For the first time ever, a watchmaker has decorated a watch with the turquoise brilliance of a cuprian elbaite, a stone whose rarity can only be fully appreciated when learning that, on average, a single Paraíba Tourmaline is mined for every 10,000 diamonds.
With its unique colour, this stone has fascinated jewellers since it was first discovered in 1989 in the Brazilian state of Paraíba. Its rarity makes it more expensive than traditional precious stones such as diamonds, emeralds and rubies. The secret of this magnetic stone's colour lies in its fusion of gold, manganese and copper; an incandescent glow seems to illuminate the stone from within.
Ethical stones
Certified by the world’s largest gemmological laboratories, the Paraíba Tourmalines set into Hublot's Big Bang are mined from the Rio Grande region of Brazil. Thanks to its long-term partnership with Pierre Salanitro, Hublot benefits from an exclusive agreement with a mine that operates in an environmentally sustainable way, and complies fully with local and international governing ethics. The mine strives to preserve the earth that yields this unique material, and is committed to reforestation of the region, only using clean water for its extraction operations to prevent soil pollution.
The additional challenge of baguette-cutting
While the Paraíba Tourmaline is an extremely rare stone, certain cuts are more exclusive than others. One such example is the baguette cut, which requires stones of a perfectly uniform colour. This is why five times more raw material was required for the initial stone selection, and also why, when each stone was baguette-cut, only 70% of these could be set – 30% were rejected due to breakage or insufficiently uniform quality or colour. This stone, more fragile than emerald, requires considerable expertise and dexterity both to cut and to set, and the process can take up to three times longer than that for a diamond.
An ultra-confidential collection
A blue that radiates green, a turquoise reminiscent of a blue lagoon whose depth is enhanced by sunshine, the colour of a Paraíba Tourmaline changes thanks to its extreme sensitivity to light. The Hublot Big Bang Paraíba is available in 4 models.
Big Bang Unico Paraíba – 45 mm
In white gold or King Gold (a Hublot alloy of 18K gold with copper and platinum), the Big Bang Unico Paraíba invites you to dive into the lucid waters of its 48 baguette-cut and 388 brilliant-cut stones. Its transparency extends to the skeletonised Unico HUB1242 manufacture movement, whose gear trains and column wheel on the dial side are all visible.
Big Bang One Click Paraíba – 39 mm
Featuring a bezel set with 48 baguette-cut Paraíba Tourmalines, a 39-mm case adorned with 129 brilliant-cut Paraíba Tourmalines, a sunray dial picked out with 11 brilliant-cut Paraíba T ourmalines, SuperLuminova-filled hands and a patented One Click interchangeable strap in alligator sewn onto rubber, the Big Bang Paraíba radiates the turquoise hues of this rarest of stones. Available in white gold or King Gold (a Hublot alloy of 18K gold with copper and platinum), it beats to the rhythm of a HUB1710 self-winding mechanical movement with the date at 3 o'clock and a power reserve of 50 hours.
