Maxime Plescia-Büchi is one of the world’s premier tattoo artists; indeed, he is much more than that — he is a creative force and a visionary. With a background as varied as the study of psychology as well as design, and with years of high-art tattooing experience under his belt, he founded Sang Bleu, a multi-disciplinary creative and media platform headlined by a magazine of the same name, which deals with tattoo culture, art, literature, sociology and other interests. It was this platform that gave birth to Hublot’s collaboration with Plescia-Büchi, with the first Big Bang Sang Bleu, launched in 2016.

The all-new model, the Big Bang Sang Bleu II, continues in the same vein, but with significant updates. Tattooing is no longer considered an ‘underground’ aspect of modern pop culture, and its growing creative influence shows that it is not just a fad, but a major cultural shift which is here to stay.

The new watch is thus the horological expression of a tattoo, set in motion with extreme precision. It captures the restless TRACKING TIME / THE BRAND creative energy of Plescia-Büchi, with its three-dimensional angles and edges. This motif is seen all throughout the case, where it cuts into the hexagonal bezel, and is also carved into the sapphire crystal, juxtaposed against the hands with their geometric lines, and moulded onto the interchangeable bracelet.

The dial plays with the concepts of transparency, giving the wearer glimpses of the Unico movement. Within the meticulously interweaved geometric lines of this new case lies the HUB1240 Unico manufacture self-winding chronograph movement: the chronograph seconds are tracked along a straight hand, and the chronograph minutes complete their laps on one of the two discs on the dial. It oscillates at a frequency of 28,800 vibrations per hour, for a period of 72 hours. In all, only 200 titanium and 100 King Gold pieces of this exceptional and unique timepiece will be issued.