The high-end Hublot Sapphire-Encased Mechanical Watch

Hublot Big Bang Unico Sapphire is not the first high-end mechanical watch to be encased in transparent, scratch-resistant sapphire and with a sizable production run of 500 pieces, it is the first accessible model. More Hublot Big Bang replica watches.

Hublot recently acquired the equipment for machining and polishing the tough but brittle material—a process eased by the new model’s sandwich construction. Complex structures inside the case, such as the hands and dial, are cast from transparent resin. According to Guadalupe, this limits the amount of sapphire machining and polishing required for each case, which accounts for most of the cost savings.

Other brands make sapphire watches on almost an individual basis, an approach Hublot itself took when creating the $575,000 MP-05 LaFerrari Sapphire watch it unveiled earlier this year.