We all know Hublot loves to play with case materials, and their latest product is another clever interpretation of that material — the first ever watch with a yellow sapphire case. Hublot is not the first company to dabble in the art of making sapphire cases, but they are the first to dabble in color design, and after the success of blue and red, the sparkling gold became the brand’s latest product earlier this year. As I basked in the sun at replica watches & Wonders in Miami, I had a chance to get a closer look at the russet gem.
The reality is that people love to bang on Hublot, and particularly the Spirit of Big Bang, which is a little unfortunate in my eyes. From the onset I’ve actually been kinda fond of the Big Bang, and though the shift in casing is quite dramatic, I’m going to make the daring argument that this is the most aesthetically pleasing sapphire-cased Hublot replica to date. Hear me out, now.
To make the case for the Spirit of Big Bang Yellow Sapphire you don’t really need to dig too deep to see what sets it apart from the other clear and colored sapphire-cased watches in the Hublot catalogue. Plain and simple, the high-contrast combination of black and yellow gives this model a punchy look than any of its siblings.
This stark contrast is properly what’s lacking in all of the other sapphire-cased replica Hublot models. Blue sapphire is contrasted by steel and other light grey finishes. Red sapphire is set against black, but being a darker hue, it simply lacks punch. In a sense, this is a good thing for those who want to draw no more attention than the sapphire case would have, but this is Hublot – the brand to punch, in my eyes, which makes the big bang yellow sapphire a classic example of the spirit of the brand to do the best.
But how did we get here, you might ask? Well, creating the lab-grown synthetic sapphires large enough to carve cases out of allows for a bit of scientific trickery. The material is a rather bit softer and more compliant on the wrist. Though their usual rubber straps aren’t bad to start with, the added comfort is instantly noticeable.
Out in the Miami Design District crowds, the slightly muted yellow didn’t catch nearly as much attention as I had initially anticipated; however, this is one of Hublot’s bases in North America, so between the brand being far more common and simply being in the throes of the city’s biggest fake watch fair, it probably wasn’t a fair venue to gauge whether or not the piece could possibly sail under the radar. For those unfamiliar with watchmaking, at least, it’s easy to dismiss it as plastic.