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Hublot Matches Leather with Titanium in Latest Berluti Collaboration

Hublot extends its partnership with men’s fashion house Berluti with the new Big Bang Unico Berluti Aluminio, a 44mm limited edition flyback chronograph that elegantly melds leather and titanium.

The new Hublot Big Bang Unico Berluti Aluminio.

Once again Hublot utilizes its Unico collection for this latest Berluti collaboration. The series has deftly displayed fine leather from the French menswear maker within the dressy Unico dials in a variety of imaginative and stylish configurations since the series launched in 2016.

For this latest edition, Hublot again sets Berluti leather between two sapphire glass pieces. The dial’s indexes and “Swiss Made” declaration are heat pressed (gauffered) directly on the leather’s surface.

This model, per its name, features Berluti’s signature Aluminio patina, which will wear to reflect light in varying light grey tones. The result creates a more monochrome appearance than we’ve seen in previous Hublot/Berluti collaborations.

Leather bezel

Berluti leather also highlights the bezel. Using a sticky resin, artisans attach a 1mm-thick piece of the Berluti leather onto the grey titanium bezel, which is then screwed onto the case. This means that, in time, the bezel will wear to create an individualized patina that will match the Berluti leather strap.

Hublot plans to offer the strap in two versions: one in burnished Aluminio Venezia leather; another in patinated Aluminio Venezia leather with the Scritto motif, exclusively for Japan.

Hublot says its titanium case and choice of case and movement materials on the new Big Bang Unico Berluti Aluminio are also meant to match the leather’s eventual patina. These materials include titanium for the case and the strap’s deployant clasp, resin for the central lug, tungsten for the oscillating weight, and satin-finished rhodium for the hands.

Hublot exposes its Unico movement through the dial, framing gears and wheels with the hand-cut Aluminio leather. This movement, Hublot’s MHUB1280, features a flyback function with column wheel and an impressive 72-hour power reserve.

Hublot will the deliver the 100-piece limited-edition Big Bang Unico Berluti Aluminio in a special case with a travel pouch and a shoehorn key ring with the Berluti logo. Price: $25,200.

Specifications: Hublot Big Bang Unico Berluti Aluminio

(Reference 421.NX.0500.VR.BER21, limited to 100 pieces)

Dial: Genuine patinated Venezia leather by Berluti with indices in relief and words Swiss Made.

Case: 44mm by 15.45mm satin-finished and polished titanium. Water resistance is 100 meters. On sapphire back: satin-finished titanium etched with LIMITED EDITION 100NUM and BERLUTI. Satin-finished and polished titanium bezel with a genuine patinated Venezia leather insert by Berluti.

Movement: Hublot MHUB1280
Self-winding UNICO Manufacture chronograph flyback movement with column wheel. Frequency: 4 Hz (28,800 A/h), power reserve is 72 hours.

Strap: Black rubber and genuine patinated Venezia leather by Berluti,, titanium deployant buckle.

Price: $25,200

 

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The Watches

Bell & Ross Adds Luxury to BR 05

Bell & Boss expands its BR 05 collection with two models that offer luxurious options within the BR 05 design, which features a round-edged square case, wide bezel and round dial notably held together with a fully integrated bracelet.

The new Bell & Ross BR 05 Skeleton Gold, here on a black rubber strap.

One model, the BR 05 Skeleton, is now available with a full gold 40mm case and gold bracelet. While we’ve seen gold models within the BR 05 collection, this debut finds the skeletonized version with the precious dress for the first time.

This new gold case underscores the BR 05’s mono-case design. Fully 155 grams of gold encase the openwork dial, which gleams with its own gilded attributes.

All the dial’s appliqué indexes and skeletonized hour and minutes hands are coated with gold, as is the movement itself. Bell & Ross then smartly inlays a strip of white SuperLuminova on the hands and indexes with to enhance nighttime visibility.

The movement, a Sellita-based Bell & Ross BR-CAL.322, is wound by a 360° rose gold-plated oscillating weight that has been open-worked. And finally Bell & Ross and imprinted a metallized logo on the watch’s sapphire case-back.

Bell & Ross will make ninety-nine BR 05 Skeleton Gold models with the new gold case. The watch will be offered on the integrated gold bracelet ($34,700) and also with a black rubber strap ($23,700).

BR 05 Diamond

Those who prefer diamonds to gold for their luxury statement can now choose from among three steel-cased Bell & Ross BR 05 Diamond models, which sport the gem set into the bezel around a sunray black BR 05 three-hand dial with date.

The new Bell & Ross BR 05 Diamond, here on a rubber strap.

Bell& Ross offers three options, all with a fully diamond-set bezel. One model sports a black rubber strap ($10,700) while another attaches a steel bracelet ($11,200). The third new Bell & Ross BR 05 Diamond adds includes the steel bracelet but also adds diamonds to the bracelet’s central links ($21,500).

Inside Bell & Ross places its automatic Sellita-based BR-CAL.321 wound with a 360° oscillating weight visible through a sapphire back.

 

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Mühle-Glashütte Lights Up the Rescue

One look at this instrument/tool watch and it’s not a surprise that the Mühle-Glashütte S.A.R. Rescue-Timer has been equipping the maritime rescue workers of the German Maritime Search and Rescue Service (DGzRS) since 2002.

The Mühle-Glashütte S.A.R. Rescue-Timer Lumen.

One of its key virtues is the ability to easily read the time during night rescue missions. On-board lighting on sea rescue missions is typically kept at a minimum to allow night the best night vision possible while at sea. The S.A.R. Rescue-Timer features over-size hands and indices fully coated in layers of SuperLumiNova to shine the time even in pitch-black conditions.

The new version of the Mühle-Glashütte S.A.R. Rescue-Timer Lumen takes its name from that same luminosity now on the entire dial, providing a bright backdrop for its skeleton black hands.

Built like a tank and equipped with an impressive 4mm-thick scratch-resistant sapphire crystal, the 42mm stainless steel case features a screw-down back and crown with a confirmed, superior water resistance rating of 1,000 meters.

Three strap options are available to hold the watch in place including the popular rubber, dressier stainless, and now a fabric strap sporting the colors of the watch.

Inside beats a Sellita SW-200 regulated in six positions and customized with a woodpecker neck regulation system to achieve a 0 to +8 seconds per day rate. This is a slightly different chronometer standard that allows for a bit faster running – but never slower as compared to the typical Swiss -4 + 6 COSC standards. Price: $2,499. Available at  www.oldnortheastjewelers.com.

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Junghans Revisits its Max Bill Automatic

By Gary Girdvainis

Max is back and minimal is original. Sixty years after the launch of the Max Bill Automatic, Junghans has revisited not only that minimalistic design, but has dared to offer it in the authentic 34mm original size.

An original Max Bill watch from 1961 (left) and a new model, with date. Both are 34mm in diameter.

Tiny by today’s standards (for a men’s watch), the 34mm watch is powered by an automatic movement under a dial bereft of excess – or anything distracting, except, for some, a date display. Two dial options offer a choice between an numeral-free edition or a model with Arabic numerals in a fine font.

Whether with simple stick markers or Arabic numerals, the austere dial keeps the smaller size from feeling too crowded, while the almost-nonexistent bezel adds volume and expanse to the scant case.

Water resistance is nominal at 30 meters and good for splashes and rain, while a double-coated sapphire crystal reaches to the very perimeter of the case. A truly unisex watch, the modern rendition ranges in price from $1,095 to $1,195 depending on the case finish and strap or bracelet choice.

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Only Watch 2021 Favorites: Zenith

We continue to highlight a few of our favorite watches from among the more than fifty watchmakers that have created timepieces for the Only Watch charity auction, which commences Saturday, November 6, in Geneva. Christie’s will auction these incredible watches to raise funds that benefit research in the battle against Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

While you may have seen a few of the watches set for auction earlier this year when Only Watch announced them, we thought you’d enjoy seeing many of these inspired designed again just ahead of the event.

Click here for details about the Only Watch world tour, which begins September 22.

Today, we highlight the offering from Zenith, which has teamed with artist Felipe Pantone for a spectacular special edition of its Defy 21 Double Tourbillon, which here is cased entirely of transparent sapphire crystal ­– a first for any watch in the Zenith Defy collection.

This watch, based on one of Zenith’s most complicated chronographs, is regulated by two independent tourbillons. They operate at five hertz (for the timekeeping function) and fifty hertz (for the 1/100th of a second chronograph). Pantone has transferred his own style to Zenith’s movement’s decoration and the open dial.

As Zenith explains, it has coated the bridges to reflect a gradient of metallic rainbow tones, marking the first time we’ve seen three-dimensional PVD with silicon particles as a surface treatment on a tourbillon chronograph movement. This produces an-eye-catching spectrum of colors. Zenith then fixes its movement within a case given the same rainbow effect. The caseback sports a similar rainbow PVD coating on the bridges, where “Unique Piece” is engraved on one of them under the blackened star-shaped winding rotor.

Pantone then distorts the central hour and minute hands to resemble lightning bolts. Echoing the movement, Zenith applies a rainbow gradient of colors in PVD to the hands, while each of the applied hour markers is filled with a different color. Zenith and Pantone create a crazy moiré optical effect on the dial, produced by thin alternating white and black using fine laser-engraving and precise lacquering techniques.

Finally, Zenith will package the watch in a special box resembling an art book and add an original signed artwork by Felipe Pantone.

Only Watch auction estimate: CHF 180,000 – 220,000.

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