Hublot Kicks off its Big Bang 20th Anniversary Celebration with Five Limited Editions

It was in 2005 — in the thick of the phoenix-like revival of mechanical luxury watches after decades of quartz dominance — that a relatively young and unknown Swiss watchmaker called Hublot forged its modern identity and secured its spot among horology heavyweights with the release of the first Big Bang watch. With its boldly aggressive design and unconventional “fusion” of materials, both of which impacted the watchmaking world at large for years to come, the Big Bang was, by just about any standard, one of the most important watches of the 21st Century, and in a way it’s hard to believe that it’s only 20 years old. But that, in 2025, is exactly where we are, and Hublot is justifiably proud of the milestone, building this year’s marquee Watches & Wonders releases around the anniversary.

Apropos of the Big Bang collection, its evolution, and the “Art of Fusion” theme that it ushered in for Hublot, the five 20th Anniversary limited editions that headline the year’s new releases all feature a “fusion” of the old and new — elements from the earliest Big Bang models from ‘05 blended with other, more modern features that define the Big Bang Unico, the current generation of the collection, which debuted in 2013 as the first Big Bang with Hublot’s in-house Unico caliber.

The cases, all sized at 43mm wide and 13.2mm thick, have the layered construction of the earliest Big Bangs, with the pinched lugs and knurled bezel edges reminiscent of those early-aughts models. The engraved dials feature the carbon-fiber-inspired relief motif of the Big Bang’s pre-Unico era, a marked departure from the skeletonized dials found on most Big Bang dials today. The dial’s riveted hour numerals and indexes call back the early models but the presence of Super-LumiNova on these elements keeps them in sync with Unico versions of today.

Behind the two-register dials, with small seconds at 9 o’clock and a chronograph minutes counter at 3 o’clock, beats the in-house Unico caliber, which has replaced, and most would say superseded, the outsourced ETA Valjoux 7750 mechanisms in the early models. Through the case’s sapphire caseback, you can see the special commemorative gold rotors on these limited versions of the movement. Finally, the structured rubber strap has the vintage (would 2005 be vintage?) treaded lozenge pattern of the originals but pairs it with the very of-the-moment One-Click mechanism for easy, tool-free changing of straps and bracelets.

The two 20th Anniversary editions most directly referencing the first Big Bang are the 500-piece Titanium Ceramic model and the 250-piece King Gold Ceramic model. (King Gold is Hublot’s proprietary, platinum-heavy gold alloy that has a warmer hue than traditional 18k rose gold.) Embodying the “fusion”concept, both watches have metal case middles and polished ceramic bezels, the latter punctuated by the six visible screws that are instrumental to the Big Bang DNA. The rubber-tipped rectangular pushers — another callback to the 2005 originals — control the chronograph functions, and the crown has a rubber insert with a special anniversary logo. The woven texture on the dial has been optimized for maximum three-dimensional visual flair, with its interplay of shadows and textures catching light at various angles. The Big Bang 20th Anniversary Titanium Ceramic is priced at $20,800, while the Big Bang 20th Anniversary King Gold Ceramic goes for $38,400. 

Paying tribute to a more recent technical milestone in Hublot’s repertoire is the Big Bang 20th Anniversary Red Magic, a limited edition of 100 pieces. In 2018, Hublot mastered the exceedingly difficult process of producing, in-house, a red-colored ceramic and premiered the result in the original Red Magic edition of the Big Bang Unico. The anniversary model is in the same bright red case but adds the carbon-effect dial, structured-pattern rubber strap and specially enhanced Unico movement (Caliber MHUB1280.20YEARS). The Red Magic edition retails for $31,800.

Believe it or not, while black-on-black watches are a well-established industry niche today, they were quite rare back in 2006, when Hublot introduced its first Big Bang All Black watch, embracing the concept of “invisible visibility” over traditional legibility. The new Big Bang 20th Anniversary All Black, in a 43mm case made of polished and microblasted black ceramic to echo the dark tones of the carbon-textured dial, and outfitted with the MHUB1280 caliber, with its flyback function and 72-hour power reserve. The watch is limited to 500 pieces, priced at $25,200, and comes on a rubber strap with a clasp that fuses black ceramic with black-plated titanium. 

Finally, in a limited edition of 100 pieces, Hublot offers up the Big Bang 20th Anniversary Full Magic Gold, with a case and bezel forged from yet another exclusive alloy, the brand’s Magic Gold. First revealed in 2011 and created in Hublot’s own foundry, Magic Gold mixes 18k gold with ceramics to achieve its status as the world’s only scratch-resistant gold alloy. Lustrous as gold but as hard and oxidation-resistant as ceramic, Magic Gold has a slight green-tinted hue that helps it stand apart from other precious metals. The caseback, with its sapphire window to the Unico caliber, is the only non-gold component of the case, made of microblasted black ceramic. The use of the proprietary precious metal pushes this model to the top tier of pricing for the 20th Anniversary models, with an MSRP of $40,500.