The rainbow trend certainly isn’t slowing down anytime soon. In fact, watchmakers are continuing to stretch their creativity when it comes to multi-hued timepieces. Case in point: Hublot is blazing a new colour trail with its newest piece of wrist candy. The limited-edition MP-09 Tourbillon Bi-Axis, which was unveiled during the Hublot Loves Art event at Art Basel in Miami, pushes the envelope in terms of both aesthetics and production. Hublot started with a simple idea: reproduce the rainbow effect of coloured gemstones using carbon and composites. It sounds straightforward, but the execution wasn’t so easy.
The watchmaker leveraged all its resources, from industrial machinery to the ingenuity of its research and development team, to establish a complex process that would reproduce the striking hues of diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds on the surface of the case. In short, Hublot found a way to recreate the brilliance of gemstones in a rather conventional material. This feat marks a world first in watchmaking: Never before has a watch displayed as many shades of coloured composites.
“We have mastered Carbon. We have mastered traditional rainbow setting. But no one was yet to master 3D carbon with the rainbow effect, quite simply because no one had thought about it,” Hublot’s CEO Ricardo Guadalupe said in a statement. “That is what makes Hublot different: we explore the unknown regions of haute horlogerie.”
The bold watch is undeniably Hublot from the inside out. The oversized 49 mm case is fully decked out in carbon and rainbow composites. So too is the bezel. The openworked dial, meanwhile, reveals the manually wound HUB9009.H1.RA.B calibre. A staple of the MP-09 collection since its inception, the movement offers a five-day power reserve. It’s also a sight to behold with the tourbillon complication clearly visible at six o’clock.
Limited to just eight pieces, the rainbow MP-09 Tourbillon Bi-Axis will set you back US$211,000 (just over RM923,000). You can view the full specs or snap up the piece via Hublot’s website.
Previously published on Robb Report.
