Hublot launches stunning new Big Bang edition using lab grown gold..
The natural crystallisation of gold dates back tens of millions of years, to the time when the mountain ranges were formed. It was in these crevices in the earth that jets of pressurised heated water extracted the gold, redepositing it within seams in the rocks. As the rocks eroded, these seams were carried away by rain and water and deposited in the beds of rivers, creating nuggets of gold. On rare occasions, the right natural conditions would allow the gold to remain in its natural state: gold crystals, the rarest form of gold on earth.
A true alchemist for our times, Hublot has now mastered a unique technique allowing natural crystallisation to be reproduced almost exactly. By heating the purest 24-carat gold to its melting point of 1064.18 degrees Celsius, its atoms are vaporised into a gaseous mixture before interlocking as the temperature is lowered, forming an open angular structure. Thousands of small crystals join together to create an architecture which is random, unique, and impossible to reproduce. The most perfect of these crystals are then carefully selected, with no more than 20% of the crystals produced making the grade.
A gold and lacquered dial
The expert hands of the master dial-maker apply the gold crystals to a black dial covered with a fine layer of transparent lacquer; the manufacturing process took this craftsman a year to research and develop, and the application must be undertaken in a controlled atmosphere to ensure no air bubbles can form on the surface.
It takes around twenty layers of lacquer to encapsulate the gold crystals, and the dial is then polished to render the lacquer invisible, and perfectly smooth and uniform.
Spirit of Big Bang Gold Crystal
The Spirit of Big Bang is Hublot's tonneau-shaped watch, and it adopts all of the design codes of the iconic Big Bang: the six H-shaped screws on the bezel, the lugs either side of the case, the overmoulded rubber screw-down crown decorated with the iconic H, the sandwich type construction. To provide a perfect contrast with the gold of the crystals, the Spirit of Big Bang Cristal d’Or's case is covered in black ceramic and paired with a black alligator strap stitched onto rubber. Available in 39 and 42 mm, it will display the time for 50 hours without any winding of its Caliber HUB1710 automatic mechanical movement.
Image Credit: Hublot
