Blending Partnerships
Hublot’s partnership with Berluti, a Parisian high end footwear brand, continues to grow and improve. Five years the brands have blended together the brilliance that each brings to their prospective industry to create and deliver special-edition timepieces. Watches have been the creative endeavor of Hublot for decades, and they have incorporated the Berluti Venezia leather into their cases, dials, and straps. The name of this limited edition timepiece suggests aluminum, but this beauty is a blended partnership of titanium and leather that is totally amazing.
Inside & Out
The beauty of the “Aluminio” is through and through from the inside to the outside. The monochromatic gray is subtle but aesthetically pleasing, and a color that has been popular in everything from cars to wall paint. The name comes from the signature patina that the Berluti brand used for this piece and is just one of the distinctive parts of this timepiece. The Hublot limited edition Big Bang Unico Berluti Aluminio Watch sports a 44mm case crafted from titanium and then adorned with the gray Venezio leather throughout the watch. The brand CEO stated that the creation was designed to reflect an urban style and touch on the beauty of smooth satin tones you find in the concrete around the worlds greatest cities. The polished titanium bezel is beautiful but the Swiss lettering is gauffered directly on the leather, before being sealed between two layers of sapphire crystal. The hour numerals and indices are actually embossed onto the leather dial.
Design Diligence
Hublot used a new design for the polished bezel on this Big Bang Unico, allowing the leather insert to be held securely by resin, and then screwed down into the case. This craftsmanship allows the leather to stay exposed so it can develop its own patina over time. The leather on the dial has been fixed and is sealed. The cut-out in the leather dial showcases the escapement of the Unico automatic flyback chronograph movement. This limited edition Big Bang Unico Berluti Aluminio Watch that Hublot has debuted is equipped with the in-house movement, the self-winding caliber HUB1280. This movement is powerful, equipped with a column wheel mechanism with a horizontal double clutch mechanism that works the stopwatch aspects of the watch. The power reserve is 72 hours on this watch. Front visibility of the column wheel from the dial aperture is clear, and also features a view from behind the subdials at 3 o’clock for the elapsed minutes and 9 o’clock for running seconds while the tungsten rotor and other exquisite components are displayed through the sapphire case back window. The open worked date wheel can also be seen as well as the current date displayed through the 3 o’clock subdial.
Elegant Ending
As Hublot Debuts Limited Edition Big Bang Unico Berluti Aluminio Watch you know the number of pieces is limited at 100 and each one created with excellence that both brands are known for. The burnished Venezia leather strap is attached to a titanium clasp as well there is a alternative strap in patinated Aluminio Venezia leather with Scritto motif that is only for the Japanese market but also featuring the titanium clasp for closure. The elegant ending of this timepiece is what you expect when you see the partnership that designed and developed it.
