Not all images were able to load for printing. Please close the print window and try again. The Hublot Big Bang Unico Novak Djokovic is a Genuine Grand Slam Memento
25 Head tennis racquets and 32 Lacoste shirts used by Nole are fused to create the composite material of this featherlight Big Bang Unico.
Hublot has always been associated with the fusion of disparate materials, starting with Carlo Crocco’s surprising cocktail of a gold case and rubber strap on board the flagship Classic Original. Hublot’s latest watch dedicated to tennis legend Novak Djokovic takes the “art of fusion” to unimaginable levels and even slips in the much-desired sustainability card. The new Big Bang Unico is literally made from the very materials that have accompanied the Serbian ace on his warpath to secure 24 Grand Slam titles. Introducing the Big Bang Unico Novak Djokovic, the world’s first watch made from the tennis player’s used (and recycled) Lacoste polos and Head tennis racquets.
Novak Djokovic, an Olympic gold medalist, tennis GOAT (Greatest of All Time) and holder of 24 Grand Slam singles titles, is one of the most exciting players today. Now working together, Hublot and Djokovic (who was associated with Seiko before) decided the watch had to have a sustainable component and be incredibly lightweight, resilient, and highly personal. Introduced four years after the eruption of the Big Bang in 2005, the Big Bang Unico has rounded pushers, Hublot’s in-house Unico integrated automatic chronograph movement, a skeletonised dial and a quick strap change system.
This Big Bang Unico Novak Djokovic is made from a composite of 25 Head tennis rackets, 17 dark blue and 15 light blue Lacoste polos worn by Djokovic during his 2023 season – which explains why it had to be a limited edition. The matte blue recycled epoxy resin obtained from the tennis racquets is reinforced with quartz powder and glass veil to form a composite material for the case and bezel. The composite material is, in turn, sprinkled with fragments of light and dark blue Lacoste shirts and black carbon to create a subtle camouflage look.
Similar in build to other Big Bang Unico models, the 42mm case has a thickness of 14.5mm and is water-resistant to 100 metres. It features the signature sandwich construction with protective lateral bumpers and a round bezel with 6 H-shaped titanium screws. If you look closely, you’ll notice that the screws are slightly domed and feature a more indented, swirling pattern like those found on tennis balls. Picking up on tennis symbols, the top pusher has a yellow tennis ball-coloured cap, while the bottom pusher is white (tennis whites, maybe?).
Keeping the watch featherlight has produced modifications to the external components of the case, many of which are made from lightweight aluminium. The lateral protective bumpers are not solid but hollowed out, a feature that has been applied to the bezel, the lugs and even the strap attachment module. In the pursuit of lightness, Hublot has also switched the traditional sapphire crystal for tempered Gorilla glass, a material that is two times lighter than sapphire.
The openworked dial offers a partial view of the mechanics, including the column wheel at 6 o’clock and the exposed date wheel. The running seconds counter is at 9 o’clock, and the larger, blue-framed disc at 3 o’clock houses the 60-minute chronograph register. Tennis ball yellow is used for the central chronograph seconds hand, the hand of the 60-minute register and the numerals on the minutes track. Instead of Arabic indices, the hours are represented by white openworked luminescent indices that look like tuning forks. A round white ring inserted in the chronograph counter at the 15-minute position reveals the date window. Other tennis-related details are the ‘D’ counterweight on the seconds hand and the Novak Djokovic logo on the glass.
Not only was the case reworked to lighten its load, but the movement was also revisited with lightweight anodised aluminium. Powered by the HUB1280 Unico manufacture automatic 4Hz integrated flyback chronograph calibre with column wheel with a 72-hour power reserve, the brass components were replaced with lightweight aluminium anodised in light blue to match the camo colour scheme of the case and reducing the weight by almost 27%.
The Big Bang Unico Novak Djokovic comes with four different straps in the wooden watch box: a Lacoste tennis wristband (total weight of watch and wristband 65g), a blue elastic strap (49.5g), a light blue Velcro strap with a blue aluminium sports buckle (54g) and a white rubber strap with a titanium deployant buckle (75g). The Big Bang Unico Novak Djokovic is a limited edition of 100 pieces and retails for CHF 48,000, EUR 54,900, USD 52,700 or GBP 45,300. It comes with a Lacoste sports wristband and a Lacoste polo shirt signed by Novak Djokovic. More information at Hublot.com.
1 response
Ha! It looks like an upgraded swatch. Although it’s more than that, it has a plastic feel to it from the photos of it. One might expect a different, i.e., more of an elegant look for the asking price, but these days that’s probably asking a lot. For the money, it gives the moonswatch and swatch/blancpain a new lease on life. Who would’ve thought.