A common thread connects the world’s great designs, from architecture to cars, furniture to sneakers; the most iconic ones began from a single line sketch stemming from imagination and creativity. When it comes to watches, Hublot’s collaboration with Sang Bleu is the very embodiment of lines and is even more so with the newest Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Sang Bleu.
For renowned Swiss tattooist Maxime Plescia-Büchi, founder and creative director of tattoo studio and creative agency Sang Bleu, the humble line forms the cornerstone of his famed tattoo works, twisting and weaving to form new shapes and perspectives. While the human skin is the default canvas for tattoos, Maxime’s creative exponent gets inked in inorganic materials with Hublot. Working with a tattooist might deter even the most avant-garde of watch brands, but for Hublot, it was a marriage made in heaven thanks to the manufacture’s The Art of Fusion philosophy and Hublot Loves Art artistic network.
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Launched at the Salone del Mobile in Milan, the collection is the third collaboration between the two institutions. Hublot’s journey with Sang Bleu began in 2016 with the Hublot Big Bang Sang Bleu, followed by its sequel in 2019. A visual consistency flows through the three collections with what is now considered Sang Bleu’s signature — a radical redesign based on a fusion of geometry and symmetry.
Maxime’s indelible touch on the barrel-shaped Spirit of Big Bang sees the sensual curves of the watch replaced with a faceted guise which extends to the watch crystal. Each plane features a gradual angle offset for a spatial redesign and architectural dimension. A combination of polished, satin-finished and bevelled surfaces reimagined from the strokes of the Spirit of Big Bang further highlights the perfectly angled case. Subtle line works, whether horizontal or vertical, reflect Maxime’s tattoo background and are placed intentionally to amplify the angular and symmetrical (excluding the crown and pushers) case.
On the dial, conventionally shaped watch hands are replaced with geometrical skeletonised hands such as hexagons, diamonds and triangles. A pair of overlapping diamond-shaped hour and minute hands are distinguished by their white-ended pips. Twice a day at noon and midnight, the hands briefly align to form a single diamond before splitting into a visual spectacle, intensified by the faceted crystal that acts as a prism.
A sapphire dial reveals the front side of the automatic chronograph calibre HUB4700 that provides 50 hours of power reserve. The limited edition Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Sang Bleu is presented in titanium (200 pieces), All Black ceramic (200 pieces) and King Gold (100 pieces), while the pavé titanium and King Gold versions are set with 180 diamonds approximating 2.8 carats.