Hublot has revealed the world’s first orange-hued sapphire crystal which it has wrapped around its new Hublot Big Bang Automatic Tourbillon Orange Sapphire.

But the watch has more going for it than its eye-catching 45mm transparent case, created by adding titanium and chromium to the mix, it also marks the debut of an entirely new movement from the LVMH watch brand, an automatic 60-second tourbillon which uses three sapphire crystal bridges to create a largely transparent movement and a 22kt gold micro rotor winding mechanism.

Micro-rotors are traditionally employed to help watchmakers produce ultra-thin movements as the rotor can be embedded within the movement itself rather than bolted to the back of it, which always adds considerable depth to any movement. However Hublot’s famed Big Bang, which has been one of the most successful oversized watches of all time, is not exactly what anyone would consider ultra thin, here the dial-mounted micro-rotor simply adds a bit of flare. The new movement manages a power reserve of 72 hours.

Just 50 pieces of the orange sapphire crystal reference will be produced, priced at $169,000 USD, while a further 100 pieces will be made in both Texalium, a mixture of carbon fiber and aluminium, and black sapphire crystal. For more details visit the manufacturers site here.

Sapphire Crystal is the artificially created material more commonly used to produce the watch glass above the dial of most premium watches. It’s hardness, second only to diamond, results in a material which is virtually scratch-proof but has always proved difficult to machine, which can result in huge amounts of manufacturing wastage, which goes some way to explain to prices asked for watches which use it as a case material.

Elsewhere in watches, the most in-demand watch in existence has been discontinued.