Few London landmarks are as iconic as Harrods and the distinctive green awnings that line its exterior. For Hublot’s latest collaboration with the famous department store, the watch brand is celebrating the colour with a bold new timepiece that achieves its vivid hue from a very special material.

The Big Bang Unico Sapphire Harrods Special Edition features a 45mm polished sapphire-crystal case with a bezel made from Saxem. The watchmaker has long led the way in daring creations crafted from colourful sapphire, from transparent iterations to black, yellow, blue and red, yet it is impossible to achieve an emerald green through this method.

This spurred it to introduce Saxem into its watch cases last year, a high-tech material that balances resilience with incredible depth of colour. Following Hublot’s ‘art of fusion’ philosophy, it combines aluminium oxide, a basic component of sapphire, with rare-earth elements such as thulium, holmium and chromium. The resulting material is harder than emerald while emitting a brilliance close to that of diamond.

The watchmaking itself is similarly high-tech, powered by Hublot’s in-house Unico movement, viewable via the sapphire-crystal caseback adorned with the Harrods logo. Meanwhile, the timepiece comes with two straps in transparent rubber and camouflage green that can be effortlessly interchanged with a single click. Limited to just 15 pieces, watch is available exclusively at the Hublot Boutique in the Harrods Fine Watch Room.

hublot.com