Introducing: The SR_A Hublot 3.0

What We Know

Last week, Hublot introduced the third in a series of tourbillon watches in partnership with the artist and designer Samuel Ross. The man behind fashion label A-Cold-Wall* and eponymous design studio SR_A, Ross, is also known as Virgil Abloh’s very first design assistant. The designer’s relationship with Hublot started all the way back in 2019, having been awarded the Hublot Design Prize that year – an initiative started in 2015 in part by the legendary Jean-Claude Biver to seek out young and upcoming talents in the design world.

A few years later, in 2022, Hublot revealed the first watch in partnership with Samuel Ross – the first iteration of this eccentric, explosive design, if a Hublot design could somehow be more so. Completely flooded with orange, the watch was certainly a statement piece, and the run of 50 pieces came and went. Last year, a somewhat milder iteration was produced out of titanium with a verdant shade reserved just for the strap. Now, for the third and perhaps final act, the color blue comes into play this year, along with the introduction of frosted grey carbon.

Most of the design remains identical to the past two models. This trilogy of watches has been an exercise by Ross and Hublot in iteration and refinement, so from the outside, the form has largely remained the same as Ross’ initial concept. It’s a large watch, at 44mm in diameter and 13.75mm in thickness. It is broad on the wrist, given the prominent shoulders and the flare presented by the integrated and quick-change rubber strap. Despite its size, it is a very light watch.

While parts like the bezel and movement plate are constructed out of titanium in varying finishes, the exterior shell is made out of the aforementioned carbon. It’s a very apt look for this design and gives each case a unique metallic pattern. The dial, or lack thereof, reveals the in-house HUB6035 tourbillon movement, with the micro-rotor placed at 12 o’clock and the tourbillon cage at 6 o’clock. Sections of sapphire hold the hour markers in place, giving the illusion that they are floating, and a honeycomb motif fills out the rest of the case and backplate. The honeycomb motif continues onto the rubber strap, which the brand points out features a newly redesigned clasp.

The SR_A Hublot 3.0 is made in a limited edition of 50 pieces and retails at $143,000.

What We Think

I still remember the first Samuel Ross tourbillon launching back in 2022 – the pop-up in SoHo was literally a block from the Hodinkee office, and I stumbled into it on my way back from lunch. The facade was impossible to ignore from a mile away, completely covered in bright orange, with the brand and the designer’s names prominently plastered above the entrance. The watch was in the center of the – you guessed it – completely orange room, put on a pedestal in a glass case. There was a sense of intrigue when I walked up to the watch, as it just felt quite different from all the Big Bang and Classic Fusion watches I was used to seeing. It felt like a concept car.

This year, the SR_A Hublot 3.0 was launched very appropriately at Art Basel in Miami. I tagged along for the ride and had a chance to chat with Samuel Ross to try to understand this partnership better. Hublot is no stranger to long-lasting partnerships and collaborations – the brand’s relationship with Takashi Murakami is most certainly one of their most famous and best executed, as my colleague Malaika will be sure to agree – but Samuel Ross’ name runs in different and less mainstream circles. The relationship between Ross and Hublot seems quite symbiotic and far more involved than I had imagined. Ross tells me that he has spent a surprisingly large chunk of time with the team over in Switzerland, getting involved in the design process every step of the way. A very different picture from what I had perhaps naively imagined as a London-based designer sending concepts and sketches over to Switzerland and having the team take it over from there.

Ross cites his experience of working with partners like Nike and Apple (designing products under the Beats subsidiary) that granted him the ability to know how to faithfully implement a collaborative concept with Hublot – where to push and where to pull to get his ideas across. On a more practical level, making sure the concept was well defined at stage one with the very first watch allowed for future resources to be allocated towards iteration and refinement. He says that the redesigned clasp on the 3.0 might go unnoticed by most people, but a small refinement in shape, dimension, and typeface positioning meant new (and presumably costly) tooling for the manufacturer. I took this as an interesting perspective on why many large watch brands might take so damn long to make small improvements towards parts like bracelets and clasps – in theory, it should be easy, but justification on a balance sheet at the end of the day might be where a lot of it gets held up.

But back to the watch. Like I said before, the SR_A collaboration feels like Hublot’s concept car. Hublot’s in-house tourbillon movement is a great way to showcase a lot of their more forward-thinking concepts, and it suits the avant-garde nature of this case shape quite well. I find that the design continues to feel fresh even after three versions, and Ross’ involvement in working with the brand to explore new ideas and materials is something I’m sure we’ll eventually see make its way into other more accessible models.

One of Hublot’s best strengths, often to the chagrin of many folks in the watch-collecting space, is their tendency to just keep doing what they do and remain unique in the space. They speak to a different customer, and this watch very much is an example of that. If you gave me $150k right now, this wouldn’t be the watch I would buy with that money. But that doesn’t matter. The past two versions sold out entirely, and I imagine this version will do the same. Who am I to blame a watch brand for selling watches?

The Basics

Brand: Hublot
Model: SR_A HUBLOT 3.0
Reference Number: 428.NQ.0100.RX.SRA24

Diameter: 44mm
Thickness: 13.75mm
Case Material: Titanium and frosted grey carbon
Dial Color: Grey and sapphire
Indexes: Applied
Lume: SuperLuminova
Water Resistance: 30m
Strap/Bracelet: Dark blue rubber and additional black rubber strap with deployant clasp

The Movement

Caliber: HUB6035 Manufacture Calibre
Functions: Hours, minutes, tourbillon, microrotor
Power Reserve: 72 hours
Winding: Automatic
Frequency: 21,600 VpH
Jewels: 26

Pricing & Availability

Price: $143,000
Availability: Now
Limited Edition: Yes, 50 pieces

For more, click here.

​Hodinkee 

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