Out of the Blue
The Big Bang Meca-10 Blue Ceramic is a bolt from the blue by Swiss watchmaker Hublot. Nicolette Wong reports on its deep impact
HUBLOT IS RENOWNED FOR ITS ART of Fusion philosophy, which encompasses the idea that unusual design elements and unexpected materials can be merged together to form a bold horological whole that is far greater than the sum of its individual parts. This quest for ever more innovative designs and materials has led it to create entirely new ways to construct movements (the inimitable MP-05 Laferrari comes to mind), and create new watchmaking materials such as its proprietary Magic Gold, the world’s only 18K scratch-resistant alloy made of liquid gold and ceramic. This year, Hublot has debuted yet another timepiece that cleaves perfectly to its Art of Fusion principle—the Big Bang Meca-10 Blue Ceramic. According to Hublot CEO Ricardo Guadalupe, the Big Bang Meca-10 Blue Ceramic “demonstrates the complete mastery we have of our industrial resources, from R&D to the creation of calibres, high-tech cases and innovative materials”. The Big Bang Meca-10 is a technically impressive piece of watchmaking, especially because it was designed and built in-house by Hublot’s expert team of engineers. Its primary feature is its power reserve, which runs for a whopping 10 days. The fully-skeletonised calibre HUB1201 took two years to develop, and contains 223 parts arranged in a beautiful configuration. This beauty is visible on both sides, through the openworked dial and sapphire caseback. On the dial side, you can see the balance wheel operating at 8 o’clock, but the most eye-catching portion is definitely the metallic power reserve indicator at 6 o’clock, which is framed by a bright red window to show the number of days of power reserve left in the movement’s two barrels—those are visible through the sapphire caseback, arranged parallel to each other. Because the Big Bang Meca-10 Blue Ceramic is a manual-winding watch, the movement architecture remains unobscured, thanks to the lack of a winding rotor, for the wearer’s maximum enjoyment. What is interesting about the movement architecture is the way that the barrels connect to the power reserve indicator at 6 o’clock. The barrels use a cogwheel system connected to a rake, visible at the top of the movement on the dial side. When the mainspring is wound, the rake moves
(very, very slowly) to the left of the dial. As it winds down, it will move back towards to the right. The rake is connected to a secondary power reserve indicator wheel at 3 o’clock, which has an aperture that will turn red when there are only two days of energy left. The secondary power reserve is in turn also connected to the primary power reserve indicator, which will act as the main point of reference when the power reserve is relatively robust (and the red dot is not visible). This rake system is unlike anything we have seen in watches before, and makes the movement construction all the more interesting, calling to attention the timepiece’s primary highlight, its 10-day power reserve.
UP TO SCRATCH
Of course, none of this is new—it all debuted with the original Big Bang Meca-10 Titanium back in 2016. What is new about this year’s Meca-10 is the new blue ceramic material that is used to construct the case, bezel and folding clasp. Hublot has, in recent years, been experimenting with the use of ceramics in watchmaking—more specifically, the brand has been trying to create brighter shades of
ceramic that wil will allow it to express its designs d in bolder colo colours. The appeal of doing so is clear—most clear— watches watche are limited to the colours that metals m come in (the brand’s brand extra-red King Gold, G for instance), instanc unless you use the more unusual materials m such as clear s sapphire glass (as in the aforementioned afore MP-05 Laferrari), Laferrar or ceramics. It also h helps that high-tech ceramic is extremely scratch-resistant an and lighter than steel. But even high-tech ceramic has its limits limits—it usually comes in i monotonous tones of brown, grey, black or white. To achieve a super-bright colour such as blue or red, however, is quite difficult. This is chiefly because the colours of ceramic are actually pigments that must be mixed in with the raw material during the sintering process to give it its colour. Unfortunately, keeping these pigments evenly mixed and unburnt under the intensity of sintering is a challenge—bright ceramics often come out of the oven blotchy and discoloured. That Hublot has come up with a watch in a deep, rich shade of blue ceramic is a credit to its metallurgy and materials department. To be fair, the Big Bang Meca-10 Blue Ceramic is not the first blue ceramic watch on the market (Hublot released the Classic Fusion Aerofusion Chronograph Orlinski in a bright blue ceramic this year, and Blancpain has released a limited-edition version of its Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe in blue ceramic in 2016, although blue ceramic is still rarely used), and it is also not the brightest ceramic watch that Hublot makes. The saturated blue hue has amazing masculine appeal, but the title of brightest crayon goes to the Big Bang Unico Red Magic, whose bright primary red case can be spotted from a mile away. The Big Bang Meca-10 Blue Ceramic watch has a micro-blasted matte finish and is 45mm in diameter. For people who aren’t as enamoured by ceramics, the Big Bang Meca-10 is also available in Hublot’s proprietary King Gold, whose extra-red metallic hue contrasts nicely against the blue rubber strap and blue-accented movement. But if you ask us, the Big Bang Meca-10 in blue ceramic is our blue ribbon winner.