France and Austria’s opening matchup at Euro 2024 on Monday was a mixed bag for 25-year-old superstar Kylian Mbappé: On the one hand, France shut out its rival 1-0. On the other hand, Mbappé broke his nose—and to add insult to injury, the League banned him from wearing a tricolore medical mask, citing regulations that such face coverings have to be of a uniform color and devoid of team and manufacture identification.
Nevertheless, the Parisian-born captain of the French national team proved his horological bona fides ahead of the game by rocking a Hublot Big Bang Steel White Diamonds, a 42mm, sporty chronograph with a rubber strap and 100m of water resistance. A Hublot brand ambassador, Mbappé has been spotted in several of the Swiss marque’s wares over the years, most of which have been chronographs.
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Established in 1980 in Nyon, Switzerland, Hublot—“porthole” in French—exploded when watch industry veteran Jean-Claude Biver took over the C-suite in 2004. In 2005, an era where 42+ mm watches were the norm, Hublot launched the Big Bang collection, and sales positively exploded. By 2008, LVMH acquired the brand to add to its growing watch division; today, the company is known for its use of unusual materials, its ostentatious designs, and its bold case sizes. Sapphire and ceramic are commonly found within Hublot designs, as are diamonds and skeletonized dials.
Mbappé’s Big Bang Steel White Diamonds is rather tame by Hublot standards: Housed in a 41mm stainless steel case, it’s comparatively small, though its bezel is set with 114 diamonds totaling 1.18 carats, and its textured white rubber strap certainly grabs one’s attention. The white dial, meanwhile, contains a triple-register chronograph with 30-minute and 12-hour counters, a date window at 4:30, and a bright red seconds hand. Powering the watch is the automatic
Hublot HUB1145 movement with 42 hours of power reserve.
Hublot’s coterie of brand ambassadors is wide-ranging and interesting, with footballers like Mbappé, artists like Takashi Murakami, designers like Daniel Arsham, and musicians such as Depeche Mode. Its watches, ostentatious and large as they often are, aren’t to everyone’s taste in the mode of a fastball-up-the-middle Submariner or a Speedmaster. But the variety they provide within LVMH’s brand portfolio, and within the larger luxury watch world, is a welcome departure from the more standard fare found in boardrooms and cafés in big cities the world over.
Excellent choix, Monsieur Mbappé! Bon rétablissement.
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Jack Harlow’s Rolex GMT-Master II “Sprite”
When rapper Jack Harlow sat courtside during the NBA Finals this week, his outfit showed Celtics pride in every article—all the way down to the watch on his wrist. Looking closely, you can spot the Rolex GMT-Master II “Sprite” poking out from his hoodie sleeve, with its distinctive green and black 24-hour bezel and left-hand crown. Released in 2022, this new version of Rolex’s famous travel watch threw the horolocal world for a loop—is the crown situated on the left so that southpaw’s can wear it on their right wrist, or so that the crown doesn’t dig into a right-handed person’s left wrist? (The Crown, of course, didn’t comment.) The new bezel colorway has certainly proven popular; indeed, this is still a watch that, two years following its release, is rarely seen in the wild.
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Travis Scott’s Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar
Ever-faithful Royal Oak ambassador Travis Scott strapped on yet another Perpetual Calendar while performing at the Summer Smash Music Festival this past week. This one, a reference 26625BC, provides the same functionality as his Cactus Jack model—the dial shows the time, the day, the date, the month, the phase of the moon, the week of the year, and the leap year number—but rather than the aforementioned model’s playful brown ceramic, this one is made of white gold and positively caked in nearly 1,000 brilliant-cut diamonds along the bezel, case, and integrated bracelet. Measuring 41mm in diameter, it clocks in at just 9.1mm thick, while its skeletonized dial reveals the automatic Audemars Piguet Calibre 5135 within.
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Courtesy of Hublot
Brooklyn Peltz Beckham’s Hublot Big Bang Integrated Indigo Blue Ceramic 42mm
Brooklyn Peltz Beckham, eldest son of some dude who’s really good at soccer, was spotted in a Hublot Big Bang Integrated Indigo Blue Ceramic 42mm at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Machined from high-tech ceramic, this version measures a more manageable 42mm in diameter and uses the Unico 2 movement, an automatic caliber with a flatter automatic winding system and a 72-hour power reserve. With its skeletonized dial and integrated bracelet, it provides a dual-register chronograph in a futuristic aesthetic while still maintaining 100m of water resistance. At $25,200 it well overshoots watches like the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona in price, but it’s also a much different—and significantly more niche—animal.
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Stormzy’s Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Frosted Gold Double Balance Wheel Openworked
British rapper Stormzy attended the Louis Vuitton show in Paris wearing an eye-catching Royal Oak, the Frosted Gold Double Balance Wheel Openworked. Unlike Travis Scott’s Perpetual Calendar, this one only tells the time—however, it does so via a show-stopping case, bezel, and dial combination: Measuring 41mm, its case is machined from 18K pink gold in a frosted finish, which provides a unique look and handfeel. The bezel, meanwhile, is set with 32 baguette-colored gemstones in a rainbow pattern, while the slate gray, automatic Audemars Piguet Calibre 3132 movement is skeletonized and visible via the dial. Somehow, all the disparate colors and materials combine to make this a distinctly handsome piece.
