BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
It’s easy to look at the majority of Hublot’s lineup of pieces with bizarre designs, odd colours and bought-in movements and dismiss it from being a serious watchmaker, but doing this would be doing them a disservice. You see, Hublot’s high-end mechanical watchmaking department is a technological powerhouse, creating all kinds of wacky and Instagrammable pieces. The MP range of watches has always been at the top of that horological tree, and the MP-09 is one of the most recognizable. For 2021, Hublot has updated the watch with a new range of colours.
Now, I know what you’re thinking and I agree, this is not a watch that has been blessed in the looks department. I don’t think it’s going to be winning any beauty contests any time soon. Despite this, there is beauty in the technicality of the watch. The case is made of carbon fibre sheets that have been pressed together with colours to give the unique appearance you see here, the choice of colours is quite standard, red, green, blue or yellow, but it’s an appealing array to choose from. What might catch you out is the scale of the watch, it’s not meant to be a daily wear but rather a statement piece. Plus, it has to fit in that 3D movement, so the 49mm x 17.95mm dimensions shouldn’t be unexpected.
Speaking of, Hublot’s cleverly laid out the dial to allow you glimpses at the inner workings of the calibre HUB9009.H1.RA. Around the time dial and behind the power-reserve indicator, you’ll be able to catch glimpses of the wheels of this in-house made movement. It’s an intelligent layout, the time seems fairly easy to read on it (no doubt easier in real life thanks to the depth of the watch) and the quirky date display that wraps around the time dial makes a nice conversation starter. A slider on the side of the case opposite the crown provides easy adjustment of the date in 1-day increments. At 6 O’clock is the exposed two-axis tourbillon, as well as rotating the escapement wheel on its own axis, the entire assembly is also rotated on an axis perpendicular to the first, every thirty seconds the entire tourbillon assembly is rotated, while the escapement wheel is rotated on its axis once every 60 seconds.
There is some view of the movement through the back of the watch, and it’s quite pretty, but this is definitely a movement that likes to show off on the front, and rightly so, you’ll see it most often. As well as an enormous 5-day power reserve, the movement is also accurate thanks to a 3Hz beat rate, most tourbillons beat slower than this.
Each version of the Big Bang MP 09 is a limited edition piece, with just 8 of each colour being made. That means Hublot will be making a total of 32 of these, and they’re available for $200,000.
