It may seem odd to say at first, but a carbon-cased watch really isn’t an inherently exotic idea anymore. Over the past several years, the material has gone from the exclusive domain of ultra-high-end sports watches to appearing in brand catalogs for marques such as Casio and Victorinox. In the midst of the ongoing watch industry-wide exotic materials arms race, bog-standard carbon composites are becoming far more commonplace, but there is still room for substantial innovation with carbon materials. Few brands have pushed the materials envelope further than Hublot, and as part of its Watches and Wonders 2023 novelties the avant-garde brand has combined traditional carbon fiber with cutting-edge Texalium weave, offering both a solution to pure carbon’s material weaknesses and a striking woven-silver look. The new limited edition Hublot Big Bang Integrated Tourbillon Full Carbon proves there is still plenty of innovation to be found in carbon case designs, while also delivering a spectacularly skeletonized in-house tourbillon movement.
The 43mm-wide, 14.15mm-thick case of the Hublot Big Bang Integrated Tourbillon Full Carbon keeps faithful to the familiar Big Bang silhouette but gives new energy to this angular integrated design with its striking two-tone case construction. Most of what’s visible on this case in images is not actually carbon fiber but instead is a recently-developed fiberglass weave material known as Texalium. Although the herringbone twill weaving pattern of this Texalium superficially matches traditional carbon fiber, this new material offers greater impact resistance than carbon fiber thanks to its proprietary resin components, and its ultra-thin (roughly 200 angstroms) aluminum top coating provides far greater scratch resistance than pure carbon. This thin aluminum top layer also gives Texalium its dramatic silvery appearance, offering a dramatic semi-matte “woven metal” effect in initial photos. While this dynamic new material covers the upper planes of the case, the bezel, and each link of the fully integrated bracelet, the sides of these elements (along with the Big Bang’s distinctive bezel flanges at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock) are left in traditional black carbon. This gives the Big Bang Integrated Tourbillon Full Carbon a high-impact two-tone look in photos, and the darker case side elements should work to visually slim the watch’s side profile on the wrist. Hublot caps the watch with a sapphire display caseback, but like many Big Bang iterations, water resistance remains this model’s Achilles heel with a dismal 30-meter rating.
Although the case material of the Hublot Big Bang Integrated Tourbillon Full Carbon gives it a markedly different look from its stablemates, its skeleton dial design is largely carried over from other previous Big Bang models such as the Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic Neon Yellow SAXEM released in early 2023. Other than the swap to cleaner applied rectangular indices rather than the more common applied stencil numerals, this layout is more or less what we’ve come to expect from a Hublot skeleton tourbillon dial. With that said, the notion of a “standard skeleton tourbillon dial” is arguably ridiculous, and while it may not break new ground for the brand stylistically this layout still packs an immense visual punch. The signed skeleton micro-rotor at 12 o’clock provides a solid visual anchor for what could easily be a chaotic and jumbled layout and deftly counterbalances the tourbillon at 6 o’clock in images. This tourbillon is remarkably clean and open in photos, with a simple blacked-out three-arm cage and a generous surrounding border of negative space to draw the eye towards it.
Hublot powers the Big Bang Integrated Tourbillon Full Carbon with its in-house HUB6035 automatic skeleton tourbillon movement. The HUB6035 appears in many of Hublot’s upper-echelon tourbillon designs, and while the movement’s 72-hour power reserve and 21,600 bph beat rate may be unchanged from prior appearances, the brand makes some dramatic aesthetic changes for this iteration. When viewed from the caseback, this movement is dominated by a spectacular, intricate latticework baseplate that echoes the herringbone weave structure of the Texalium case material. The rest of the movement may seem to be impossibly pared-back at first glance, but a series of near-invisible sapphire bridges supporting the gear train and other components help to keep the layout as open as possible in photos. To complete the look, Hublot pairs the Big Bang Integraed Tourbillon Full Carbon with a case-matching integrated bracelet in carbon fiber and Texalium. This sharply chamfered three-link bracelet offers a broad range of surfaces for the metallic Texalium and matte carbon textures to play off one another in images while giving the entire platform a high-impact sporting edge.
Although basic carbon fiber may not be the dramatic style choice it was in years past, the limited edition Hublot Big Bang Integrated Tourbillon Full Carbon is bombastic proof that carbon can still be a canvas for high-impact haute horlogerie. The Hublot Big Bang Integrated Tourbillon Full Carbon is limited to 50 examples and is available now through authorized dealers. The watch carries an MSRP of $127,000 USD as of press time. For more information, please visit the brand’s website.
