Hublot has been supporting SORAI – Save Our Rhinos Africa India –since 2019. An organization founded by Hublot ambassador and former international cricket star Kevin Pietersen, SORAI helps keep rhinos threatened with extinction safe from poachers.
The latest Hublot Big Bang Unico SORAI.
As with the two previous limited editions, part of the proceeds from the sale of the 100 Big Bang Unico SORAI will be donated to the organization.
The colors chosen for the third limited edition are those of sunset, recalling the heightened danger faced by rhinos as night falls. Here, the sun is a symbol of hope, of a new dawn.
Proceeds from the sale of the latest Big Bang Unico SORAI ($24,100) will go directly to projects supported by SORAI to equip helicopters with cameras, raise awareness in schools about the consequences of poaching and to provide backup to rangers on the ground.
These strategies are implemented where the need is biggest and most pressing: South Africa. South Africa is home to more than 80% of the world’s total population of rhinos, with the majority of poaching taking place in Kruger National Park, as it has the largest population of wild white rhinos left on earth.
“If purchasing a watch can buy time, then it is a small gesture with huge implications,” says Hublot CEO Ricardo Guadalupe. “We have used our limited editions to help him gain access to more state-of-the-art technologies on the ground, put together more surveillance teams, as well as rescue injured or orphaned rhinos, with the single shared aim of shielding this endangered species.”
“Our actions on the ground (surveillance teams and equipment to prevent poaching, rhino sanctuaries and refuges) are vital. However, in order to act, we first need to raise public awareness, increase publicity and make this a visible cause,” adds Pietersen.
Source: Hublot
Specifications: Hublot Big Bang Unico SORAI
Case: 44mm microblasted and polished grey ceramic, sapphire crystal, water restart to 100 meters.
Dial: Matte warm grey skeleton.
Movement: HUB1280 UNICO manufacture automatic chronograph flyback with column wheel. Power reserve of 72 hours.
Strap: Grey fabric with additional black rubber strap with black, orange and purple camouflage decor. Black ceramic and black-plated titanium deployant buckle.
Backes & Strauss teams with British jeweler Theo Fennell to create the colorful Regent Theo Fennell Rainbow, an oval watch that places Fennell’s dynamic hand-crafted London style into a contemporary black PVD steel case with a black dial.
The Backes & Strauss Regent Theo Fennell Rainbow.
The watch’s dark dial is offset with rose gold hour markers comprised of brightly enameled Arabic numerals. The colors seem to flow from the hot pink Theo Fennell logo at 12 o’clock to warm amber and finally from green to blue as the eye races around the oval dial. An inner oval track is set with applied rose gold pyramid markers that reflect the light as the watch is worn.
The watch’s 40mm by 47mm case is also set alight by a single diamond set into the crown. Backes and Strauss, fits an automatic movement into the case.
The legendary jeweler and watchmaker, founded in 1789 and now part of the Franck Muller group, offers nine examples of the black-cased Regent Theo Fennell Rainbow, each priced upon request.
As a watchmaker and jeweler known for its diamond-set dials and cases, Backes and Strauss is also offering one glittering example of the Regent Theo Fennell Rainbow cased in rose gold and set with two rows of Ideal-cut round brilliant diamonds.
Even the leather strap’s gold buckle is diamond-set, contributing to the 4.79 total carat weight of the watch. Like the blackened steel model, this jeweled unique piece is priced on request.
With one look at the new Casio Edifice ECB950MP-1A (or its stablemate ECB900MP-1A) the wearer can see why this Edifice series is so visually linked to auto racing.
The Casio Edifice ECB950MP-1A
Developed with assistance from race drivers, the series features a dial that mimics a race car steering wheel and gauge set. The dial features a layout with four accent colors, inspired by the color-coded push-button controls on race car steering wheels.
The speed indicator is convenient for watching races.
Here we have a chronograph dial with a bright yellow, high-visibility seconds hand. Around the dial Edifice has placed a black IP bezel engraved with tachymeter markings—not unlike a race car dashboard.
On the wrist the watch’s matte-finished dark bezel nicely contrasts with the polished 51.5mm by 48mm polished steel case.Edifice supplies an extremely comfortable soft urethane strap. The strap is more secure than usual thanks to a raised tip, which retains the strap end within the keeper.
This sharp-looking high-performance watch will effectively enhance your time-tracking options by using smartphone connectivity via Bluetooth. Simply pair the watch to your smart phone with a push of a button through Casio’s Mobile Link Technology.
Solar Power
The Casio Edifice ECB950MP-1A also features Casio’s Tough Solar Power, which essentially means there’s a tiny solar panel system built in to the watch that converts light to electricity and eliminates the need for battery changes. It can even be charged in low or fluorescent light. After full charge, the watch can be operated without solar charging for about six months with normal use of functions and about nineteen months with the power-saving function enabled.
The timepiece is also water resistant up to 100 meters and protected with a scratch resistant mineral crystal.
The watch (right) pictured here with the other new Edifice Multicolor model, ECB900MP.
Additional features include a 1/1000-second stopwatch, a countdown timer, 5 multi-function alarms, a full-auto double LED light (Super illuminator) and more.
With so many useful functions, a solid case and strap and good-looking on the wrist, the Casio Edifice ECB950MP-1A is very strong value, especially given its $250 price tag. .
Two recently debuted blue-dialed watches, the Bell & Ross BR 05 GMT Sky Blue and the Oris Aquis Small Second Date 45.5mm, demonstrate how versatile —and attractive — the azure tint can be when perched on a wrist. And both debuts sport serious specs and can be worn anytime and in any workday or playtime environment.
Oris
If your typical day takes you in or near the water, the Oris Aquis Small Second Date 45.5mm ($2,900) is your best bet here given its much-greater-than-average 500-meter water resistance rating.
The new Oris Aquis Small Second Date 45.5 mm.
Oris notes that the watch’s water resistance rating is actually greater than the standard model within its Aquis dive series, which typically includes watches rated to 300 meters of water resistance.
The watch, with its ocean-inspired deep-blue dial, represents a new size the Oris Aquis time-and-date-only series. It retains all the dive-ready specifications you’d expect from Oris, including a small seconds indicator (at the 9 o’clock position) with a luminous hand, a screw-down crown with protection, a uni-directional rotating bezel with a ceramic insert, and either a metal bracelet or rubber strap equipped with the Oris-patented extendable security folding clasp.
Oris has launched an impressive selection of colorful watches in recent years, especially within its Big Crown series. Even the watchmaker’s ProPilot collection now includes hues unexpected within such a technical series.
The new Oris Aquis Small Second Date 45.5mm revels in its ocean-colored dial, bezel insert and rubber strap. (See below for detailed specifications).
Bell & Ross
Inspired by summer skies, Bell & Ross finishes its latest BR 05 GMT with a sky blue sun-ray pattern dial. Earlier BR 05 GMT models have only been available with a black dial or a white dial.
The new Bell & Ross BR 05 GMT Sky Blue.
Framed by the Bell & Ross’s own circled-in-a-square case shape, the dial allows the wearer to determine time in a second time zone thanks to the blue-tinted GMT hand. With its easy-to-read large white arrow-shaped tip, the hand allows means wearer can quickly determine the hour in any of 24 timezones emblazoned along the graduated inner bezel.
Bell & Ross enhances this flange with a sky blue and silver color treatment. The colors allow the wearer to further differentiate whether the second time zone hour is in the daytime (silver) or nighttime (blue). Bell & Ross coats the hands and the rhodium-plated baton-shaped indexes with a healthy amount of SuperLuminova.
Inside Bell & Ross fits its bedrock BR-CAL.325 movement, a Sellita-based automatic caliber. And, for all-weather wear, Bell & Ross supplies a screw-in crown to guarantee water resistance to 100 meters. (See below for detailed specifications.)
Bell & Ross offers two types of attachment for the BR 05 GMT Sky Blue. The first is a stainless-steel bracelet and second is a blue rubber strap tinted to match the dial color.
Price: $5,000 (rubber strap) and $5,500 (steel bracelet).
Specifications: Oris Aquis Small Second Date 45.5 mm
(Ref. 0174377334155–0742469EB)
Case: 45.5 multi-piece stainless steel with ceramic bezel insert, sapphire domed crystal, anti- reflective coating inside, screwed steel back with special engravings, stainless steel screw-in security crown, water resistance to 500 meters. Movement: Oris 743, Sellita-based automatic with center hands for hours, minutes and seconds, date, Oris fine timing device and stop-second. Power reserve is41 hours.
Dial: Ocean Blue with SuperLumiNova applied indices.
Bracelet/strap: Multi-piece stainless steel metal bracelet with folding clasp with extension. Also available on a blue rubber strap with stainless steel security folding clasp with extension.
Functions: hours, minutes, central seconds, date and second 24-hour time zone. Quick setting of the GMT hand, independently of the hour hand.
Case: 41 mm wide. Satin-polished steel. Satin-finished rhodium-plated and blue two-color flange, with 24-hour scale. Screw-down crown. Crown guard. Sapphire case-back with 360° oscillating weight. Crystal is sapphire with anti-reflective coating. Water-resistance to 100 meters.
Dial: Blue sun-ray finish with numerals and indices coated in white SuperLumiNova,, metal skeletonized SuperLumiNova-filled hour and minute hands.
Strap: Blue rubber or satin-polished steel with satin-polished steel folding buckle.
Price: $5,000 (rubber strap) and $5,500 (steel bracelet).
To celebrate its 140th birthday, Alpina releases a limited edition rectangular watch with a restored manual-wind caliber made in 1938.
The new Alpina Heritage Carrée Mechanical 140 Years.
The new Heritage Carrée Mechanical 140 Years features Caliber 490, which was designed, assembled and finished in 1938 by one of the firms in the Union Horlogère, Alpina’s original entity. Such fully in-house construction was not typical of the era, when generic ébauches (movement-blanks) were more commonly used throughout the Swiss market.
Alpina has created two rectangular silver-cased models as a tribute to its anniversary. One new series features a black dial and is available in the United States and globally; the other offers a silvered dial and is available outside the United States.
Alpina explains that the slow frequency (18,000 vph) rectangular-shaped movement was built to provide extra protection against water and dust and was elegantly finished with a sun-brushed ratchet and fully beveled components.
The Alpina 490 Caliber.
Only a few of the movements still exist, and Alpina has done well to shape the new watch’s case to fit the shaped movement.
Alpina’s records indicate that the original case for a watch using the movement was made from steel or gold depending on the model. Alpina made the new 29.5mm x 35.7mm by 9.71mm case from mirror-polished silver and has placed anti-glare sapphire crystal on the front and back, which allows a clear view of the Caliber 490.
The Alpina 490 Caliber, pictured showing front and back.
Both of the limited editions (of fourteen pieces each) display Alpina’s period logo, two thin central hands and a typical 1930s small seconds. A period-truerail track minute circle runs around the dial.
On the U.S. version, Alpina places solid Arabic numerals on the black dial accompanied by beige hands and a circular small second hand display. The other version (not pictured here) sports a silvered dial, black hands and 1920s-style Arabic numerals. Alpina finishes the watch with a light brown ostrich leather strap, with vintage white stitching and pin buckle.
Price: $5,395.
Specifications: Alpina Heritage Carrée Mechanical 140 Years (AL-490BA3C10, a limited edition of 14 pieces)
Movement: Alpina vintage AL-490 caliber, hand-winding with 42-hour power reserve, 18,000 vph.
Case: Polished silver 2-part, 29.50mm x 35.70mm by 9.71mm, anti-reflective convex sapphire crystal, water-resistant to 30 meters, engraved and see-through screwed case back.
Dial: Black with matte finishing, beige printed Arabic numerals and beige graduation, beige hour and minute hands, small second counter at 6 o’clock with beige hand.
Strap: Light brown Ostrich leather with off-white stitching, pin buckle.
The colors chosen for the third limited edition are those of sunset, recalling the heightened danger faced by rhinos as night falls. Here, the sun is a symbol of hope, of a new dawn. 
“Our actions on the ground (surveillance teams and equipment to prevent poaching, rhino sanctuaries and refuges) are vital. However, in order to act, we first need to raise public awareness, increase publicity and make this a visible cause,” adds Pietersen. 
