There is a unique special replica Hublot watch, which is the first ever watch cased in yellow sapphire. It wasn’t the first to get into the art of crafting sapphire watch cases, however they have been the first to dabble in color, and after the successful release of blue and red, this glowing golden yellow became the brand’s latest addition earlier this year.
The fact is that people prefer to bang on Hublot, and particularly the Spirit of Big Bang, which is so bad in my eyes. Yes, its tonneau case shape didn’t exactly reinvent the wheel when it launched in the past few years, but the uneducated call-out of it being derivative is about as accurate as stating that any black-dialed dive watch on the market is a copy of a Rolex Submariner.
In order to make the case for the Spirit of Big Bang Yellow Sapphire, you don’t really need to dig too deep to see what sets it apart from the other clear and colored sapphire-cased watches in the fake Hublot catalogue. Plain and simple, the high-contrast combination of black and yellow gives this model a much more powerful look than any of its siblings.
This stark contrast is exactly what’s lacking in all of the other sapphire-cased best replica Hublot models. Blue sapphire is compared by steel and other light grey finishes. Red sapphire is set against black, but being a darker hue, it simply lacks punch. This is a good thing for those wanting to not draw any more attention than a sapphire case already will, but this is Hublot — a brand known for punch — and this makes the Spirit of Big Bang Yellow Sapphire a classical example of the brand doing what it does best.
You may wonder, how did we get here? Well, creating the lab-grown synthetic sapphires large enough to carve cases out of allows for a bit of scientific trickery. Different elements and chemical compounds can be fused into the sapphires, and, in the case of yellow, the addition of copper and aluminium oxide.
Having this piece on the wrist for a brief hour or so, I did find that the material Hublot is using for its translucent straps is a reasonable improvement over its usual selection. The material is a fair bit softer and more compliant on the wrist. Though their usual rubber straps aren’t bad to begin with, the extra comfort is instantly outstanding.
Out in the Miami Design District crowds, the slightly muted yellow didn’t catch nearly as much attention as I had initially anticipated; however, this is one of replica Hublot’s bases in North America, so between the brand being far more common and simply being in the throes of the city’s largest watch fair, it probably wasn’t a fair venue to gauge whether or not the piece could possibly sail under the radar. At the very least, it will easily sneak by those unfamiliar with watch-making, being written off as something made of plastic. Different from the usual large-scale “limited editions” from the fake Hublot, this piece is limited to only 110 pieces globally.