How much would you be willing to spend on a smartwatch? For me, even if it’s kitted out with a super-accurate GPS, capable of tracking features across a variety of sports and workouts, can interact with my phone, read and send messages, order an Uber and even offer the opportunity to listen to music, I would be hard-pressed to spend anywhere near R10 000 for one. Even if it was drop-proof and had plenty of battery life.
Well, what about more than R85 000? Yes, timepiece manufacturer Hublot believes that people might be lured into purchasing a smartwatch that costs the same price as a cheaper second-hand car. Not sure if they are aware that the world is going through some tough economic times at the moment, but somehow they believe that pricing a smartwatch north of $5000, which is more than 10x the average price for one, is a good idea.
Called the Hublot Big Bang E, the watch comes in two variations: a titanium version, which retails for $5,200, and black ceramic one priced at $5,800. Both include a 42mm OLED high-definition touchscreen covered with sapphire crystal along with a Snapdragon Wear 3100 processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage, and a 300mAh battery. Both devices are powered by Google’s Wear OS.
The device certainly looks pretty and you will definitely pay for some quality craftsmanship, but from a feature perspective, will it offer anything extra for the price? Well apparently the Big Bang E has its own watchfaces with some additional abilities, such as one that keeps track of the lunar calendar and another that changes colour throughout the day as part of the #HuboltLovesArt initiative. So, in other words…not much.
It’s a lot of money for something that doesn’t really offer much more than what’s out there and I guess owning a Hublot timepiece really is a status symbol than a sign of a good feature-set (or common sense). The company doesn’t reveal too many details around its GPS or activity capabilities or its battery life, so you really are getting a device that is decidedly average and possibly even offering less than normal devices. It’s perhaps a touch of madness from them, but I guess its just another thing to note that I will just never ever be able to afford. And I guess that’s watch status is all about.
Last Updated: June 3, 2020
Original Heretic
June 3, 2020 at 13:33
The term “status symbol” is probably one of the worst things ever introduced to humanity.
Iskape
June 3, 2020 at 13:59
For perspective of the brand, here is the price of two analog timepieces from the company:
Hublot Big Bang UNICO 42mm Midsize Watch – R 527,900.00
Hublot Big Bang 44mm 301.PX.1180.RX.1704 – R 843,999.00
Yeah! It boggles the mind how much people are willing to pay for some timepieces.
Guz
June 3, 2020 at 17:03
I prefer telling the time by building an on the spot sun dial using a paper plate and straw and if its cloudy, raining or night time you just stay inside your house because outside isn’t safe
MechMachine
June 3, 2020 at 14:37
Good god, that second one is almost as much as my house.