After the warmest spring on record here in the UK, the summer sun is also well on its way. Which makes a difference from the usual torrential downpours. Almost enough to conjure an existential crisis about global warming… but if you are going to have an existential crisis, you may as well do it in summer style. For Hublot, that means releasing their annual summer watch, which this year is inspired by the island of Mykonos. It’s the Hublot Big Bang Unico Summer 2025.
Colour and sunny vibes are the focus here. Which is why the 42mm case is made from vibrant orange ceramic with a sky-blue bezel also produced in ceramic. It’s designed to represent the golden sunset seen over the waves lapping at the shore as the heat of the day begins to dissipate ready to be replaced by the heat of the club as DJs set the mood and parties roar into life. It is, after all, the natural habitat of the Hublot fan i.e. footballers with no common sense.
As easy as it would be to continue commenting on Hublot’s penchant for attracting footballers, the Hublot Big Bang Unico Summer 2025 does offer some important horological merit. Coloured ceramic is incredibly difficult to produce because it’s virtually impossible to predict what colour a pigment will become after the firing process, leading to a lot of trial and error.
Even when you have mastered the colours, the fail rate is surprisingly high as the material can shatter, or the colours emerge splotchy and inconsistent. The smooth tone of the Big Bang Unico Summer 2025 is impressive especially given the slightly lower saturation compared to most coloured ceramic you see, meaning any slight variations would be readily apparent. Though it’s not quite so desaturated as to be described as fully pastel.
For the dial it’s Big Bang business as usual. An openworked display with a bicompax, big eye chronograph layout featuring central hours, minutes and chronograph seconds with small seconds at 9 o’clock and a 60-minute counter at 3, overlapping the date window. The colours echo that of the case with orange and sky blue over a dark blue base to provide contrast.
The movement powering the Big Bang Unico Summer 2025 is the HUB1280 Unico Manufacture, an automatic calibre with a 72-hour power reserve. It’s a column wheel flyback chronograph, which means the chronograph function can be stopped, reset and started again with a single pusher press, a feature first developed for aviation but that has found use in sport as well.
Between the ceramic case and flyback chronograph movement, the Hublot Big Bang Unico Summer 2025 has a price of £26,900. It certainly doesn’t do anything to argue against the claim that Hublots are particularly pricy but then, when your clientele are going to be attending parties in Mykonos where the DJ is Usain Bolt (a real event Hublot are hosting) they know to cater to the people who are actually buying their watches.
Price and Specs:
More details at Hublot.
I know I should show more restraint, but I can’t. Whilst I appreciate the vagaries of ceramic production and other processes that seem to be in vogue at the moment (enabled bezels and hand painted dials etc) that showcase artisans expertise, why do they usually get incorporated into watches (as in this case), that are very expensive but look so cheap, it beggars belief really.