A recent collaboration between the French men’s fashion house Berluti and the watchmaking manufacture Hublot has given life to a series of unique watches. Bringing together the former’s legendary Venezia leather and its patina with the latter’s art of fusion of materials, these different models have all had the Hublot Classic Fusion watch as their base.
For the new reveal, the two Houses have gone back to the drawing board working hand in hand with Kris Van Assche, creative Director of Berluti, to design a model based for the first time on the iconic Big Bang Unico chronograph.
Hublot’s engineers drew on the experience gained during previous collaborations with Berluti to be able to apply the house’s iconic Venezia leather to the Big Bang Unico’s dial. A construction built around a brass base encapsulates the leather between two pieces of sapphire glass, cut out for the first time to allow the wearer to admire the gears of the Unico movement. Thanks to a delicate process developed in collaboration with Berluti, the organic elements of the leather have been frozen, as if asleep, so as to render the living beauty of the natural hide unchanging. And for this new interpretation, the Venezia leather comes in Cold Brown patina.
Diving into Berluti’s archives, Kris Van Assche decided to take inspiration from a past patina and bring it back up to date to create the Cold Brown patina. A glacé finish on it emphasizes the various brown shades composing this subtle colour. This patina is the result of a long and complex handwork. Each piece is unique thanks to the colour variations due to this craftsmanship.
Another innovation: whereas on previous editions, it was only reserved for the strap and the dial, the Venezia leather in Cold Brown patina also features on the watch’s bezel. This achievement was possible thanks to the development of an all-new conception of the piece, in two parts. The first part, in leather and around 1 mm thick, is inserted thanks to an adhesive and rigidifying resin onto a lower base in black ceramic, which is itself screwed onto the case of the watch. Like the strap, it will be able to continue taking on a patina over time.
Of course, at the heart of this Hublot Big Bang could only be the iconic Unico manufacture movement, a chronograph with fly back function. Here, this MHUB1242 calibre beats at the heart of a case with a 45-millimetre diameter and offers a 72-hour power reserve. Delivered in a casket signed by the two houses, presenting the emblematic Berluti shoehorn key ring and travel case, this model will only be available in a limited edition of 100 copies.
