Berluti, a luxury Parisian shoemaker and fine leather goods maker that has been dressing the discerning since 1895.
HUBLOT, the Swiss watch brand of choice for the international A-List. Famed for it’s multi-award winning Big Bang model, released 15-years ago, which paved the way for an array of flagship collections (Classic Fusion, Spirit of Big Bang) that cemented its name as one of the leading watchmakers in the world.
Now, for the first time, the emblematic men’s fashion house and luxury watchmaker, have combined their exceptional craftmanship to focus on the HUBLOT Big Bang Unico Chronograph, for a limited series.
Initiated four years ago, the collaboration between the French fashion house and Hublot has given life to a series of painstakingly beautiful watches. Bringing together the former’s legendary Venezia leather and its patina with the latter’s art of fusion of materials, these models all have the Hublot Classic Fusion watch as their base.
This new reveal, hotly anticipated by those watch enthusiasts around the world, sees the two houses working hand in hand to design a model based for the first time on the iconic Big Bang Unico Chrono.
Thanks to their reputed mastery of materials, Hublot’s engineers drew on the experience gained during previous collaborations with Berluti to be able to apply the house’s iconic Venezia leather to the Big Bang Unico’s dial. A construction built around a brass base encapsulates the leather between two pieces of sapphire glass, cut out for the first time to allow the wearer to admire the gears of the Unico movement. Thanks to a delicate process developed in collaboration with Berluti, the organic elements of the leather have been frozen, as if asleep, so as to render the living beauty of the natural hide unchanging. And for this new interpretation, the Venezia leather comes in Cold Brown patina.
Diving into Berluti’s archives, inspiration was taken from a past patina and brought up to date to create the Cold Brown patina. A glacé finish on it emphasizes the various brown shades composing this subtle colour. This patina is the result of a long and complex handwork; each piece is unique thanks to the colour variations due to this craftsmanship.
Another innovation: whereas on previous editions, it was only reserved for the strap and the dial, the Venezia leather in Cold Brown patina also features on the watch’s bezel. This achievement was possible thanks to the development of an all-new conception of the piece, in two parts. The first part, in leather and around 1 mm thick, is inserted thanks to an adhesive and rigidifying resin onto a lower base in black ceramic, which is itself screwed onto the case of the watch. Like the strap, it will be able to continue taking on a patina over time.
Of course, the heart of this Hublot Big Bang could only be the iconic Unico manufacture movement, a chronograph with flyback function. Here, this MHUB1242 calibre beats at the heart of a case with a 45-millimetre diameter and offers a 72-hour power reserve.
The Hublot Big Bang Unico Berluti Cold Brown watch fuses the heritage of the men’s fashion house Berluti, the vision of its creative Director Kris Van Assche and the mastery of materials of the Hublot Manufacture. Delivered in a casket signed by the two houses, presenting the emblematic Berluti shoehorn key ring and travel case, this model will only be available in a limited edition of 100 copies.
The Insider UAE 