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Footballer Erling Haaland spotted wearing Hublot

After a seismic Champions League performance against Paris Saint-Germain — the match that truly announced Erling Haaland to European football — the then-Borussia Dortmund striker was photographed in the tunnel at Signal Iduna Park clutching the UEFA Man of the Match award. On his wrist, clearly visible beneath his yellow Puma tracksuit, sat a Hublot Spirit of Big Bang in 18K King Gold on a brown alligator leather strap. It was a choice that spoke volumes: bold, architecturally unusual, and expensive without being obvious.

The Spirit of Big Bang is Hublot's barrel-shaped (tonneau) interpretation of the iconic Big Bang silhouette, introduced to offer a sportier, more avant-garde case geometry. The 42mm King Gold version — reference 641.OX.0180.LR — houses the HUB4700 in-house skeleton chronograph movement, a COSC-grade calibre offering 50 hours of power reserve and operating at 28,800 vph. The fully skeletonised dial exposes the movement's decorated bridges and rhodium-treated plates through an open-worked chapter ring, with red accents on the chronograph seconds hand and sub-counters providing contrast against the rose gold case. Dual sapphire crystals, front and back, complete the exhibition package.

Among collectors, the Spirit of Big Bang in King Gold occupies a respected tier within Hublot's catalogue. It avoids the ubiquity of the standard Big Bang ceramic references while retaining the fusion-material DNA — here expressed through a combination of polished and satin-brushed 18K rose gold, black composite-coated titanium screws, and a hand-stitched Louisiana alligator strap. The lug-free integrated case design is a genuine horological statement, not merely aesthetic cosplay.

Haaland's choice of this particular reference during his breakthrough 2019-20 Champions League campaign is notable. He was barely 19, already earning serious money after his January transfer to Dortmund from RB Salzburg, and reaching immediately for a watch that horology-literate fans would recognise as genuinely serious. It wasn't a gifted brand ambassador piece — Hublot had no public relationship with Haaland at that stage — making it a personal purchase.

At retail the Spirit of Big Bang King Gold 42mm Skeleton Chronograph carries a list price of $43,100 USD. On the secondary market, King Gold references in good condition have traded between $28,000 and $36,000 depending on provenance and box/papers status, reflecting modest depreciation typical of modern Hublot complications in precious metal.