The 2017 Red Dot Award winners have been announced, and while past winners in the timekeeping category tend towards paired-down minimalism, this year only one watch won the “Best of the Best” award, and it’s a fairly big departure: the Hublot Big Bang Meca-10 Magic Gold.
Though the Meca-10 Magic Gold boasts a unique movement (inspired, believe it or not, by Meccano builder sets), the Hublot seemingly won the award because of its incredible use of metallurgy. Hublot’s “Magic Gold” is a proprietary blend of gold and ceramic. While traditionally solid-gold watch cases are prone to scratches, Hublot claims the Magic Gold case has a hardness of 1,000 Vickers and can only be scratched by diamond. Even with the addition of ceramic, the case meets the Central Office for Precious Metal’s standards for 18-karat gold.
The recognition is certainly deserved. One of the watch industry’s latest trends is the playing with different materials both inside the watch and out, and Hublot has long been an innovator in unique (and occasionally WTF) materials. It would be difficult to contend that its design is attractive in the same way previous winners and honorees (like last year’s NOMOS Minimatik) were, but its ingenuity is hard to dispute.
