How the Big Bang created Hublot’s modern universe 20 years ago
Buffy AcaciaFor better or for worse, Hublot is a brand laden with associations. Athletes, Jean-Claude Biver, and experimental case materials are some of the things which come to mind when Hublot is mentioned, but the Big Bang is where it’s at. It’s wild to think that the Big Bang has existed for less than half of the brand’s lifetime, and yet it has become the pride and focus of its catalogue. 20 years later, the Big Bang is a symbol of Hublot’s titanic place in the watch industry, and its indisputable influence upon watch culture. It’s the watch that’s being celebrated with Hublot’s Watches and Wonders 2025 releases, including a quintet of special tribute pieces, but it all started in the early noughties…
The origins
Hulot’s first watch in 1980 capitalised on the success of Gérald Genta-designed watches like the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and the Patek Philippe Nautilus, and the name “Hublot” even translates from French to “porthole”. Hublot stood out as an innovator as the first luxury watch brand to use a rubber strap, but then it faded into relative obscurity as releases dripped rather than flowed. Jean-Claude Biver met the brand’s founder, Carlo Crocco, and was enlisted as CEO in 2004 while also serving as president of Omega. At Baselworld 2005, the Big Bang was officially launched.
The first Big Bang was a complete re-interpretation of the Hublot from 1980, amplifying its strongest features into an all-out blast of adrenaline. Between the carbon weave effects on the dial and the bold chronograph features, the smooth lines of the porthole bezel and its scalloped lugs were given a new lease on life. The mid-2000s were full of bravado and cutting-edge efforts, and the Hublot Big Bang captured that essence perfectly. It wasn’t long before the brand’s first in-house movement came about too, and Hublot didn’t settle for anything simple. The Unico Calibre 1242 was a flyback chronograph from the very beginning, and its modular escapement meant that further complications could be easily developed and implemented in later models. Tourbillions, GMTs, and split second chronographs followed quickly. It was also an early adopter of silicon balance springs, and the power reserve of 72 hours was ahead of the curve for the time.
The birth of the Art of Fusion
Given the first release that combined a gold case and a rubber strap, Hublot’s ethos has been classified as the Art of Fusion. By combining unusual materials or utilising some unknown to watchmaking, its watches have been challenging norms for decades. One of the early examples was the Hublot Mag Bang from. 2007, which used an alloy of aluminium and magnesium for its case, bezel, and even the movement. For a Big Bang at the time, 78 grams was a radically light watch. Hublot called this alloy Hublonium, a material which would come up again in later releases. 2007 was a big year, because Hublot also released the One Million $ Big Bang – a tourbillon watch bathed in invisible-set baguette diamonds, winning the jewellery category at the GPHG awards. A flurry of Big Bangs were used to experiment with titanium, ceramic, carbon, tungsten, and even kevlar as case materials.
Hublot may have made a name for itself by using unusual materials, but it wasn’t until 2011 that it created an entirely new one. Magic Gold gained its name for its incredible scratch resistance, and Hublot goes as far as saying it’s entirely scratch-proof, despite being a true 18k gold alloy with 75% elemental gold. The rest of the alloy fuses gold with boron carbide ceramic, achieving that tremendous hardness. The only downside is that Magic Gold is significantly darker and doesn’t have that same boastful charm of yellow or rose gold, but of course you still get the luxurious heft on-wrist.
One of Hublot’s biggest revolutions was the unveiling of the Big Bang Sapphire in 2016. It wasn’t the first brand to make sapphire cases, with Alain Silberstein and Richard Mille pioneering in that area, however the Big Bang Sapphire was one of the first sapphire watches to be made in significant numbers. The first limited edition was 500 pieces at a price of US$57,900, but there have been countless more in various shapes and colours.
The Spirit of Big Bang came out in 2014, marking a new chapter for Hublot as its first significantly new case shape since Biver took over. The tonneau silhouette captures a lot of the Big Bang’s character, but upping its class and generally focusing on a higher level of luxury. It also competes more directly with Richard Mille, one of Hublot’s most only true competitors in the world of luxury, tough sports watches.
The Big Bang’s celebrity status
If you’re wondering where Hublot’s close ties to football began, it was relatively early during Jean-Claude Biver’s reign. There was a £4 million deal with Manchester United in 2008, the same year that Carlo Crocco sold Hublot as a whole to the LVMH group. It handed out watches to referees during the 2010 FIFA World Cup as its official timekeeper, and it was also briefly the official watchmaker of Formula 1 that same year. In 2011, this sponsorship moved to Ferrari on and off for a decade, during which time there were many Ferrari collaborative models released. A rather shocking but effective piece of sports marketing came when Bernie Ecclestone, the former CEO and legend of Formula, was mugged for the £200k Hublot Big Bang on his wrist. Hublot jumped on the opportunity, using Ecclestone’s bruised face along with the phase “See what people will do for a Hublot?”
Of course, celebrity endorsements have been crucial to the Hublot Big Bang’s success. Instead of limiting its scope to athletes and actors, Hublot is represented by a huge variety of artistic and industry professionals including musicians, visual artists, chefs, lifestyle brands, and climate activists. Some of the biggest names on Hublot’s list of ambassadors are far more than just big names, but living legends. There’s Usain Bolt, the world’s fastest man, along with Kylian Mbappé, one of the greatest football forwards now playing for Real Madrid. Novak Djokovic represents the peak of tennis, having been ranked No. 1 for 428 weeks at the time of writing. Takashi Murakami is a wonderfully subversive artist whose work you’ve most likely come across, and it’s even broken into the world of K-pop with Lay Zhang.
Some of Hublot’s best Big Bang models have also been a direct result of artist collaboration. Takashi Murakami’s models are dazzling displays of work with sapphires and gem setting, while the Big Bang Sang Bleu references take Maxime Plescia-Büchi’s signature tattoo style and adapts it into a masterpiece of case architecture and dial layout. The Big Bang Unico Novak Djokovic is also pretty crazy, with a composite case made of melted-down tennis racquets and polo shirts personally used by the Serbian champion.
The future
Given that the 20th anniversary of the Hublot Big Bang has just arrived and a series of commemorative limited editions have been released, you may find yourself asking what the watch has left to explore after so much experimentation. There’s even been a world first in the Big Bang Unico Magic Ceramic, manufacturing a bi-colour and bubbly ceramic bezel. Well, there’s been a recent shake-up with Julien Tornare appointed as Hublot’s CEO in July last year. He’s a self-proclaimed “transformer”, and his energetic management style has already been felt within the company, so we can surely expect to see some big shifts in the Big Bang’s future.