Watch Paparazzi

Football manager Gareth Southgate spotted wearing Hublot

On the night England reached the UEFA Euro 2020 final, Gareth Southgate's wrist told its own story. The England manager was spotted applauding his players while wearing the Hublot Big Bang E UEFA Euro 2020 limited edition smartwatch — a piece commissioned specifically by Hublot in its capacity as the official timekeeper of the tournament. With only 1,000 examples produced globally, Southgate's choice was as deliberate as his substitution strategy.

The Hublot Big Bang E UEFA Euro 2020 (reference 440.CI.1100.RX.EUR20) is built around a 42mm black ceramic case paired with a black vulcanised rubber strap. The case houses a circular AMOLED touchscreen display running Google's Wear OS platform, integrating the Snapdragon Wear 3100 processor. The watch connects via Bluetooth 4.2 and NFC, supports Google Pay, and delivers roughly 24 hours of battery life. Hublot's partnership with Google — rare for a maison of this standing — gave the Big Bang E its technological backbone while the Swiss brand controlled all aesthetic decisions.

The dial itself is the centrepiece of the collector argument: all 24 UEFA Euro 2020 participating nations' flags ring the perimeter of the screen in miniature, with the tournament logo anchoring the lower dial and Hublot branding sitting cleanly at 12 o'clock. It is a wearable artefact of a specific sporting moment in time — the kind of limited-edition positioning that resonates strongly with both watch collectors and football memorabilia enthusiasts.

Southgate's relationship with Hublot is no accident. The brand has long cultivated associations with football's elite, sponsoring the UEFA Champions League, the FIFA World Cup, and numerous national federations. For Southgate, wearing the piece on the touchline during England's semi-final was both a brand obligation and a genuine statement of alignment with the tournament he was days away from potentially winning.

At a retail price of approximately $6,620 (£4,800), the Big Bang E Euro 2020 sits at an accessible entry point by Hublot standards but commands a premium on the secondary market given its sold-out status and historical significance. Grey-market values have settled in the $7,500–$9,000 range depending on condition and completeness of box and papers — a modest but real appreciation for a smartwatch, which is unusual in collector circles.