REVIEW: Hands On With The Hublot Big Bang Meca-10 Ceramic Blue

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We’ve gone hands on with the Hublot Big Bang Meca-10, and after a week with this piece on the wrist, here’s what we think!

This is the first time that I have personally had the opportunity to review a piece from Hublot. Yes, I’ve worn them before and had many times to play around with them, but never in a capacity where I’m actively putting pen to paper (So to speak) and sitting down and writing my thoughts on them. It’s a different exercise doing this compared to just wearing the watches and appreciating them for what they are and enjoying them. I mean, how many times do you sit down and write 2000 words on your daily wearer? It makes you think differently about it, especially as you try and put yourself in someone else’s shoes who may be considering a new purchase. No pressure at all!

Having had a fair bit of exposure to Hublot over the last few years, I’ve come into this review with a little more knowledge than had I done this prior, and as I’ve discovered time and time again, the more knowledge you have around a brand, the more you see where the value lies in a watch, for whatever its intended purpose is. Not only that, but you also have a better appreciation for WHY a brand does what it does, which if you ask me is possibly where many misconceptions about a watch brand come from. People just don’t understand the brand, the watches, and what they stand for. I’ve had many conversations about this very topic with collectors, enthusiasts, and people generally purchasing a watch across many brands, and when people understand certain factors, you see the light bulb go off – Ahh, they get it! Hublot, unfortunately, is one of those brands where much more education is needed. Because once you see the brand the way we in the watch world see it, you start to think – “Ahh, I get it!”

Initial Thoughts

The Big Bang Meca-10 is an award-winning piece from Hublot. Having picked up the Red Dot Award for Product Design back in 2017, just after its 2016 release, the Hublot Big Bang Meca-10 broke many rules and design codes, which in the watch industry isn’t a bad thing. Progress and innovation are good things, and keep others on their toes. In the case of the Meca-10, this was a piece that took over 2 years to develop and was based on the imagination of the designers in Nyon thinking back to their childhood and building Meccano sets – incidentally, you can see this inspiration coming through in the three bridges at the back. More on that later, but it’s a cool concept that was brought to life in only a way Hublot can.

Looking at the piece and forming my initial thoughts, you think about what I mentioned above and the overall look and feel of the watch. It’s not like your conventional luxury sports watch but in a good way! It’s a big watch (There is no denying it, so I won’t), but with this piece, I feel this is the point. This sentiment is backed up when I first put this piece on my wrist, at home and not in a boutique, and my first thought was, “Ok, this is a very cool piece!” It’s a watch that immediately brought a smile to my face. When this happens, whatever small quibbles you have about it, or if there are things you may not love about it, those seem to fade away. Just like humans, no watch is perfect, and like people, you love them knowing they are not perfect, which is one of the joys of wearing watches (and the people you love for that matter).

The dial is busy, but it all has a purpose. That being said, it adds to the overall aesthetics of the piece, and oh, it’s basically all blue, so if you love a blue watch, then you’ll quite possibly love this one. If not, then there is a black ceramic, a titanium, and two King Gold variants that are a little more conventional. Personally, I’m ok with blue, and quite partial to it, so for me it works…

The Design

As I mentioned previously, the Big Bang Meca-10 was inspired by Meccano, hence the “Meca” part of the name. For those that don’t know, or can’t recall Meccano, it’s like a metal version of Lego Technic where you build models out of parts, but instead of sticking them together Lego style, you use screws and bolts etc. The watch designers at Hublot wanted to make a watch that embodied these design elements and brought back those days when as a kid, imagination was key and endless. When you compare the look of a Meccano set versus that of the Meca-10, then you can see where those design cues came from!

The dial has a lot going on, but just like modern cars with 300 buttons, functions, and switches, once you know why and what each dial element is, it all makes sense. The dial and movement are intertwined, as is the case with skeletonised movements. I’ll focus on the movement a little later on, but on the dial, it has been designed to be functional with all the elements you need to know the time and power reserve remaining, plus a few extra little touches that just add to the dial’s depth.

At the 12 o’clock position, the Hublot logo sits, floating under the glass, and behind this is the slide rack which drives the power reserve indicators on the dial. With 10 days of power, Hublot has designed an ingenious system so the wearer does not forget to wind the watch, and consists of two separate wheels that indicate how much power you have left, and when the Meca-10 is almost out of juice.

So you can set the watch to an exact reference time, there is a small seconds sub-dial at 9 o’clock and the large hands and hour markers make it easy to read the time. Whilst having this on my wrist over the course of almost a week, I had no issues with this at all. One complaint that people have with skeleton dials is the legibility, and when you look at some high-end brands, the time is extremely hard to tell when glancing at it. The Meca-10 has no such issues here.

The case design is very much a Big Bang. Other than the mid-case section, the Meca-10 Ceramic Blue is done in a mid-toned blue ceramic and is essentially scratch-proof. Hublot has its quick-change system integrated into the case, and with the push of a button, you can easily take the strap off and swap it for another in Hublot’s strap catalogue. The only downside with this is that it is proprietary to Hublot, so you’re not able to get an aftermarket strap and swap the OEM out. But this is not unique to Hublot as many brands now do this. The ease and efficiency I feel trumps the lack of ability to get an aftermarket strap to be honest, and Hublot has a large range of rubber, leather and fabric straps available should you want to swap and switch up your look.

The one thing I will address, which seems to come up time and time again with people and on forums is the screws in the bezel. Yes, they are not aligned to point to the centre of the dial or follow the curve of the bezel. But these are screws that are functional – they hold the bezel in place and are screwed in from the top. If you need to or want to replace the bezel, you can. Unlike other brands where these are bolts and screwed in from the back, this is more user-friendly in my opinion. I’ll say that these never bothered me one little bit. Even though I can be a little fussy about certain things, you look past these pretty much most of the time. Could Hublot change the design of the screw head so it’s not the “H” design to something that wouldn’t look misaligned? Perhaps, but you would lose the Hublot “H”, and I kind of like this small detail on the watch.

RELATED READING: Watch Advice Visits The Hublot Manufacture

How It Wears

I have worn plenty of Big Bangs in the past, both 44mm and 42mm variants of the Big Bang and Big Bang Unico models. This being the case, I was keen to see how the 45mm Meca-10 would compare to the aforementioned pieces. Now, as I said earlier in the article, the Big Bang Meca-10 is a large watch. At 45mm in diameter, a lug-to-lug of 56.9m, and 15.8mm thick it would be remiss of me to try and say this isn’t big. However, the Meca-10 does wear smaller than the specs on paper would imply. This is mainly due to the lightness of the watch as well as the case design with the angled lugs and curvature of the rubber strap.

On my 17.5cm wrist, the watch sits flat, and having a more oval-shaped wrist helps me. If you have a more rounded wrist, this may not fit as well, as you need to accommodate the lug-to-lug. Thankfully mine does! The other aspect I’ll mention is that the 45mm includes the black composite mid-case elements that protrude from the main case. These do kind of fade into the background when you look at the watch, as your eye is drawn to the blue ceramic and dial, creating the illusion the watch is a couple of millimetres smaller. Something to remember when considering a piece such as this.

The thickness is the other aspect of the Big Bang Meca-10 I’ll go over here. At almost 16mm thick, it is on the thicker side when compared to more classic-styled watches. However, I’ll reiterate that it’s not just about the numbers on paper. One of the things I’ve learnt in my watch journey is that the dimensions, weight, design and style of the watch all impact how it wears and is perceived on the wrist. The below images show the case profile on the side when just holding the watch, which does look on the larger side, but in contrast, the second image shows how it looks when it is worn the way it is meant to be worn on the wrist.

The blue is superb as well. I’m not normally a fan of monochromatic pieces for me to wear, but having this piece on may have changed my mind slightly. Or maybe it’s just the allure of the Meca-10 that makes this a one-off. Either way, I felt that the Meca-10 is a piece you can wear out and about and have fun with. I also wear more blues than most other colours, so for me, this piece works with a lot of outfits that I have and compliments them. The day we shot this, it was cool and windy, so with my light puffer jacket on, I felt the Hublot Big Bang Meca-10 was en-pointe!

In saying this, the Meca-10 is a watch that isn’t designed for every occasion. Would I go to a black-tie dinner with a blue ceramic watch? Probably not. Would I wear it to a cafe to catch up with a friend, or out and about on the weekend? Most definitely. Is it a day-to-day wearing piece for a 9-5 job? Well, that all depends on what you do for work and your style I guess. My point is, like many watches you pick and choose when and where you wear them, and for some people, the Big Bang Meca-10 will be more versatile than it will be for others.

Now there is only one slight niggle I had with this piece personally, and that is with the clasp. The inner part where you thread the strap occasionally dug into my wrist a little, as the inside of it is not flat, and the metal guides in the clasp are not 100% flush with the strap. Saying this, I may be a little overly sensitive to this as I’ve had issues with other watches and clasp mechanisms before, so it is not unique to the Hublot Big Bang Meca-10 at all. Outside of this, the strap is solid as a rock and looks great with the striations along it and the blue with black lining adds to the overall sporty look of the watch.

Like all things I may not love about a watch, it’s something that is subjective and down to the wearing experience I had. I gave this piece to Chamath to wear, and he found it fine, so this shows that what may not work for one, does for another. This is one reason trying on pieces before you buy is important – my words here are merely a guide to help assist in what I found works or didn’t and you can then make your own assessment as to whether or not this will apply to you.

The Movement

If you recall earlier in the article, the movement of the Hublot Big Bang Meca-10 is the star of this piece. Having been dreamt up by the movement designers at Hublot who wanted to design a watch with a movement that resembled Meccano sets, they set out over 2 years to design, develop and make the Meca-10 come to life. In doing so, they created the award-winning and in-house manufactured HUB1201 – a manual winding calibre with a massive 10-day power reserve. Hublot is a brand where imagination is part of the DNA and is a case of if you think we can, we will.

RELATED READING: Watch Education – The Movements Of Hublot

I touched on the dial side of the movement previously, and how the elements of it are all designed for function, and the form is almost a byproduct. Being a 10-day power reserve, without the power indicator you would most probably forget when you last wound the watch. Hublot has given you two of these so you can’t forget, and like a fuel indicator on your car, you know how much is left in the tank, and when the tank is almost empty, another indicator to warn you to fill up soon. In this case, a red light so to speak on the 3 o’clock wheel screams “Please wind me up!”

When you flip the Meca-10 over, you will see quite clearly the Meccano inspiration here, with the three bridges holding the movement together being crafted to look like the struts with holes from the Meccano construction sets. Under these, the two large barrels help to deliver the 10-days of power to the watch, of which, the top barrel drives the rack and pinion mechanism for the power reserve indicator. Hublot has kept the blue theme going here with the blue and matte Meccano-styled bridges and allows more visibility of the HUB1201 calibre.

The movement beats away at 3Hz, or 21,600 VpH which helps reduce the power consumption of the watch and allows the barrels to deliver the 240 hours worth to the balance and escapement. The entire movement pivots on 24 jewels, many of which you can see clearly in the Maccano-themed bridges. Whilst the HUB1201 isn’t COSC, it didn’t gain or lose any considerable time over the time on my wrist. On that note, COSC is in the plan for Hublot’s in-house movements, something that Samuel Morel, Hublot’s Chief Production and Quality Officer, has told us they are working towards.

The HUB1201 is one of Hublot’s in-house calibres designed and manufactured at their Nyon facility, just outside of Geneva, Switzerland, (which we visited back in April this year) and is assembled by Hublot’s specialist watchmakers. A calibre such as this is not easy to assemble and does take years of training to perfect, something we saw first-hand whilst there. While Hublot makes around 30% of all their watch movements in-house, with their new 16,000 square foot manufacturing facility to open in 2026 (making this 3 buildings in total) current Hublot CEO, Ricardo Guadalupe hopes that this will increase over the next few years to over 60%.

Final Thoughts

The Hublot Big Bang Meca-10 is a watch I have fully enjoyed having on my wrist. It’s bold, has major wrist presence and in my opinion, fun! Over the years I’ve mostly had more conventional pieces in my collection, albeit a couple that are less conventional like my Panerai 312 (not conventional in the traditional sense, but classic Panerai) and while I love something classic and timeless, I’m also now wanting something that is the complete opposite. Life is too short to be boring, and when I wear a watch, I want it to make me smile. The Hublot Big Bang Meca-10 does just that for me.

The designers wanted to evoke that joy of being a kid, building things from scratch and with a spark of imagination. This is something we as adults lose over the years, although when you have kids you find it somewhat again. But the Meca-10 kind of does this for you by looking down at it on your wrist. Yes, it’s big, but it wears less so, and it doesn’t fly under the radar at all, nor should it. As I said, it’s not a watch that you have for versatility, but you wear it because you can. Hublot Big Bangs of any variant are watches you add to a collection in my opinion, you don’t buy them as your one watch to wear all the time. However, if your lifestyle and outfits allow you to do that, then you’ve probably broken out of the rat race, so I take my hat off to you, in which case, do as you please!

The Hublot Big Bang Meca-10 retails for A$37,600, and while this is not at the entry level of watch buying, it certainly isn’t at the high end either. Having seen first-hand how Hublot makes their pieces, the level of R&D, and also the sheer cost that is put into things like their coloured ceramics, not to mention several of their specialised machines to make their unique in-house movements, like the Meca-10’s HUB1201, I can say that there is value in this, and justified. Add to this, you will have a unique watch that you won’t see on the wrist in the wild too often, which is something I’m now taking into consideration more and more, and feel that others should as well. With the Hublot Big Bang Meca-10, the thing that I come back to is looking at the watch on my wrist and smiling. No matter what, if that happens, you know it is a watch for you!

Reference: 414.EX.5123.RX

Specification:

• Case: 45mm x 15.8mm thick x 56.9mm lug-to-lug
• Case Material: Microblasted and Polished Blue Ceramic
• Dial: Matte Blue Skeleton with 10-day power reserve indicator, low power indicator and small seconds
• Bezel: Microblasted and Polished Blue Ceramic
• Crystal: Sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating 
• Movement: HUB1201 Manufacture Manual-winding Skeleton Power Reserve Movement. Beating at 21,600 VpH / 3Hz and pivoting on 24 Jewels
• Case-Back: Sapphire crystal and matte blue ceramic
• Water resistance: 100 metres / 10ATM
• Power reserve: 10 Days / 240 hours
• Strap: Black and Blue Structured Lined Rubber Straps with Black Ceramic and Black-plated Titanium Deployant Buckle Clasp

Australian Recommended Retail Price: AUD $37,600

Availability: Available through Hublot Boutiques, authorised dealers and online at Hublot.com