Hublot has joined forces with Lagos-born, London-based visual artist, designer, and skateboarder Leonard Iheagwam—widely known as Soldier—to create the striking Big Bang Soldier All Black. Two years in the making, it is strictly limited to just 50 pieces worldwide.
Soldier’s artistic identity grew out of defiance in Nigeria, where civilians are legally prohibited from wearing military camouflage. He adopted the pattern anyway, transforming camouflage into both his personal visual signature and a conceptual strategy to explore themes of identity and consumerism. “With this watch, I explore what happens when symbols of power are moved somewhere they don’t traditionally belong,” stated Soldier.
Silhouettes of toy soldiers are set directly across the microblasted and polished black ceramic case and bezel. The motif extends across the transparent sapphire crystal dial, with toy soldier figures patterned across the dial surface and integrated into the subdial at 9 o’clock.
The Hublot Big Bang Soldier All Black (Ref. 441.CI.1140.NR.HBL26) is a chronograph featuring a 42 mm wide and 14.5 mm thick case crafted from microblasted and polished black ceramic, paired with black-plated titanium H-shaped screws, crown, and pushers, and offering 10 ATM (100 meters) of water resistance. Its openworked sapphire crystal dial displays black-plated, satined, and microblasted hands along with a date display at 3 o’clock, revealing the in-house HUB1280 Unico Manufacture self-winding chronograph movement beneath. Operating at a frequency of 4 Hz (28,800 A/h), the movement delivers an approximate 72-hour power reserve.
The microblasted black ceramic case back is engraved with the geographic coordinates of Hublot’s London boutique where the partnership first began. It is supplied in a ceramic presentation box with three interchangeable straps—a black fabric strap with velcro and two lined rubber straps in black-and-red and black-and-green—secured by deployant and sport buckles in ceramic and titanium. The contrasting colors of the included rubber straps draw directly from an art book Soldier produced in 2024, in which green represents the past (where he came from) and red represents the present (where he is today).
“What Soldier has done with the Big Bang is not decoration; it is a reinterpretation of our All Black philosophy through his own language. Our in-house Unico chronograph, ceramic mastered in Nyon, and an artist with something urgent to express: this is the Art of Fusion at its most contemporary,” stated Julien Tornare, CEO of Hublot.
Images: Courtesy Brand
