Do You Have a Soft Spot For The Rubber-Clad Hublot Big Bang Original Soft Touch?
The rubber-clad Hublot Big Bang Original Soft Touch is a montre à tact, but not as you know it. The original tactile watch was invented by Breguet in 1799. It was a pocket watch featuring a hand that could be touched, allowing one to read/feel the time. You can touch the new Big Bang all you like, but it will not give you the time. Hublot created a montre à tact 2.0 that focuses solely on the sensory side. The watch might look like any other Big Bang, but it’s softer than ever before. You have to feel it to believe it.
I did get a chance to touch the black and red versions of the rubber-clad Hublot Big Bang Original Soft Touch chronographs during Geneva Watch Days. First impression: it feels nice — soft and velvety smooth. You get to experience that best when holding the watch in your hands. Once on the wrist, the chronograph wears much like any other 43mm Big Bang Original, although there’s also rubber on the case back. Still, the material’s matte, velvety finish creates a unique and inviting look. It’s so inviting that, once the watch is on your wrist, the fingers of your dominant hand will want to touch this montre à tact 2.0 over and over again.
The rubber-clad Hublot Big Bang Original Soft Touch All Black and All Red
The 2005 Big Bang Original always wanted to stand out. The chronograph burst onto the watch scene with an exuberant, layered case, exposed screws, contrasting materials, and enough visual details to keep the eye busy for a while. Twenty years have passed, during which several wild versions have appeared in a plethora of materials. Hublot manages to surprise by executing a Big Bang in textured rubber, a material I don’t think anybody saw coming.
As you might have guessed, the Big Bang Original Soft Touch, available in All Black and All Red versions, doesn’t have a case made of rubber. The case itself is made of titanium, and the rubber is added later. As Hublot makes gold and ceramic and even grows its sapphire in-house, it seems only logical that the Nyon-based brand also developed a new textured rubber compound. The matte rubber covers parts of the case, bezel, dial, and strap. The soft-touch velvet-like structure is there from the beginning. It is incorporated into the rubber itself during the manufacturing process. Thousands of tiny elements form the surface, giving it a surprisingly soft feel while retaining the resistance and durability expected from a watch made to be worn.
Touching it over and over again
The question I asked when handling the rubber-clad Big Bangs was, “Won’t it rub off?” I meant the material, but maybe subconsciously, I was also pointing at the novelty of wearing a rubber-clad watch. Speaking of a novel experience, the Big Bang Original Soft Touch reminded me of another “rubber” watch, the 2009 IWC Aquatimer Chronograph Edition “Galapagos Islands,” which featured a stainless steel case coated with black vulcanized rubber. That XL dive watch felt much smoother, and the rubber on it depicted the black rock of the Galapagos Islands. IWC didn’t talk about the watch’s tactile sensations.
But since Hublot does, it’s only fair to ask how well the velvet-like rubber will hold up to being touched again and again. The answer I got is that it will eventually become less velvety, and if you stroke long enough, you might reach the titanium core. But I was also assured that if used “normally,” it won’t happen while the watch is with its owner for the coming decades. Still, it would be interesting to see how these soft-touch creations look and feel in, let’s say, 10 years.
Changing perspectives
Covering a watch’s case and bezel in soft rubber might not be completely new, but it’s certainly uncommon. And it does stand out in a catalog featuring titanium, Magic Gold, ceramic, and sapphire watches, all with hard surfaces. Still, no matter the rubber, the latest Big Bang is every millimeter a Big Bang. The Big Bang Original Soft Touch measures 43mm in diameter and 13.2mm thick and features beveled edges and smoother, more curved lugs that slightly soften its chic-industrial appearance. With 100m water resistance, there are no surprises here.
The All Black version is perhaps the more obvious place to start. Hublot introduced the monochromatic All Black concept in 2006, turning the absence of color into a design statement. By removing the usual visual contrast, the watch’s shapes and construction became the subjects. Two decades later, the same idea enters a different dimension. The rubber-clad case features a rubber-covered crown, and the rectangular black DLC-coated titanium pushers have rubber inserts.
The All Red takes a different route. It refers to Hublot’s work with colored ceramic, most notably the development of its vivid red ceramic introduced in 2018. Here, however, the emphasis is not just on producing an intense color. The red rubber brings softer visual and physical qualities to the technical Big Bang vibe. At first glance, this watch is loud, but once in your hands, it softens and quiets down.
Underneath the velvet-like dial
The dial uses the new velvet-like rubber to create a three-dimensional surface. Raised sub-dials, counters, a tone-on-tone flange, and a carbon-like pattern add further depth. Hublot experimented with the exterior; the interior is a proven design. Inside both watches beats the in-house Unico automatic flyback chronograph caliber HUB1280. It features a column wheel, a dual-clutch architecture, a silicon escapement, and an openworked tungsten rotor. The 354-component movement beats at 4 Hz and provides a 72-hour power reserve.
Like the case and bezel, the strap is also made of the new textured rubber, and it uses Hublot’s One Click system for toolless strap changes. That’s handy, but are you ever going to change your matching velvety strap for something that doesn’t match the soft look and feel of your watch?
Then, there is the price. The Big Bang Original Soft Touch All Black and All Red are part of the regular collection and retail for €24,400 / US$24,900 / £19,600 / CHF 20,700. People familiar with the Big Bang will probably find that less surprising than the rubberized watch itself. And even that won’t shock Hublot fans that much. After all, material experimentation is hardly new territory for the brand. Hublot has spent decades combining materials that traditional watchmaking rarely put together, from ceramic and sapphire to its proprietary Magic Gold. The Big Bang Original Soft Touch simply moves that philosophy in another direction. Instead of asking what an unusual material can look like when used to create a watch, Hublot is now asking what it can feel like.
Now tell me, after reading all the information, do you have a soft spot for the rubber-clad Hublot Big Bang Original Soft Touch?
