Watches & Wonders 2026: Hublot Launches The Big Bang Reloaded Collection, And I Just Noticed That The Unico Caliber Has One Of The Coolest Clutch Systems In The Business
And I take no pride in admitting that the Unico HUB1280 caliber was launched in 2018 and it’s taken me eight years to notice.
Watchmaking is if nothing else full of opportunities to feel humility in the face of what you don’t know, and Hublot’s big release for Watches & Wonders 2026 is a case in point. Hublot has launched a new Big Bang collection – the Big Bang Reloaded – which combines elements of the preceding Big Bang Unico watches with some subtle but significant tweaks. You might remember that last year Hublot released the 20th Anniversary of Big Bang collection, which combined some design features of the original Big Bang models from 2005, with the latest version of the in-house Unico caliber, the HUB1280. This movement was introduced in 2018 and was preceded by the first Unico caliber, HUB1240, in 2010. HUB1280 offered a number of significant technical upgrades, and for various reasons I think these slipped under the radar for a lot of watch enthusiasts – as to what those reasons are, we’ll get there in a moment.
Above we have two versions of the Big Bang Unico in Hublot’s Magic Gold, which is an alloy of 24 karat gold, sintered with boron carbide, a technical ceramic; the result is a very tough material which is highly resistant to abrasion. On the left is the new Reloaded model and on the right, the existing Unico model. As you can see there are quite a number of changes.
The chronograph hands, now colored red, are more clearly delineated on the new model, with a more legible chronograph minute register, and the date has been moved to the 4:30 position so that it no longer cuts into the chronograph minutes subdial. There’s a small colored arrow next to the date window to make it easier to find, and the dial overall feels cleaner, with the exposed elements in the Unico model now partly concealed behind a matte black colored dial (the translucent matte finish is present in all the Reloaded models, in colors appropriate to each). A red flange identifies the reset to zero/flyback pusher at 4:00, and the overall effect is a cleaner, more technical, and more legible presentation, albeit the Unico model has a uniformity of colors across the dial and case which those wanting a more restrained presentation might prefer (although if you’re looking at a Big Bang at all there is probably a limit to how restrained you want your presentation to be).
There are six different new Reloaded models: Magic Gold; Dark Green Ceramic; Blue Ceramic; All Black Ceramic; and Titanium Ceramic. All of the watches are 44mm x 14.50mm, with sapphire crystals front and back, and all use the Unico HUB1280 flyback caliber; all of them have the red accented chronograph hands, except for the All Black (in keeping with the all black theme).
One other feature common to all of the watches, are two openings in the dial and these show the column wheel, as well as the LIGA-fabricated tilting pinion wheel. Here’s where things begin to get really interesting from a technical and engineering standpoint.
The column wheel is fairly recognizable (and helpfully labeled) and looks more or less like a conventional column wheel (or castle wheel, as they’re sometimes called). However, the oscillating clutch is like no other system currently on the market. The oscillating clutch is more conventionally called a tilting pinion system, and in its original form it was patented by Edouard Heuer in 1887. As with any chronograph clutch system, its purpose is to switch the chronograph on and off, by engaging and disengaging the movement fourth wheel (which drives the escape wheel, and rotates once per minute) from the chronograph gear train. The tilting pinion system is straightforward:
In the above image, the tilting pinion M is in constant engagement with the movement fourth wheel H, at the lower pinion A’. When the chronograph is switched on, the tilting pinion pivots slightly so that pinion A comes into contact with the teeth of the chronograph seconds wheel, B. The system is more compact than the traditional lateral clutch and requires less adjustment, albeit it is less dramatic to watch in action. The system has some of the same basic issues as the lateral clutch, however, including the possibility of the chronograph seconds hand jumping when the chronograph starts if the teeth of pinion A and wheel B don’t mesh perfectly, and the possibility of stuttering as the chronograph runs, due to backlash between the pinion and its gears. The second problem is generally addressed through the use of a tension spring, although this produces additional friction, which causes the balance amplitude to drop when the chronograph switches on.
In a well adjusted chronograph, the amplitude drop due to the additional load on the going train from the chronograph train, should be no more than 20 to 30 degrees but it would be better to minimize it as much as possible.
As you can see in the closeups of Hublot’s HUB1280 oscillating clutch, the upper pinion which engages with the chronograph center seconds hand has a very unusual configuration.
You can see it above, in blue, although you might miss it at first because it doesn’t look like a conventional gear or pinion at all. The pinion has a large number of spiral shaped teeth with rounded ends, which are flexible and act as springs as well as gear teeth. They’re fabricated with the lithographic fabrication technique known as LIGA, which is a German acronym standing for Lithographie, Galvanoformung, Abformung — lithography, electrodeposition, molding (and yes, I have to look it up every time). This is one of the modern microfabrication techniques used in modern watchmaking for making high precision components, and LIGA-fabricated chronograph wheels with flexible teeth can be found, in different configurations, in a number of contemporary chronographs, including the Breitling B01 caliber, and the Rolex caliber 4130. (For a closer look, see David Ichim’s story at SJX).
These teeth help prevent backlash, and their flexibility means cleaner and quicker engagement of the chronograph when the chrono is switched on.
Below the spiral toothed pinion, is another pinion with straight flexible teeth; this pinion is in constant contact with the movement fourth wheel. Because the oscillating clutch is constantly driven by the fourth wheel, it’s rotating even when the chronograph is switched off, which adds some visual animation to the dial.
The flexibility of each set of pinion teeth provides smooth and secure engagement and also compensates for any minute errors in concentricity; the intermediate wheel connecting the chronograph seconds wheel to the minute counter also has LIGA-fabricated flexible split teeth. The configuration of the upper pinion’s spiral teeth is unlike anything else I’ve ever seen in the industry.
The Unico HUB1280 caliber has a number of other interesting technical features as well, including an anti-shaking system for the seconds hand, which prevents it from oscillating when the flyback mechanism is used (making for more accurate seconds recording) and a patented fine adjustment system for regulation. The escape wheel and lever are both made of silicon.
In the above image you can see the relationship between the movement fourth wheel, on the left; the escape wheel, whose pinion it is driving, and the oscillating clutch, center. For an extremely detailed deep dive on the caliber HUB1280, Cheryl Chia’s story for Revolution is highly recommended. I felt like a little less of a dope for having missed the fine points of HUB1280 when I read her story, which was published in 2026 and in which she said:
“Admittedly, I have written about Hublot only a handful of times in nearly a decade of covering watches, but each experience has revealed another side of a brand too often dismissed at first glance. The last was in 2023, with the Big Bang Unico in King Gold. It is a model so familiar that I thought I knew what I was looking at, but I didn’t. Visible right through the dial was a clutch wheel with sprung teeth glaring up at me like a school teacher catching a student daydreaming.”
You might criticize Hublot for labeling the oscillating clutch on the dial, but you know what, for years I missed it, Chery Chia missed it, and I’m not sure how many other people missed it but there’s at least two of us who are deeply interested in technical watchmaking and have been overlooking the technical aspects of HUB120 since 2018 … so maybe labeling the oscillating clutch isn’t such a bad idea. I think, just speaking for myself, that I missed it for the not very defensible reason of assuming there was nothing particularly technically distinctive in a movement from Hublot, and well, how wrong I was. In any case, the new Reloaded models are certain visually attractive, adjusted for the fact that you have to be in the market for a very extroverted 44mm chronograph, and they are far, far more sophisticated from a watchmaking perspective than I’d suspected.
The Hublot Big Bang Reloaded Collection: all watches, 44mm x 14.50mm, water resistance 100M, sapphire crystals front and back. Movement, all watches, Unico caliber HUB1280, flyback with column wheel and oscillating clutch with LIGA fabricated flexible pinions; silicon lever and escape wheel, with patented fine regulating system and anti-jarring mechanism for the chronograph seconds hand.
- Big Bang Reloaded Titanium Ceramic: Titanium with titanium bezel and black ceramic upper bezel; $24,000
- Big Bang Reloaded All Black: Black ceramic with blackened titanium bezel and black ceramic upper bezel; $25,000
- Big Bang Reloaded Blue Ceramic: Blue ceramic with polished titanium bezel and blue ceramic upper bezel; $25,200
- Big Bang Reloaded Dark Green Ceramic: Green ceramic with polished black plated titanium bezel and black ceramic upper bezel; $25,200
- Big Bang Reloaded Magic Gold: 18k Magic Gold with polished black plated titanium bezel and Magic Gold upper bezel; $44,500
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