxide, which is the basic component of sapphire, with rare-earth elements such as thulium, holmium and chromium.
The outcome of this process is a case material with several benefits. For example, SAXEM is not only far stronger than emerald, it also possesses a much richer and deeper colour than sapphire.
Housed inside the revolutionary new case, which measures an impressive 45mm, is Hublot’s highly technical Caliber HUB9011, a manually wound skeletonised movement that features no less than seven barrels and a whopping 14 days of power reserve.
Speaking about the watch, Ricardo Guadalupe, CEO Hublot said: “With this new Big Bang MP-11, Hublot once more asserts its regal mastery of innovation, at both a technical level and in terms of aesthetics. By offering those that seek accomplishment a state-of-the-art material used in very high-tech applications, particularly in satellites, and by combining it with a manufacture movement with levels of performance that will go down in history, we are changing the face of our Art of Fusion.”
Just 20 examples of the Big Bang MP-11 SAXEM will be created by Hublot, and there’s no easy way to say this … they’re $127,000 USD (roughly 190,000 Aussie dollars). But it is an exceptionally impressive timepiece, and kudos to Hublot for continuing their material innovations.