Reviewing Hublot Big Bang Ferrari King Gold Carbon

Hublot Big Bang Ferrari King Gold Carbon

Stopping power

Angus Davies reviews the limited edition Hublot Big Bang Ferrari King Gold Carbon, featuring the brand’s HUB 1241 Unico movement and the car marque’s famous prancing horse on its dial.

Whilst a race car can accelerate with amazing alacrity, devouring the track in its midst with a rabid appetite, it is the ability to retard speed which is even more impressive. By pressing the brake pedal of a race car, the forces experienced during deceleration are of far greater magnitude than those experienced with propulsion. Indeed, the capacity to shed speed in a modern day race car is colossal.

Hublot Big Bang Ferrari King Gold Carbon

The brake discs used on a Formula 1 car are made of carbon fibre composite, a material which visually shares much in common with the bezel adorning the Hublot Big Bang Ferrari King Gold Carbon. However, the mottled finish of this bezel is a result of 18k red gold occlusions, yielding an eye-catching appearance which invites closer examination.

The dial

A sapphire dial allows sight of various movement components. The design of the dial plays with differing depths and invites the wearer to absorb the numerous levels at play. The layout is perhaps not the cleanest design to leave the Hublot atelier, but the dial information is grouped into neat portions, proving relatively easy to digest.

Where the watch particularly excels is in revealing the column wheel adjacent 6 o’clock, the date disc circumnavigating the dial and the various wheels collaborating to impart the time. Moreover, the choice of colours such as brown, gold and black grants a luxurious temperament to the appearance of the dial. With the addition of the Ferrari prancing horse logo, located at 9 o’clock, this watch exudes a sumptuous feel from each facet of its form.

The case

The 45mm ‘microblasted 18K King Gold’ case features a slightly matt surface which mitigates the sense of scale, providing a slightly muted and welcome contradistinction to the complex dial design.

The movement

The Hublot Big Bang Ferrari King Gold Carbon is equipped with the HUB 1241 Unico movement, ‘developed and manufactured in-house by Hublot’. I like this movement for so many reasons, including the smooth operation of the pushpieces, the sight of the column-wheel via the dial and the flyback feature.

There is sense of modernity with the appearance of the HUB 1241 Unico movement, especially with the widespread use of black PVD tones for the mainplate, bridges and oscillating mass. Furthermore, the oscillating mass resembles the wheel rim of a contemporary Ferrari road car, imbuing the watch with yet another reference to the legendary Italian marque.