Brutal Beauty: The Hublot Big Bang MECA-10 Concrete Jungle Brings Big City Glamor to Your Wrist

There’s no place like New York. Its skyline of mile-high architecture is instantly recognizable all around the world. For the most part, we have concrete to thank for its iconic architecture, specifically such Brutalist masterpieces as Marcel Breuer’s Whitney Museum, John Carl Warnecke’s AT&T Long Lines Building, and Pietro Belluschi’s Juilliard School in the Lincoln Center.

Derived from the French “béton brut,” meaning raw concrete, Brutalist architects design buildings that emphasize structure over embellishment by taking advantage of the flexibility of using raw concrete and rebar as building materials.
 

This mid-20th-century offshoot of the modernist design school is also having a resurgence in horology. Just look at the recent releases of angular timepieces, such as the Audemars Piguet [Re] Master02 and the Toledano & Chan B/1.

That said, although Hublot’s most recent release, the Big Bang MECA-10 Concrete Jungle, can’t be described as an example of Brutalist design, per se, it is a salute to the central material used in Brutalism, concrete, and one of the greatest concrete jungles of them all, New York.

First and foremost, this limited-edition timepiece is a celebration of a very specific example of architecture: Hublot’s new Fifth Avenue flagship boutique in New York, which features a façade clad in concrete as an homage to New York City’s iconic Brutalist buildings.
 

As the third release in the brand’s Concrete Jungle series, the material is not new to Hublot. However, aesthetically and technologically, the new Big Bang MECA-10 Concrete Jungle brings a distinct made-in-Manhattan energy to the collection.

For example, the material transforms the form of the Big Bang MECA-10. As Hublot CEO Julien Tornare explained in a press release for the timepiece, “Concrete has long been misunderstood as cold and industrial, but in the world of high design, it has become something else entirely – tactile, refined, even expressive. With the Big Bang MECA-10 Concrete Jungle, this timepiece captures the raw energy of New York and the meticulous precision of Swiss watchmaking.”
 

The previous pieces in the Concrete Jungle series were both Classic Fusions and utilized the material well; however, the chonky silhouette of the Big Bang MECA-10 feels more at home in this material.

In this new Concrete Jungle model, the matte concrete 44mm diameter, 15.3mm thick case is framed by Hublot signatures such as H-shaped screws in polished and micro-blasted titanium, with a matching caseback and a satin-finished titanium crown overmolded with black rubber. The use of this case material has resulted in a slightly reduced proportion from the standard Big Bang MECA-10.
 

These touches add refinement to the concrete but also shore up the sensation of strength and audacity of New York City.

Another defining detail of Brutalist architecture is its transparency. These minimalist constructions showcase exposed, unpainted concrete, and their geometric shapes accentuate the building’s infrastructure.
 

Thus, it is fitting that the Big Bang MECA-10 Concrete Jungle features an openworked dial revealing the raw precision of Hublot’s in-house HUB1201 – the skeletonized manual-winding movement with an extraordinary 10-day power reserve.

Comprised of 223 finely crafted components (straight and curved perforated metallic strips, crown gears, racks, plates, axes, and ratchet wheels), the HUB1201 beats at a steady 3 Hz (21,600 vibrations/hour), with twin barrels and a distinctive rack-and-pinion power reserve indicator – marked in red for a clear read of remaining energy.
 

Packaged in a unique box featuring a stylized rendering of the New York City Skyline, the Concrete Jungle MECA-10 also comes with two interchangeable straps: one in a cement grey fabric and the other in black-lined rubber.

The Big Bang MECA-10 Concrete Jungle is available now at the brand’s new Fifth Avenue flagship boutique or via its website for $34,100. For more information, check out the Hublot website.