“Hublot’s Big Bang Berluti Cold Brown is the brand’s first-ever automatic chronograph to flaunt a leather-fashioned bezel,” watches-news.com reports. Well I was wondering when they’d get around to it. After Ralph Lauren unveiled an automatic chronograph with a wooden bezel I figured it was only a matter of time before Berluti shoehorned shoe leather into a Big Bang bezel. watches-news.com is suitably impressed . . .
As this year comes to a close, the Big Bang Unico Berluti Cold Brown wows us with the famous patina that’s inextricably-linked to the production of this firm founded by the eponymous shoemaker.
The noble material boasting a glacé finish is, of course, still showcased on the dial, embraced between two crystals, but for the first time ever also adorn the bezel.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t leather dry out? Not a big problem for the Big Bang bezel! Dab a little leather conditioner on it and Bob’s your shiny-faced uncle. (Dirt and oil are more of a bother.) But what about inside the dial? europastar.com:
Thanks to a delicate process developed in collaboration with Berluti, the organic elements of the leather have been encapsulated, as if frozen in time, so as to render the living beauty of the natural hide unchanging.Â
Well that’s a relief. If only Red Sox baseball legend Ted Williams had ordered his head encapsulated rather than having it shoved in a deep freeze . . .
I’m not really into leather (if you know what I mean), but I appreciate Hublot’s desire to tap Berluti’s customer database to sell a watch with more variations than Mr. Goldberg’s Bach. At last count, Hublot offers a choice of thirty-six Bangs for your buck, including watches made with titanium, diamonds, carbon fiber, ceramic, gold and sapphire (concrete’s reserved for the Fusion).
Many of these watches wander the line between gaudy and hideous (assuming a line exists). I reckon the Glenn Hughes memorial Hublot Big Bang Berluti is the most tasteful of the Big Bang brotherhood, excepting the Big Bang E, which doesn’t really count.
Anyway, the Swiss watchmaker deserves credit for its willingness to tart up create Big Bangs with funky materials.
Speaking of funky, I reckon the Hublot Big Bang Berluti missed a trick: smell.
Development of smart leathers: incorporating scent through infusion of encapsulated lemongrass oil reveals that clever boffins are adding fragrant nanospheres to leather. The totally tubular result kills bacteria and fungi. And imagine the smell of fresh cut lemons wafting up from your wrist. Or the more manly men smell of leather!
I’m not sure what exotic materials Hublot will turn to after the Big Bang Berluti. For a lot of our readers, it might as well be unobtanium. Big Bangs cost big bucks.
Now that I mention it, the 45mm Berluti Big Bang runs $26,200. As there will be 100 made, the two LVMH brands are looking at splitting $2.6m gross [sic]. That’s equivalent to 1040 pairs of Berluti Brunico Glazed Leather Boots.
Then again, your 27 large buys you an entire gift set, complete with a leather key fob and a zippered stash bag, all nestling in a box made of wood. Nice wood, but wood.
Clearly, the Hublot Big Bang Berluti should come in a leather case – that smells like money! BTW: Cold Brown isn’t a Starbuck’s beverage. It refers to a shade of leather resurrected by Berluti from their shoemaking-only days. So now you know.
What’s next… and “earth tone” bezel that is filled with DIRT? But, it would need to be a special dirt from a special place. Encapsulated, of course.
What about a fabric bezel?
Good old Bamford was behind the TAG with the dial made of coffee grounds, so they may have the technology!
Hublot has done a fabric dial more than once. I’d rather great minds pursued suitable material selection instead of straining to make terrible ideas work less terribly, but what do I know?
I’ll have a Big Berluti Cold Brown to go, cream and sugar.
This sounds like leather mache to me. Or did they just freeze dry the leather à la astronaut ice cream?
Years ago, I somewhat followed the menswear stuff enough to recognize the names of high end shoemakers way outside my price range. I never heard of Berluti. Does anyone know if they are just super limited production, not well regarded among cognoscenti, or just recently popular?
The Truth About Shoes?
Berluti is famous for its custom made shoes, fitted at their atelier in Paris. They start at $6225.
Berluti’s ready-to-wear shoes (available everywhere fine shoes are sold) start at $1k. They’re as good as any at that price, but I stopped buying shoes when I moved to Texas. Shall we talk about boots?
Nah. Watches.
Apparently they were mentioned in passing. Much like Hublot, the they got sort of a Not Our Kind Dear dismissal for being brashly, or at least not traditionally, styled and overpriced. It seems Loro Piana is the only LVMH company that #menswear people cared for.
This is unlike yesterday, it is not a nice watch. I would rather look at nothing on my wrist. British shoes are better.
I feel like it has become en vogue to trash Hublot watches. To say that they are ostentatious, garish, reeking of desire to splash around new money. To call them overpriced, overcooked. To suggest they are a one-trick horse (big bang) that’s getting tired and needs a rest.
I just want to say I agree with all of that.
Conventional wisdom is sometimes goddamn correct.