Hublot King Power 692 Bang New York Limited Edition

Hublot has grown tremendously fast in the past few decades and is now recognized as part of the top luxury Swiss manufactures. It has not always been the case and before the arrival of the famous Jean-Claude Biver in 2004, Hublot’s destiny was rather uncertain. Nowadays, we all know Hublot for its recognizable port-hole inspired design, the oversized cases and because they were one of the main sponsors of the recent Football World Cup in Brazil (remember the assistant referees with the large signs above they head, to indicate extra time or changing players.) Hublot isn’t shy of limited editions and they just released one that we do like. Here is the new Hublot King Power 692 Bang with hands and markers inspired by the NYC yellow cabs.

The Hublot King Power is the brand’s most massive and sportiest collection. It comes in a ‘gigantic’ 48mm case, that is made, depending on the editions, in carbon fiber, titanium or ceramic.  As said before the design is inspired from ship’s portholes, with ‘ears’ like the PP Nautilus, and even the name ‘Hublot’ means porthole in French. While most Hublots are quite large in size, the King Power has even more robust, ‘testosteronized’, dimensions. It is a complicated case with numerous parts, such as the screwed bezel or the sandwich style central part. This King Power 692 Bang NYC Limited Edition comes in a micro blasted full-black ceramic case, and the use of this material makes it quite a light watch to wear.

The several yellow accents are inspired by the by the iconic New York City taxicabs that drive through the busy streets of Manhattan. The watch comes with two interchangeable yellow and black straps with contrasting stitching: a black horn-back alligator with yellow stitching and a yellow alligator with black stitching. Both use Hublot’s classical construction, with a rubber structure covered with a second material (alligator leather in this case.) Its black dial is highlighted with chronograph counters, hands, logo and minute tracks using that same yellow colour.

The caseback of the Hublot King Power 692 Bang is engraved with a sketch of the Hublot Madison Avenue Boutique’s facade (the “692? in the watch’s moniker signifies the actual address, 692 Madison Avenue).

The King Power has an automatic chronograph movement that boasts 42h of power reserve, but the press release said no word about the movement’s lineage. That means we can easily conclude it houses an ETA based movement such as the Valjoux 7753 or ETA 2894 or something similar, and not Hublot’s new in-house ‘Unico’ movement.

The Hublot King Power 692 Bang New York Limited Edition is limited to just 26 pieces, and only available in Hublot’s Boutique  at 692 Madison Avenue. The retail price of $26.200 USD is quite steep considering the non-in-house movement. Especially when you consider, that you can buy both a Rolex Daytona and a Omega Speedmaster Co-Axial (both priced around $12k), each with an in-house movement,  or one Audemars Piguet Royal Offshore that comes at a similar price. Besides this critical note about the price, we do like the looks of the new King Power 692 Bang New York Limited Edition.

Specifications

• Case: Diameter 48mm – Microblasted black ceramic
• Crystal: Sapphire with anti-reflective treatment
• Crown and pushers: black PVD titanium with black rubber insert; Screws in black PVD titanium
• Movement: Self-winding automatic movement
• Power Reserve: 42 hours power reserve
• Strap: Black rubber and hornback crocodile strap with yellow stitching; A second yellow strap is included

More info: www.hublot.com