Watch Paparazzi

Football manager Jose Mourinho spotted wearing Hublot

Jose Mourinho was attending a Manchester United charity gala dinner when, in a moment of spontaneous generosity, he unclasped the Hublot Big Bang Unico Bi-Retrograde Chrono from his wrist and offered it to the room. The impromptu auction generated £30,000 for the charity — a sum that neatly eclipses the watch's own UK list price of £21,400 and gives this particular reference a provenance that no authorised dealer can replicate.

The reference 412.CQ.1127.RX is built around Hublot's in-house calibre HUB1137, a manually wound movement with a 72-hour power reserve and a column-wheel chronograph architecture. The defining complication is the bi-retrograde display: rather than conventional running chronograph hands, two retrograde hands sweep their respective scales — minutes at 9 o'clock, hours at 3 o'clock — and snap back to zero independently once their arc is complete. It is a technically demanding layout that requires careful cam and lever engineering, and Hublot executes it with reasonable legibility on a 45mm case. The case itself is fashioned from black ceramic, paired with a structured black rubber strap — signature Hublot material choices that prioritise scratch resistance and a matte aesthetic.

From a collector standpoint, the Big Bang Unico Bi-Retrograde occupies a specific niche. It is not Hublot's most celebrated reference — the Classic Fusion and the original Big Bang chronograph command broader secondary-market enthusiasm — but the bi-retrograde mechanism distinguishes it from the crowded field of standard column-wheel chronographs. Collectors who focus on genuine in-house complications at sub-£25,000 price points find it a credible proposition.

Mourinho has been a Hublot ambassador since his time at Real Madrid, and the brand's association with football at the highest level — UEFA, the FIFA World Cup, and numerous club partnerships — makes his wearing of this piece entirely consistent with the relationship. His decision to auction the watch rather than keep it speaks to the kind of off-the-cuff gesture that generates headlines beyond the sporting press.

At retail the 412.CQ.1127.RX carries a UK list price of £21,400, translating to approximately $27,000 USD. On the grey market, demand for this specific bi-retrograde variant remains moderate, with prices tracking close to or slightly below retail — making Mourinho's £30,000 hammer price a remarkable premium driven entirely by celebrity and circumstance.