This year in Miami, the latest edition of the Hublot Big Bang Tourbillon SR_A by Samuel Ross debuted. The new watch design is part of an ongoing collaboration between the artist and designer and the watchmaker. Redefined materials and new color variations in blue characterize this latest Big Bang model, featuring a signature honeycomb lattice from Ross, a two-tone bezel finish, and a flexible rubber strap in dark blue. “By reflecting on how to use the latest technology and materials as tools to offer a contemporary vision of watchmaking that focuses on people, surprising them with original details or bringing a smile to their face with a touch of playful color, we are trying to create a design that speaks a universal language that is both elegant and simple to understand. I look forward to continuing to work alongside Hublot Manufacture and its teams,” said Ross in a statement.

Whitewall spoke with Ross, the Hublot ambassador, about the process of designing at this scale, experimenting with materials, and the preciousness of time. 

WHITEWALL: You have been connected to Hublot since 2019, being awarded the Hublot Design Prize, and then as an ambassador in 2020. What made you initially connect with the watchmaker?

SAMUEL ROSS: What really excited me about connecting with Hublot was this focus on industrial beauty, which comes through the way in which they propose new materials that you wouldn’t typically see within the traditional world of luxury watchmaking. So this connection to the industrial, to material development, to texture, to aesthetics, they seem to have such a freedom in that space, and I felt as though I had something to contribute to that space.

WW: As an artist and designer, what relationship did you have with watches prior to working with Hublot?

SR: All of the watches that I would typically go for when I started my small collection always had this fusion of different materials. Whether it was a rubberized strap which had a titanium structure that it was cladded around contrasting against titanium as the face and the body or rose gold. This idea of mixing beauty with function has always been a crux of my interests within watches and my interest of how these materials come together. So when it came to actually going into developing a watch, I already knew what I wanted to offer or deliver.

Samuel Ross’s Old-School Approach to Streamlined Design

WW: What was it like to design your first watch with Hublot in 2022? Where did you begin?

SR: I’m super old-school. I began by pen and pencil, chalk, and clay. I started by thinking about the right way to contort shape and to create something which felt new and streamlined for the Hublot portfolio and something that felt light. The only way to do that was to etch from hand and work with the Hublot engineers. 

“I’m super old-school. I began by pen and pencil, chalk, and clay,”

Samuel Ross

WW: A focus on quality materials and innovation is something you’ve said you share with Hublot. What materials were you drawn to for that first Big Bang Tourbillon? 

SR: For each of the editions we’ve developed, it’s not just been a change in color. It’s not just been a different luminescent paint that we’re using. There’s always been a change to the actual structure and hardware and the tooling. For option two we reduced the amount of rubber which encased the watch and we went for far more titanium which was brushed and we offered two to three more straps. For option three, it’s the first time we’ve actually brought in a beautiful finish on carbon fiber and we spent some time making sure that the tonality and depth is there but you don’t lose the lightness of the watch. You have new carbon fiber coming into play, and you have a completely new clasp design. 

WW: How did you arrive at the hexagonal honeycomb pattern?

SR: I’ve always had this focus on assessing a design and seeing what works and then trying to create more space to celebrate what works. With the honeycomb, it was about taking information away from the watch to increase the lightness of the watch, keeping that titanium plate underneath, but having the perforation into place, which added a really beautiful aesthetic but also had some kind of relationship to industrial perforation that you would typically see within manufacturing. 

Pushing the Boundaries of Color, Material, and Craft

WW: Can you tell us about the role color plays in your work? 

SR: Color is magnetic. And it’s emotive, and it continues to excite me how you can use it in such gestural ways almost. We’re using these different hues and octaves and temperatures of blues. There is always this sense of play, but there is this underpinning system of pendulum swings between the micro and macro that I try to bring into my use of color. 

“Color is magnetic. And it’s emotive, and it continues to excite me,”

Samuel Ross

WW: How did you want to further push the possibilities of material, or defining Hublot from a different angle?

SR: I think that I’m interested in incremental change. I’m interested in developing a system and I’m aware that this is industrial design and these are hard luxury goods. Its not just about expression; it’s about making sure there is some type of mechanism underpinning that so that collectors can see that we’re heading in a particular direction with how we treat all of the watches and the materials.

WW: When you think of the future, what do you see?

SR: When I think of the future, I see play coming into public space a lot more. I see a focus on play and optimism and craft for the future. 

WW: What is your relationship to time, as an artist and designer?

SR: There’s never enough time. My relationship to time is difficult [laughs]. It’s the most precious commodity, as we all know, and there is never enough of it, and there is no higher goal than trying to create time.