The detailed view of the Replica Hublot Big Bang Unico Saxem Green shows the bright green transparency of the Saxem sapphire case.
The 100 Hublot Big Band Unico Saxem Green watches with their translucent green Saxem sapphire cases aren’t exactly a bargain. But technically exceptionally innovative. That’s what lies behind the high-tech Saxem case and that’s what the Unico 2 movement of the Saxem Green and its neon yellow sister achieve.
Green revolution
The Hublot Big Bang Unico Saxem Green is not only the second model made from the Saxem case material newly developed at Hublot. With the new bright green Saxem sapphire crystal, Hublot shows that thanks to the new material, further color variations are possible and the transparency and luminosity of the sapphire crystal is raised to a new level.
The use of ultra-hard, scratch-resistant sapphire crystal began in the 1980s when the production of synthetic sapphire became cheaper and more reliable in production. This synthetic watch glass solved a major problem with high-quality watches at the time – glass breakage. This also means that watch glasses made of acrylic and their rapid scratching of the glass surface are finally a thing of the past. Today, sapphire crystals are standard in luxury watches.
However, it was then left to Hublot, in 2024 with the use of artificial sapphire, the production of which was invented in 1902 by Auguste Victor Louis Verneuil in 1902, for the case of the Big Bang Unico Sapphire, and in 2017 with the coloring the sapphire case to enter new territory.
Further progress came in 2018, when Hublot further increased the transparency of the watch by using sapphire for parts of the movement construction and launched various color variants over the years.
The next milestone was the Hublot Big Bang Unico Sapphire Tourbillon, in which the case, parts of the movement construction and the bracelet were made of artificial, transparent sapphire.
Hublot Big Bang Unico Saxem Green
While Hublot was allowed to have a unique position as an innovation leader when it came to sapphire cases for a short period of time, it can now be seen that a whole range of watch brands operate with cases made of sapphire crystal. Even more. Even if the quality is not entirely comparable, watches with Saphir-Tec cases produced in Asia only cost a fraction of high-quality sapphire glass watches (we presented such a model for a few thousand euros from Constantin Weisz here). Accordingly, Hublot had to underpin its innovation leadership.
They found what they were looking for in a new material, Saxem. Its base material still consists of sapphire glass, i.e. aluminum oxide (Al2O3). But the use of rare earths such as thulium, holmium and chromium instead of the previously used metal oxides enables Hublot to produce new color variants – such as the Hublot Big Bang Unico Saxem Green. Saxem Green, like the already launched Hublot Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic Yello Neon Saxem model, is characterized by brighter colors and a higher transparency of the case.
The Hublot Big Bang Unico Tourbillon Automatic Yello Neon Saxem was launched in January 2024 and is limited to 50 pieces. Price 220,000 euros.