The Big Bang Alarm Repeater is the kind of watch that's ideal for travelers. Most often on a trip to parts unknown, you have two time-related priorities: knowing what time it is, and knowing when to wake up. Hublot takes care of both here. The main time zone appears in the large, off-center dial. It has hours, minutes and seconds ?the latter with a Hublot "H?for the counterweight. A day/night indicator is placed on the minutes scale between 1 and 2 o'clock: the triangle changes color to let you know which 12 hours you're in. Atop 11 o'clock is a small dial with a single hand that makes a rotation once per day. This is the second time zone. Opposite it, coming in between 3 and 6 o'clock, is the alarm-setting subdial. It's on a 24-hour track, so you can accurately set the exact time you want the alarm to ring.
Hublot watches often have a lot going on, and the display here is no exception. As we've often seen before, parts of the movement are visible around the edges of the dial, even though the watch is not skeletonized. (Much more of the movement can be viewed through the sapphire crystal caseback.) But there are also great subtleties of design in the Big Bang Alarm Repeater. Just look at how the off-center time display is offset yet again within its ring to make room for the day/night indicator. Or the fine snailing work under the luminous hour markers on that dial. Best of all is the characteristic Hublot name and logo affixed to the sapphire crystal itself: note how these are just slightly de-centered in order to keep the elements of the dial in harmonious arrangement.
Once you've set the alarm, you can tell whether it's on or off by the indicator at the base of the dial. Right next to it is the satin-finished steel hammer, which strikes a gong heeled to the alarm indicator. Both the indicator hand and the hammer have Super-LumiNova on them, so you can actually see the ringing as it happens in the dark (assuming you wake up on time). The alarm rings for approximately 16 seconds.
The case of the Alarm Repeater is characteristically Big Bang, which begs the question: why have chronograph pushers on a watch with no chronograph? Hublot has repurposed a familiar case design for this watch's functions. The 2 o'clock pusher sets the 24-hour time, moving in one-hour increments. The one at 4 o'clock turns the alarm on or off ?an important, easy-access feature for when you want to stop the ringing quickly. The crown sets the primary time zone and the alarm time.
The Big Bang Alarm Repeater is 45.5 mm in diameter. It comes in a titanium version and a rose-gold one (that's King Gold, to those stalwarts who are loyal to Hublot's alloy). It is powered by a HUB 5003 movement, a manually wound caliber with a 72-hour power reserve. It comes on a ribbed rubber strap with a deployant buckle. The watch is water resistant to 30 meters. It's a limited edition, so just 250 pieces will be sold in each case material. The titanium version costs $66,700, and the King Gold model costs $85,100.
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