Hublot roars to start the Lunar New Year with the Spirit of Big Bang Carbon Gold Tiger, a watch striped to mimic the big cat star of the Year of the Tiger. The 42mm barrel-shaped watch, a specially designed model within Hublot’s 42mm Spirit of Big Bang collection, features a golden striped case and a black-striped rubber strap.
The new Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Carbon Gold Tiger.
Hublot, which touts its use of ‘fusion’ that mixes watchmaking materials for aesthetic and technical reasons, melds carbon fiber and 18-karat yellow-gold to create this model’s unique finish. And the technical process will yield no two matching patterns, much like tigers in the wild. The ‘fusion’ will result in a different glistening gold case pattern on each of the 200 Spirit of Big Bang Carbon Gold Tiger watches Hublot will manufacture.
Hublot continues the Year of the Tiger theme into the watch’s straps. One rubber strap included with the watch is shaped to mimic tiger stripes. Fastened by a black ceramic and black-plated titanium deployant clasp, the strap can be changed to the also-supplied yellow-gold-colored, Velcro-fastened fabric strap.
Inside Hublot fits is excellent self-winding skeleton chronograph, reference HUB4700, a high-frequency movement that boasts a silicon escapement and a 50-hour power reserve. The watch is water-resistant to 100 meters.
To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Porsche Design, which was founded by Ferdinand Alexander Porsche in 1972, Porsche Design is launching the Chronograph 1 – 1972 Limited Edition, a reinterpretation of its first product, the original Chronograph 1.
The new Porsche Design Chronograph 1 – 1972 Limited Edition is a reinterpretation of its first product, the original Chronograph 1.
Long considered the first all-black watch, the Chronograph 1 design was directly based on the matte-black design of Porsche sports car dashboards. Porsche Design’s use of black PVD on steel (as well as employing the then-new Valjoux 7750 automatic movement) set an example emulated for decades afterwards by sports watchmakers across the globe. Early examples of the pioneering Porsche Design automatic chronograph are highly collectible.
Honoring the watch’s pioneering role in late 20th century watchmaking, Porsche Design launches its Chronograph 1 – 1972 Limited Edition with the original’s dial and 40.8mm case measurements while bringing it up to modern technical standards.
As on the original, Porsche Design places its historic logo on the dial, crown, clasp and case back. In addition, the tachymeter scale and date display retain the 1972 font and the watch’s baton hands bear the original rectangular shape. The movement, however is now the COSC- certified Porsche Design caliber WERK 01.140.
The COSC-certified Porsche Design caliber WERK 01.140.
Porsche Design will make the watch using the same high performance titanium for the 40.8mm case and strap as it uses in nearly all Porsche Design timepieces today. And new SuperLuminova will enhance the watch’s visibility in the dark.
Also new is where the Chronograph 1 – 1972 Limited Edition and its movement are manufactured. As of 2014, all Porsche Design Timepieces are produced in-house at Porsche Design Timepieces AG, the brand’s own timepiece-manufacturing facility in Solothurn, Switzerland.
Porsche Design will also offer a second example of the watch, the Chronograph 1 – 911 Edition 50Y Porsche Design (with an open caseback), exclusively to owners of the new limited edition Porsche 911 sports car, with both car and watch limited to 750 pieces globally.
The Chronograph 1 – 911 Edition 50Y Porsche Design for Porsche 911 owners has an open caseback.
In addition to the anniversary timepieces and vehicles, Porsche Design is also offering a wide range of its products with special fiftieth anniversary touches. The products include sunglasses, fashion, sportswear, accessories, bags and luggage.
Timed to coincide with the start of the lunar New Year on February 1, Ulysse Nardin has launched a new black ceramic ‘Blast’ version of its Moonstruck astronomical complication.
The Ulysse Nardin Blast Moonstruck
This newest Moonstruck is a direct descendant of the Tellurium moonphase complication watchmaker and engineer Ludwig Oechslin created for Ulysse Nardin in 1992 as part of a trilogy of astronomical watches. And like that watch and subsequent Moonstruck models, the new, very contemporary Blast Moonstruck is meant to depict the rotation of the sun and moon as well as related astronomical events and measurements such tidal times, world time and of course local time and date.
The new Moonstruck maintains the collection’s centrally located depiction of the Earth as seen from North Pole. But for this Blast version, Ulysse Nardin has micro-engraved the continents and set them inside a sapphire crystal box encircled by a rose gold ring. That ring is engraved with the thirty-one days of the month to indicate the days.
A hyper-accurate moonphase indicator, using a realistic depiction of the Moon, shows the Moon’s position in relation to the sun, which Ulysse Nardin artisans have created from bronzite, a mineral rarely used in watchmaking. Even more impressive, the Moon display changes to appear a little brighter or dimmer in line with the lunar calendar.
Pushers on the left-hand side of the case allow the user to adjust the main time display forward or back to adjust to another time zone.
Worldtime is indicated via city names placed around the dial, as is often seen in traditional world time watches. While the hands can indicate the local time, they can also be set to any other time zone or to any one of the twenty-four time zones that corresponding to the city noted on the fixed flange.
Not surprisingly, Ulysse Nardin allows the wearer a particular ease at changing time zones. For years, the watchmaker has utilized a mechanism for changing the hour hand on its dual-time watches via two-pushers, here located on the left side of the case.
Ulysse Nardin’s own dial-making division has created a night-sky for the Blast Moonstruck on a disk made of aventurine.
Ulysse Nardin explains that the watch’s myriad settings can be set and adjusted using the crown.
“Manufacture caliber UN-106 subsequently manages all the displays on its own as long as the watch is worn, “ according to the watchmaker. “And when it isn’t, it just needs to be put back in the box supplied, which contains an automatic winder designed to take care of the winding and keep its calendar information accurate.”
The Ulysse Nardin Blast Moonstruck is a multi-level 45mm watch in black ceramic and black DLC-treated titanium. It can be worn on a black alligator, black velvet or black rubber strap. Price: $73,900 (limited production).
Specifications: Ulysse Nardin Blast Moonstruck
(Reference 1063-400-2A/3A)
Movement: Automatic UN-106 Manufacture caliber, 335 components, 28,800 vph. Power reserve of 50 hours.
Functions and displays: Hours, minutes, date, moon phase indication, days of lunar month, tidal coefficients, worldtimer, dual time, positions of the sun and moon around the globe.
Case: 45mm black ceramic, black DLC titanium, sapphire crystal on front and back, rose gold oscillating weight, 30 meters of water resistance.
Strap: Black alligator, velvet, or rubber with folding clasp, black DLC titanium and pink gold clasp.
Wempe Glashütte, the manufacturing arm of esteemed watch and jewelry retailer Wempe, this week amps up its sporty Iron Walker collection with Iron Walker Chronograph XL, a new line of slightly larger 44mm automatic chronographs.
The new Wempe Iron Walker Chronograph XL.
Not only are the new watches larger in size than the initial set of 42mm Iron Walker chronographs (which debuted in 2020), the new collection also offers customers the option of buying a model with a rubber strap. Wempe carries this enhanced sportiness to the watch’s crown, bezel and pushers, all of which are coated with matching rubber.
The new collection is also distinct from its forebear inside its newly rubber-accented case. Wempe fits a Sellita SW500 automatic caliber inside each of the four debut Iron Walker Chronograph XL models. This differs from the ETA 7753 Valjoux chronograph inside the Iron Walker Automatic Chronograph collection.
Like the earlier models, all the new watches are chronometer-certified by stringent German chronometric testing according to the ISO 3159 standard. This means each watch is certified to a maximum average rate variation of only two seconds per day when mounted in the case.
Wempe added Iron Walker in 2020, and at the time the company noted the collection was designed to create moderately priced watches with high-end specifications. (See the full list of Iron Walker Chronograph XL specifications below.)
Wempe also devised Iron Walker to complement Wempe’s other two wristwatch lines, which include Wempe Chronometerwerke (made with Wempe manufacture calibers) and Wempe Zeitmeister, which features basic mechanical models.
“We are making our own watches for daily use because many brands have withdrawn from the medium price range and only make luxury watches,” explains company director Kim-Eva Wempe. “Our strategy of making high-quality watches for smaller budgets as well has paid off.”
Price: $4,600.
Specifications: Wempe Iron Walker Chronograph XL
Movement: Automatic caliber SW500, frequency 28,800 vph (4 Hz), 48-hour power reserve, German chronometer officially tested according to ISO 3159.
Case: 44mm stainless steel, water-resistant to 100 meters, crown, button, and bezel with a rubber coating, sapphire crystal with an anti-reflective coating on both sides, screw-in crown.
Dial: Black or Nordic blue, steel hour markers with Super-LumiNova, bezel with a rubber coating in black or Nordic blue. Rhodium-plated hands with SuperLuminova.
Bracelet: Stainless steel with a folding clasp or a rubber strap with a folding clasp in black or Nordic blue.
Hublot this week offers new options to its customers in search of a slightly thinner, downsized Big Bang as the Geneva watchmaker launches a 40mm Time Only Big Bang Integral.
Hublot will debut the new 40mm collection in a choice of three metals: yellow gold, titanium or black ceramic. The black ceramic collection is a limited edition of 250 pieces while the yellow gold and titanium lines are unlimited.
Hublot’s new Time Only Big Bang Integral All Black.
You might recall that when the Integral debuted in early 2020 as a flyback chronograph only, it was the first bracelet collection within Big Bang. The integrated bracelet is a solid three-link design that broke Hublot’s long held focus on rubber, leather or fabric bracelets for its best-selling Big Bang Unico collections.
The new watch measures 9.25mm thick, far sleeker than the 13.45mm-thick Big Bang Integral chronograph models. Hublot continues to polish and satin-finish the bracelet links on the new non-chronograph collection to closely match the new satin-finished 40mm case. The new ‘Time Only’ models, which also display the date, retain the skeletonized dial treatment found on the chronograph models. As a result, the date wheel and the five-minute markers become more prominent.
Hublot matches the indexes, hands and date window finishes in yellow gold, titanium or All Black ceramic to match the case. Inside, Hublot fits its automatic caliber HUB1710, which is largely bared on the dial and also visible through the back of the watch.
Prices: $17,800 (titanium), $49,400 (yellow gold) and $19,900 (black ceramic).
Hublot this week also announced six new watches cased in yellow gold. Hublot says the yellow gold debuts “pay tribute to the brand’s preferred material.” We’ll show you more of this yellow gold expansion in future posts, where we’ll also show you more of Hublot’s 2022 debuts.
The new ‘Time Only’ models, which also display the date, retain the skeletonized dial treatment found on the chronograph models. As a result, the date wheel and the five-minute markers become more prominent.
