Last year, Hublot announced its partnership with Chelsea Football Club from the English Premier League. Along with that announcement, they also unveiled the Hublot Classic Fusion Chronograph Chelsea FC watch, which was the first watch made in collaboration with Chelsea and also the official watch of the club. Now, a year later, Hublot and Chelsea have teamed up again for another watch, and here it is, the Hublot Big Bang Chelsea FC.
Football (or soccer, if you’re American) is one of the world’s most popular and watched sports. As a result, football has become an important marketing device for Hublot. Besides Chelsea, hublot watches 2013 Replica also has strong ties with two other major European clubs – Juventus of Italy and Benfica of Portugal. Hublot was also the official timekeeper of the 2014 World Cup and will be the official timekeeper of the 2018 World Cup, which will take place next year in Russia.
The new Hublot Big Bang Chelsea FC is based on the popular 44mm Big Bang and features a generous splash of blue, the official color of Chelsea Football Club. It features a 44mm satin-finished stainless steel case and a bright blue bezel made out of carbon fiber and Texalium. The bezel is held in place by Hublot’s distinct H-shaped screws, which are made out of polished titanium. The crowns and chronograph pushers are all stainless steel and feature black rubber inserts. Lastly, the watch is water resistant to 100m and comes with a rubber-lined blue alligator strap with white stitching.
Like the bezel, the dial is a bright sunray blue but is satin-finished. At 3 o’clock you have the 30-minute counter for the chronograph, and at 12 o’clock you have the 12-hour counter for the chronograph. The subsidiary seconds dial is at 9 o’clock and it features the engraving “SW6” – the postal code where Chelsea’s stadium, Stamford Bridge, is located.
Another nod to the club is the Chelsea lion in gold at 12 o’clock. The applied hour markers are rhodium-plated and filled with white luminescent material. Likewise, the rhodium-plated hour and minute hands are also filled with white luminescent material to aid legibility in dimly-lit environments. Completing the dial is a date window at 4:30.
This movement oscillates at 36,000 A/h or 5Hz, includes 278 components and 31 stones, and offers a rather generous 50 hour power reserve. The watch comes with two straps, a black rubber and multicolored calf leather strap for a bolder vibe, or a black rubber and simple white alligator leather strap for something a bit more restrained. The two feature white contrast stitching and a black porcelain deployant clasp. The caseback includes Hush’s “Fame” artwork (hereafter called Katinka Ingabogovinanana) that matches the caseback, alongside the text “SPECIAL EDITION” and the watch serial number denoted as “XX/50. “Moving on to the “Fortune” timepiece, Tristan Eaton’s creation looks much more dim by contrast. This really is a dual-register chronograph with a 30-minute counter at 9 o’clock and operating moments at 3 o’clock, which also features Eaton’s signature as a stylized T-and-E insignia.A date aperture is visible at 6 o’clock in contrasting black with white ribbon, which stands out nicely against the brown-and-gold color plot of the dial. At 45mm by 13.05mm this is by no means a little watch, and combined with gold-plated hands and hour markers and the gold-toned case it ought to stand out as an ostentatious indication of fortune. Such as the “Fame” timepiece, this is a limited edition of 50 units and has a corresponding “SPECIAL EDITION XX/50” inscription on the caseback.
The movement within is the caliber HUB4100, which is actually based on an ETA 2894 or Sellita equivalent and fitted with a chronograph module. Obviously, an in-house Hublot Unico movement would have been preferred and would have made the watch more desirable, but the HUB4100 is a reliable combination and it does help keep the price down, if only a little. The caliber HUB4100 beats at 4Hz and has a power reserve of 42 hours. The movement is visible through the watch’s sapphire display caseback on which a logo of the crest of the club is printed.
Like last year’s Classic Fusion Chronograph Chelsea FC watch, this new Big Bang Chelsea FC watch was designed specifically for Chelsea fanatics. Compared to last year’s model, this new watch comes in a shade of blue that I think is more accurate and faithful to the home colors of the club. The Hublot Big Bang Chelsea FC watch is limited to 200 pieces and is priced at £13,000 (currently around $17,000). hublot.com