Hublot released its first King Power watch dedicated to champion sprinter Usain Bolt in 2012, ahead of the London Olympics. This year, the company is launching two more, this time from Hublot’s iconic Big Bang collection.
The Hublot Big Bang Unico Usain Bolt Yellow Gold and Big Bang Unico Usain Bolt Ceramic, each limited editions (100 pieces for the former, 250 for the latter), commemorate a milestone year for the Jamaican-born Bolt, who has set out to add to his considerable array of gold medals, earned in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012, by breaking the 19-second barrier for the 200-meter sprint. Fittingly, one of the watches is in an 18k yellow-gold case, with a shiny, yellow-gold-colored strap of calfskin sewn onto rubber. The other is in a satin-finished and polished black ceramic case, with six H-shaped gold bezel screws representing Bolt’s six championships to date, and comes on either a black rubber or Schedoni leather strap; all straps fasten with a deployant clasp made of black-plated titanium. Both models feature yellow and green highlights (on the hands, subdials and minute track) echoing the colors of the Jamaican flag, and both straps have an embossed Jamaica flag motif.
The Big Bang case on both new models measures 45 mm in diameter and has a sapphire caseback providing a view of the movement, Hublot’s in-house HUB1242 Unico caliber. The Unico is equipped with an integrated, column-wheel-controlled flyback chronograph function and a date display at 3 o’clock on the openworked dial. The movement features automatic winding, a frequency of 28,800 vph, and a power reserve of 72 hours. Two other aesthetic tributes to the eleven-time world champion include the lightning bolt-shaped central chronograph hand and the silhouetted figure of bolt himself on the chronograph subdial at 9 o’clock.
The Hublot Big Bang Unico Usain Bolt Yellow Gold (Ref. 411.CX 1189.VR.USB16) retails for $42,000, while the black Ceramic model is priced at $22,000.
