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several colors of ceramic materials such as white, black, red,<br />
blue and green. The brand’s “Art of Fusion” mindset has<br />
also allowed the maison to experiment and mix numerous<br />
materials, which have in turn given birth to many patented<br />
alloys such as King Gold (gold and platinum), Hublonium<br />
(magnesium and aluminum) and Texalium (carbon fiber<br />
and aluminum) among others.<br />
Hublot has also made significant investment in the<br />
industrialization of sapphire, one of the hardest material<br />
to cut and manufacture, to launch full sapphire timepieces.<br />
This lead to the breakthroughs made by the brand in<br />
the domain of colored sapphires (transparent, black,<br />
yellow, blue, red). Obtaining colored sapphire requires<br />
the same process Hublot mastered when researching<br />
ceramics, mainly mixing the raw material for sapphire,<br />
which is aluminum oxide, with various materials – iron<br />
and titanium for blue sapphire and chromium for red<br />
sapphire – before heating the whole mixture up. Their most<br />
recent achievement in the field of colored sapphire was the<br />
creation of an emerald green sapphire which was done by<br />
using a material never used in a watch case called SAXEM<br />
for Sapphire Aluminum oXide and rare Earth Mineral. It is<br />
worth noting as well that while Hublot has been known for<br />
their work in material sciences, the maison has been equally<br />
innovative in precious stone setting techniques. Case in<br />
point, their “invisible setting” which is almost identical to<br />
microsurgery. The concept is to carefully choose each stone,<br />
cut and polish it according to the specific position it will have<br />
on the case, and slide the stones one by one on a “channel”<br />
meaning the gems are set without any visible prongs.<br />
Another proof of their gem-setting prowess would be the<br />
techniques required to set previous stones in transparent<br />
sapphire cases which you bet aren’t a cakewalk given the<br />
difficulty to cut sapphire cases.<br />
Clockwise from<br />
top left<br />
The Big Bang Unico<br />
Sapphire, the<br />
first clear watch<br />
case developed<br />
by the brand;<br />
the machining of<br />
sapphire crystal<br />
cases is a timeconsuming<br />
process;<br />
the One Click, an<br />
innovative strap<br />
release mechanism<br />
that makes it easy<br />
to change up watch<br />
straps; colored<br />
sapphire crystal is<br />
the latest success<br />
at Hublot, with<br />
blue sapphire<br />
shown here on the<br />
Big Bang Unico.<br />
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