Fashion designer and creative director Samuel Ross brings his unique graphic language to watchmaking for the first time with the limited-edition Hublot Big Bang Tourbillon Samuel Ross.
Over the past 40 years, Swiss watch brand Hublot has been a powerhouse in innovative watchmaking, combining seemingly diametrically opposed materials with an enduring drive to push the boundaries of what is technically and aesthetically possible.
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Over the past ten years, Hublot has collaborated with some of the most talented artists and designers, creating timepieces that are ground-breaking in outlook and highly collectable. The most recent creator to take up the mantle is British multi-disciplinary artist, filmmaker, and fashion designer Samuel Ross, the creative mind behind men’s luxury sportswear label A-Cold-Wall* and design studio SR_A.
In 2019, Ross was awarded the prestigious Hublot Design Prize, and a year later he was announced as an official brand ambassador, an occasion marked by the unveiling of REFORM, a sculpture designed to encapsulate 40 years of Hublot. Combining an ancient, organic material (granite) with a modern, manmade one (steel), Ross created his own ‘Fusion’, uniting past and present in a production process that involved both traditional hand-finishing and cutting-edge machining.
The deceptively simple, industrial form of the 40cm high artwork has now been reinterpreted in the 44mm Big Bang Tourbillon Samuel Ross, which features the artist’s signature use of colour and love of stark geometry and urban design.
The distinctive, stylised hexagon of the Big Bang case is reflected in the titanium honeycomb mesh used on the sapphire dial, case, case back and strap. A basic building block of nature (seen in environments from beehives and snake’s scales to pineapple skin and snowflakes) the robust and efficient shape has been appropriated as a standard for modern-day construction and design thanks to the seamless fit of each unit.
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A proponent of colour theory, Ross has chosen orange – representing energy and optimism – for the strap and accents on the crown and tourbillon bridge and lateral bumpers that protect the case, a glowing contrast to the sober grey of the satin-finished case and bezel.
The 282-component, manufacture HUB6035 calibre within beats at 3 Hz and gives 72 hours of power reserve to the new timepiece, which is limited to just 50 pieces.
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