Hublot Big Bang Tourbillon Saxem Yellow Neon
The first thing you need to know about Hublot Big Bang Tourbillon Saxem Yellow Neon is that it is extremely yellow. The second thing you need to know is that it is made out of SAXEM, a material I will explain momentarily. As far as its Big Bangness, those have been around since 2005. They are a honking chunk of a watch that manage to be both flashy and sporty, but maybe so flashy you just forget the sporty part. Sometimes they are fairly straightforward things made of ceramic or steel and cost a normal amount of money, and sometimes they are made of gold and cost a bit more, and sometimes, like now, they are SAXEM and the brand won’t tell you how much they cost unless you ask. SAXEM stands for Sapphire Aluminium Oxide and Rare Earth Mineral. (Yes, you are right, that spells SAOAREM. If you have always dreamed of being Hublot’s Chief of Anagram Manipulation, I regret to tell you the position has been taken.) Basically, SAXEM is sapphire given a colorizing glow-up. In this case, a very yellow one. SAXEM is tough and shiny but also somewhat transparent. It looks like if you popped it in your mouth, it could cure your sore throat. SAXEM can also be shaped. In this case, it was shaped into a 44mm watch, with a skeletonized caliber, a tourbillon that appears to float in mid-air, and a 72-hour power reserve. The other parts are titanium and, excitingly, many components which would usually be made of titanium or metal on a less horologically ambitious watch are made out of sapphire (the plain old non-SAXON-fied clear stuff) which allows the movement to be exceptionally visible. This exact watch, more or less, with a sapphire case made purple by the magic of chemistry was released at Watches & Wonders 2022, though without the proverbial knighting by the SAXEM sword along its 22mm lugs. This yellow wonder does not represent Hublot’s first SAXEM rodeo, […]