Second Skin: Hublot Launches The Big Bang Original Soft Touch

Over the last few decades I have seen many watches which were designed to seduce, amaze or startle visually, whether through adherence to classical fine watchmaking design codes, unexpected materials or colors, or designs intended to overturn and reinvent our expectations of what a watch can be. In all that time, however, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a watch which was meant to be appreciated on a specifically tactile level, but now we have such watches thanks to Hublot: the aptly named Big Bang Original Soft Touch watches.

The Soft Touch watches at first are essentially identical in design codes to the Original series of Big Bang watches, which as the name implies, maintain the same design features found in the first Big Bang watches, which were introduced in 2005. The cases are 43mm x 13.2mm, with the distinctive crosshair subdial for the running seconds on the left, porthole style case, and titanium sandwich construction. The movements are Hublot’s in-house HUB1280, which is a second generation Unico caliber, first introduced in 2018.

This is a column-wheel controlled, oscillating pinion movement, with a very unusual design for the tilting pinion clutch wheel, which uses a double wheel system employing spring loaded teeth, for smoother engagement and running than is possible with a conventional chronograph lateral or tilting pinion clutch, and which offers more positive engagement that the friction based vertical clutch (nothing against the vertical clutch, mind you, they work fine and are in thousands of watches if not millions at this point; I just find tooth to tooth engagement more philosophically satisfying).

However, the unique feature of the Soft Touch watches is the texture of the cases. These are made with rubber which has a textured surface created during the molding process, which Hublot calls “Velvet Effect” rubber. Here’s how Hublot describes it:

“The exclusive rubber compound is developed through a dedicated overmoulding [sic] process, using specially engineered tooling that integrates the texture directly into the material during production.”

“Unlike coating or surface treatment, the texture becomes an intrinsic part of the construction itself. Its unique microscopic surface structure is composed of thousands of fine micro elements, creating an exceptional softness to the touch while preserving the durability and resistance expected from Hublot’s signature rubber.”

I had a chance to handle these watches at the Hublot boutique here in Geneva during Geneva Watch Days, and it’s quite difficult to describe – you know you’re touching rubber, but it doesn’t have the uniform feel of standard matte rubber case components. The most accurate way I can describe it is to say that, while it does feel like velvet, it also feels eerily and somewhat uncannily like touching skin – there’s the same combination of smoothness and slight resistance you feel when you touch matte finish leather or for that matter, run your fingertip across someone’s arm.

The only potential gotcha I can see here is durability – obviously rubber has served as a technical material at Hublot for many years, but I wonder how well this micro-textured surface will hold up to wear and tear. It’s like nothing else I’ve ever encountered in watch case construction before, though, and I’d recommend visiting an Hublot boutique for your own personal touch-and-try session.

There are two versions: the All Black, which Hublot first introduced as a design theme in 2006, has a titanium case, and black DLC coated pushers. The All Red is likewise just what it says on the tin: an all-red titanium watch. The Unico caliber gives a 72 hour power reserve, and the strap uses Hublot’s One Click quick change system, so if you have both of these watches you can make your own red on black, or black on red limited edition.

It’s one thing to have a watch that doesn’t look like any other watch; it’s another to have one that doesn’t feel like any other watch, and if you want a larger sensory spectrum experience from your horological activities, run your finger over a Soft Touch – it’s like touching velvet.

The Hublot Big Bang Original Soft Touch: cases are titanium overmolded with “Velvet Effect” rubber, 43mm x 13.2mm, with 100 meter water resistance. Movements are the Hublot HUB1280 Unico Manufacture, 30mm x 6.75mm, running in 43 jewels at 28,800 vph, with a 72 hour power reserve. Rubber straps with titanium deployant buckle. Both watches, $24,900.

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