To any Brit old enough to remember television advertising in the 1990s, the phrase You’ve Been Tangoed needs no explanation.
For those too young, it was a witty advertising slogan for the Tango orangeade, where anything that could be turned orange would be turned orange.
Hublot has today taken its mastery of machining sapphires — a key component of its Art of Fusion philosophy — and turned it to creating a first translucent orange sapphire case for a new Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic Orange Sapphire.
It is the most eye-catching launch from a Hublot webcast today that aimed to take the place of the hugely successful LVMH Watch Week, which took place in Dubai last January, before covid shut down the Western world.
The webcast was a horrible reminder of what we have lost, and a miserable way to begin the week, but the splash of orange did its best to bring a hint of Arabian sunshine to proceedings.
The orange watch, in a limited run of 50, will surely be the first of many Big Bang Tourbillon Automatics in other sapphire colours or metals that house the watch’s brand new movement. Hublot has been making manual-would tourbillon watches since 2007, but this is the first time it has made an automatic.
A nice touch is the presentation of a micro rotor to wind the watch on the dial of the Big Bang.
It is positioned at the top of the dial, balancing the tourbillon of the same shape and size at 6 o’clock.
Hublot CEO calls the watch “A new fusion of daring and transparency and his novelty of the week.”
That could be doing a disservice to new Big Bang Integral watches.
Big Bang Integral was Hublot’s first move into the heated market for steel sports watches with integrated bracelets when it launched last year along with a black ceramic reference.
For 2021, the watchmaker has added models in white, navy blue and grey coloured ceramics that are certain to appeal to Hublot fans.
Ladies are increasingly wearing larger watches made primarily for men, and may opt for one of the Integrals, but there were also models pitched specifically at women in the form of the colourful Big Bang One Click collection of 33mm pieces.
One Click refers to a new snap-on-snap-off connection for interchangeable straps, very similar to the solution Cartier introduced with the De Santos collection a few years ago, which means the steel or Hublot King Gold watches can be personalised to suit any mood or fashion moment.
Hublot also extended its ongoing partnership with contemporary artist Richard Orlinski by producing ceramic two ladies’ watches in the familiar faceted cases. At 40mm, and with bright blue or black colour options, they could be considered gender-neutral.
Lastly, Hublot unveiled two new versions of its Big Bang MP-11 watch — the oversized piece built around seven in-line barrels delivering 14 day power reserve.
This year there are models in Hublot’s trade marked scratch-resistant Magic Gold and a second translucent piece in blue sapphire.
