It’s not every day that a brand puts the spotlight on a material rather than its own watches, but Hublot is doing just that with its yellow gold collection released at LVMH Watch Week. Reaching back over 40 years — and a couple of decades before the Biver era — Hublot is paying tribute to the yellow gold on rubber strap Classic Original with a sextet of new pieces across the Classic Fusion, Big Bang, and Spirit of Big Bang collections.
The first Hublot Classic Original
The unofficial centerpiece of these six pieces is the Classic Fusion Chronograph done in a 42mm yellow gold case for the first time. I’m happy to see Hublot lean into its early history more, especially when you consider the fact that the brand existed for 25 years before the Big Bang. Done in a 42mm-wide and 11.9mm-thick case, the Classic Fusion Chrono has a simple bi-compax dial done in matte black with only yellow gold accents, indices, and hands. I can only judge from the press shots at the moment, but this watch looks badass.
The Classic Fusion Chronograph case (water-resistant to 50m) is all done in yellow gold other than the black composite resin lower bezel, the six titanium H-shaped screws on the bezel, and the titanium deployant buckle clasp. As for the movement, it uses the automatic MHUB1153, which operates at 28,800 vph and has a 42-hour power reserve.
There are a total of four Big Bang pieces in the yellow gold collection. Three are part of the Big Bang Integral collection, which are done with a case and bracelet created from one single block of solid gold. Along with the classic Big Bang Integral are two gem-set variants, a pavé done with diamonds and the other in full Haute Joaillerie. Both the diamond-set versions look absolutely insane, and I couldn’t love them more.
The Big Bang Integral comes in a 42mm case that measures 13.45mm-thick with 100m of water resistance. Each of the three variants has the MHUB1280 UNICO 2 manufacture automatic column-wheel flyback chronograph movement, which operates at 28,800 vph and has a 72-hour power reserve. I saw the Big Bang Integral when it first debuted at the inaugural 2020 LVMH Watch Week in Dubai and, while it was done in titanium, you can read my impressions of it here — just replace the titanium with solid yellow gold.
There is, indeed, one more Big Bang, which is the first with a yellow gold case on a rubber strap with UNICO movement. With a slightly different case and rubber strap instead of integrated bracelet, this Big Bang UNICO measures 42mm-wide and 14.5mm-thick with 100m water resistance. The movement is indeed the same MHUB 1280 UNICO 2 as seen in the Integral.
Finally, there’s the tonneau-shaped — and vastly underrated — Spirit of Big Bang. Again, we see a yellow gold case with black rubber strap (equipped with the “one-click” easy strap-change system) that measures 42mm-wide and 14.1mm-thick with 100m of water resistance. The skeletonized chronograph MHUB4700 movement is visible from the dial and caseback side and operates at 36,000 vph and has a 50-hour power reserve. The Spirit of Big Bang is Hublot’s dark horse collection that can be overshadowed by the flash of the Big Bang or the sleekness (and more accessible price) of the Classic Fusion, but it’s impressed me each time I’ve handled one, and I look forward to seeing this in the metal.
The six Hublot yellow gold pieces look stunning, and I’m so happy about the sizing, which Hublot has taken measures to trim in recent years. The Hublot Classic Fusion Chronograph Yellow Gold is priced at $26,800, the Big Bang Integral Yellow Gold is $52,500, the Big Bang Integral Yellow Gold Pavé is $100,000, the Big Bang Integral Yellow Gold Joaillerie is $211,000, the Big Bang UNICO Yellow Gold is $36,700, and the Spirit of Big Bang Yellow Gold is $40,500. You can learn more at hublot.com.
