Earlier this year, luxury Swiss watch brand Hublot collaborated with the iconic Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto to mark the opening of its new flagship in the Tokyo shopping district of Ginza. Yamamoto, of course, is known as the designer who made his mark on the industry some five decades ago with what was described as the “Shock of Black”, an aesthetic that, with his contemporary Rei Kawakubo, Yamamoto introduced to the French world of high fashion. Fittingly, his creation for Hublot was the Big Bang GMT All Black Yohji Yamamoto and it was, in case you didn’t guess already, black in absolutely every respect, from band to bezel and everything in between.
This week, Yamamoto and Hublot have unveiled the fruits of a second collaboration, and while this iteration is the same Big Bang model, it’s been remade in camouflage, imbuing it with a more urban sensibility. Released in a limited run of just 200 pieces (you’d better be quick), the Big Bang Camo Yohji Yamamoto features a 45mm case cut from matt black ceramic and its sapphire dial features superimposed outlines which form biomorphic patches in an echo of the designer’s camouflage motif. The original construction of the camouflage motif extends onto the strap where each of the constituent shapes of the outline is cut out individually, assembled, and then fused together using the vulcanisation process, a new technology for the watchmaking sector. A black fabric strap serves as an alternate option.
“I am powerfully drawn to a cutting-edge approach, in the sense that it expresses a point of view that is slightly removed from traditional values,” explains Yamamoto. “Each collection incorporates a message about what I am feeling right now. It is a way to invite people to question what is already there, which is something I value greatly.” Ricardo Guadalupe, the CEO of Hublot, adds: “Like Hublot, Yohji Yamamoto is constantly questioning the traditional tenets of the world he takes on – fashion – in his own creations. This stance is not dissimilar to the philosophy behind the creation of our watches. The Big Bang that he has designed with Hublot echoes our shared codes and sports its camouflage motif in a truly original way.”
The Hublot Big Bang Camo Yohji Yamamoto is out now.
