Watches and Wonders
Party Mix: Hublot Celebrates the 20th Anniversary of the Big Bang at Watches and Wonders
The Nyon-based brand brings its mashup of the Big Bang Original and the Big Bang Unico to Watches and Wonders.
By Rhonda Riche
Editor-At-Large
Can you believe that the Hublot Big Bang turns twenty this year? The watch was quite polarizing when it was launched two decades ago. Heck, some collectors still consider it more of a status symbol than a legit legend.
That said, critics and industry observers have generally come to appreciate Hublot’s (and, by extension, the Big Bang’s) innovations in materials, design, and technicity. So, what does a watch with such a legacy got to do to make some noise at Watches and Wonders 2025?
Well, for Hublot, with its “Art of Fusion” motto, the most ingenious way to celebrate the anniversary of the manufacture’s most emblematic collection is to combine the original Big Bang design with the current Big Bang Unico.
Party Mix
We are all a bit exhausted by phrases such as “iconic” and “disruptive” being used to describe watches. However, even with these describers being (mostly) stricken from our vocabulary, we can still say that the Big Bang collections have helped redefine watchmaking in the 21st century.
The Big Bang is not a subtle watch, being instantly recognizable since day one of the collection’s existence. Still, it has been sneakily evolving, and the five limited edition Big Bang models released this week at Watches and Wonders Geneva demonstrate just how far the collection has come.
“This year, we’re not only looking back at all that Hublot has achieved through the Big Bang, but also looking towards the future, and all the potential it still holds and possibilities it offers,” explained Hublot CEO Julien Tornare in a recent press release.
Thus, Hublot is using each of these five birthday editions to present a selection of the brand’s greatest hits and bridge the past, present, and future of the Big Bang. Moreover, these five limited editions – the Titanium Ceramic, King Gold Ceramic, Red Magic Ceramic, All Black, and Full Magic Gold – pay tribute to the materials Hublot pioneered.
All Together Now
While each of these anniversary editions use different materials, they all share features like a redesigned case with a distinctive layered construction, engraved dials with a carbon fiber-inspired relief motif, and the collection’s classic riveted Arabic numerals and indices that recall the earliest Big Bangs.
Like the Big Bang Unico models, these markers have now been filled with Super-LumiNova. Moreover, the dial also features two counters, one for the small seconds at 9 o'clock and one for the minutes of the chronograph at 3 o’clock.
What else is new? These editions are all powered by the Unico automatic manufacture chronograph movement that features a special gold rotor marking the 20th anniversary of this modern (dare we say it) icon. They also have a specially engraved crown with a rubber insert displaying the Hublot 20th anniversary logo.
The Details
The Titanium Ceramic and King Gold Ceramic versions also incorporate a new 43mm case with lightly curved pinched lugs and a knurled bezel edge that were prominent features of the earliest Big Bang models.
Limited to 500 pieces for the Titanium Ceramic ($20,800) and 250 pieces in King Gold Ceramic ($38,400), these two models also mark the reappearance of the rubber-tipped rectangular pushers found in the first Big Bang references, along with the textured lozenge-patterned rubber strap.
The Big Bang 20th Anniversary All Black ($25,200) is a testament to the first Big Bang All Black limited edition in 2006. If you recall, this timepiece was notable for its concept of “invisible visibility.”
This time, this 500-piece limited edition neo-noir watch comes in a new combination of a matte and polished black ceramic case and with a black carbon-pattern dial.
The brand’s proprietary Magic Gold was introduced in 2011 and was advertised as the world’s first and only scratch-resistant 18-karat gold alloy. So, no tribute to the Big Bang would be complete without an homage to this alchemical creation.
Limited to 100 pieces, the Big Bang 20th Anniversary Full Magic Gold edition ($40,500) marries a case made from this unique material with a carbon-patterned dial and gilt hands and markers.
Last but certainly not least, the Big Bang 20th Anniversary Red Magic ($31,800) is limited to 100 pieces. This piece celebrates Hublot’s ground-breaking forays into brightly colored ceramic when it released its first Red Magic watch in 2018.
To learn more about the Big Bang 20th Anniversary collection, check out Hublot’s website.