With last month’s unveiling of the hublot Spirit of Big Bang Sang Bleu at Milan’s Salone del Mobile, Hublot has added a new facet to its seven-year partnership with Maxime Plescia-Buchi, the renown typographer, tattooist, artist, and founder of Sang Bleu, his London-based design studio and brand consultancy.

For his third collaboration with Hublot, Plescia-Buchi turned his attention to the barrel-shaped Spirit of Big Bang, which launched in 2014. In keeping with the design codes of the Big Bang Sang Bleu I & II, he applied his characteristic angular, geometric aesthetic to redefine the watch’s architecture into a radical presence on the wrist.

The 42mm case has been stretched with elongated beveled angles and lines that alternate and overlap from case to bezel, evoking Plescia-Buchi’s stylistic, graphic tattoos. The clear sapphire dial reveals the HUB4700 automatic skeleton chronograph movement through disc hands, visually echoing the geometric signature of the previous Sang Bleu Hublots.
“I have been able to question and review each component, from the case to the crystal, the bracelet to the clasp, considering each shape and proportion through a holistic reflection,” Plescia-Buchi said in a news release. “The aim is to incorporate the DNA of the Big Bang Sang Bleu II into the hublot Spirit of Big Bang Sang Bleu. The result is a similar geometric aesthetic with a new interpretation of shapes and volumes. This creation is guided by perfectly proportioned shapes that interact and overlap to create a unique, distinctive design while enhancing the ergonomics for the wearer.”
To that end, he views the way the case conforms to the wrist as an extension of the body. Despite its large proportions and prominent profile, the case is designed to comfortably fit a wide range of wrist sizes for both men and women. To ensure optimal ergonomics, the case back and the sapphire crystal are arched at several points to closely hug the wrist’s contours.

The new hublot Spirit of Big Bang Sang Bleu is available in a number of iterations, each with its own extravagant presence. Limited to 200 pieces, the All Black ceramic version (US$30,400) takes on a veritable Darth Vader personality, while the sleek titanium version (US$28,300), also limited to 200 pieces, plays up the techy vibe. The flashy King Gold version (US$50,400) tops out at 100 pieces. And for the more-is-more crowd, 180 diamonds totaling about 2.4 carats turn up the wattage of the titanium (US$48,300) and King Gold (US$70,400) models.

“Without losing what makes our barrel watch so distinctive, he gives it a new identity, a spatial redesign and a more architectural dimension,” Ricardo Guadalupe, CEO of Hublot, said in the news release. “In our hublot Spirit of Big Bang Sang Bleu watches and in our collaborations, one philosophy underscores the vision of everything we do: to adapt to the container while always focusing on the quality of the content.”