Arms-On: Hublot Big Bang MP-11 Water Blue Sapphire Watch
Pictures by Ed Rhee
If money isn’t loads of an issue for you, perhaps a color-hued sapphire crystal watch case is due? Do you recall just a few years prior to now that clear sapphire cases had been all of the fad? Hublot was one in every of many early adopters of using synthetic sapphire crystals for watch cases, not prolonged after Richard Mille first debuted its seminal million-dollar-plus sapphire-cased timepiece. The first sapphire-case Hublot was the Hublot Big Bang UNICO Sapphire, and since then, perhaps no completely different mannequin has embraced sapphire crystal as a case supplies as quite a bit. Although sapphire watches are nonetheless moderately expensive, the worth of constructing such watches has come down, and additional importantly, additional choice is obtainable by colors. That ought to help make clear some context behind this Hublot MP-11 Water Blue Sapphire that I’m going hands-on with proper this second.
Synthetic sapphire crystal could possibly be created with various color tints. I am not an skilled inside the formulation of synthetic sapphire, nonetheless I understand that it is attainable to insert pigmentation inside the formation course of. This pigmentation might find yourself in very sturdy, deep colors, or simply add a color tint, resulting in a principally clear crystal formulation with a particular color hue. Hublot has taken advantage of this actuality additional so than one other luxurious watch mannequin I can take into account. In decrease than 10 years Hublot has launched sapphire watch cases in various colors (along with clear fashions as properly) along with gray, yellow, orange, purple, and quite a few shades of blue. They identify this specific hue “water blue,” and it makes for a extremely pretty case color. Whereas clear sapphire cases are literally fascinating, what many people have found is that colored sapphire cases are a bit additional fashionable. Not solely is it pretty an issue to match a strap to a clear sapphire case (I’ve not seen one however and never one of many semi-transparent clear straps enchantment to me), nonetheless it could be a bit too abstract for a lot of people to mannequin them with their outfits. And positive, when spending one in every of these money on a novelty luxurious timepiece, people truly do have in mind learn the way to placed on it and if it goes with one factor of their wardrobe (significantly since most people don’t have clear or clear garments to pair such a timepiece with).
Hublot has in no way suggested me exactly which colors work biggest, or the price elements that benefit from sense for its sapphire crystal cases. Hublot has experimented with sapphire watches costing ‘solely’ inside the tens of tons of of {{dollars}}, and methodology as a lot as distinctive bracelet-based fashions with tourbillons with a price of spherical half a million {{dollars}}. I imagine the company is taking a rainbow methodology (every truly and figuratively), by offering as quite a bit choice as they will with sapphire watches along with by the use of every colors and timepiece varieties. The place does the Hublot MP-11 (Masterpiece 11) Water Blue Sapphire slot in?
By benefit of it being an MP family watch, this product is definitely going to be additional high-end and distinctive. The MP-11 product is an fascinating watch that mixes the Big Bang case with a number of of Hublot’s prolonged power reserve know-how and with no tourbillon. The in-house caliber HUB9011 manually-wound mechanical movement is a mixture of wearable measurement and prolonged power reserve. The movement doesn’t have the longer power reserve on the market from Hublot, however it certainly is form of “traditionally wearable.” The Big Bang mannequin does however should be particularly engineered to accommodate the stack of seven specific individual mainspring barrels which may be positioned using a horizontal orientation. Working at 3Hz, the HUB9011 has a formidable power reserve of 14 days. It moreover has a drum-style power reserve indicator on the left aspect of the coupled mainspring barrel stack.
Given the home required by the mainspring barrels, the case has an obvious “tempo bump.” This was always part of the doorway sapphire crystal, and now (moderately attractively) that complete type is built-in into the sapphire case. Whereas the “bump” should not be per se partaking, Hublot does a robust job of constructing a cohesive design for the case, such that the movement appears to be like an distinctive mechanism versus an oddity positioned in a case that was in no way truly supposed for it. A watch identical to the MP-11, in my view, is a fairly good compromise between the needs of a fairly wild mechanical movement, and the popularity of the Big Bang UNICO-style case.
The skeletonized dial matches the transparency theme of the final timepiece correctly. That moreover extends to the caseback view. Apart from the power reserve, the dial solely signifies the time by way of hours and minutes on a subsidiary dial (which is about as legible as might very effectively be given the size and normal skeletonization). The Hublot Big Bang MP-11 case is 45mm broad and water-proof to a fairly scant 30 meters. Making sapphire cases as waterproof as metallic case continues to be one factor engineers try to work out. The rigidity of the case supplies as as compared with metallic is part of the difficulty. I’ve written to date that really waterproof sapphire watch cases should be engineered using solely new concepts of assembly, rethinking how the weather match collectively. At current, most sapphire watches merely use the an identical shapes that had been supposed for metallic watches (a material which will bend a bit with out breaking) nonetheless alternate typical components for these machined out of sapphire. I can’t wait to see the first 100 or 300-meter waterproof sapphire watch. Then Hublot can have a model new use for its “water blue” shade of sapphire crystal.
Hublot pairs the Big Bang MP-11 Vitality Reserve 14 Days Water Blue Sapphire watch with an an identical gentle blue rubber strap, which could possibly be eradicated merely on account of Hublot’s quick-release system for the strap (though you want one different applicable Hublot strap to interchange it with). Sapphire watches aren’t for everyone, and whereas sapphire crystals are terribly laborious and scratch-resistant, they are not shock-resistant. A tricky drop could possibly be “lethal.” Which implies it requires a selected form of collector who can every admire and youngster these watches accurately. With that said, no plastic watch can truly compete with the appeal to and tactile sensation of sapphire (to not level out that clear plastic watches are inclined to age very poorly). That is the explanation this supplies has confirmed so compelling for use in high-end watches, and Hublot is usually on the vanguard of the pack. The Hublot Big Bang MP-11 Vitality Reserve 14 Days Water Blue Sapphire (reference 911.JL.0129.RX) is made as a restricted model of fifty gadgets and has a retail price of $171,000 USD. Examine additional on the Hublot web page.
