Hublot has been on the cutting edge of creating new materials for its watches for a while now. The brand, whose motto is The Art of Fusion, even has its own Metallurgy and Materials research laboratory on the premises in its Nyon, Switzerland workshops, where the team continually works with high-tech alloys. This year, Hublot unveils a world-first in the form of orange sapphire. The orange-tinted case of the new Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic Sapphire Orange watch was challenging to accomplish due to the difficulty of achieving the depth of color. Hublot’s engineers incorporated titanium oxide and chromium to attain the final color. Thus far, no other watch brand has developed this bold hue.
As if the orange sapphire wasn’t enough, Hublot opted to power the watch with an all-new movement. While the orange sapphire was two years in the making, the 243-part movement was three years in research and development. The self-winding caliber boasts a tourbillon escapement at 6 o’clock (rarely do tourbillon escapements come in automatic watches). It also features a decorated micro-rotor that is visible on the dial side. The orange numerals and markers seemingly float on the dial, and the hands are tipped in orange. Just 50 pieces will be made.
$169,000, available at Hublot in New York, +1 646 582 9813, hublot.com
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