Eight years after their first handshake, Hublot and Kylian Mbappé have cemented their partnership in metal. Not with yet another campaign, but with a limited edition of 200 pieces—a number that speaks volumes about the true intent of the message.
The Big Bang Reloaded Kylian Mbappé features a 44-mm polished white ceramic case, with a bezel and hour markers in 18-karat King Gold. The player’s personal motto— “Trust Yourself”—is engraved at the 6 o’clock position on the bezel. The number 10, crafted in King Gold, adorns the dial. The Unico movement, the brand’s in-house caliber, showcases four of its five patented innovations through the watch’s architecture.
What deserves attention is not so much the watch itself as the structure of the collaboration. Hublot does not engage in sponsorship in the traditional sense—a logo on a sleeve, passive visibility. Since the 2000s, the brand has been building a portfolio of partnerships in which the partner’s name itself becomes a selling point for the collection: Pelé, Lauda, Mourinho, Mbappé. Each limited edition creates a dual market: first, the watch market, and second, the more volatile market for resale value driven by the fame of the associated figure.
Unico Movement — Technical Note
The Unico caliber is an in-house movement developed by Hublot. A chronograph featuring a column wheel and lateral clutch, it allows for winding and time setting via the crown at the 3 o’clock position, without the need for additional crowns. The Big Bang Reloaded showcases the movement’s construction through the dial, revealing four of the five patents filed for this caliber.
Julien Tornare, CEO of the company, put it this way: “Our partnership isn’t just a sponsorship; it’s a true collaboration based on shared values.” This nuance is worth noting. The shift from a spokesperson contract to co-signing products represents a shift in the value chain: the soccer player ceases to be an advertising vehicle and becomes a co-creator, at least in name. Mbappé himself described the number 10 not as a jersey number but as “what I aspire to embody: excellence and responsibility.”
The question this piece raises—without answering it—is that of the status of the signed object. Will a Hublot watch, produced in a limited edition of 200 and bearing the motto of a 26-year-old soccer player, be, ten years from now, a historical artifact or a collector’s curiosity? The answer depends less on the quality of the Unico movement than on the trajectory of the face that accompanies it. That may be the only real risk involved in the venture.
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