Horological Meandering

AndCavanaugh
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From Hublot to AkriviA, a profile of BNB concept’s tourbillon chronograph.

This BNB concept movement is strongly associated with Hublot, but has been used by others. The chronograph itself is a fairly basic one button affair that sits on the dial side. This design sidesteps the challenge of getting the chronograph seconds into the hand stack by relegating it to a subdial. Hublot uses non-annual balances on early ones, as did Bell & Ross. 

Many brands using these movements left a hole in the dial so you can see the clutch mesh directly with the tourbillon cage. This is balanced out with an up/down on the other side. This movement, sans chronograph, was used for the Akrivia AK-02 and some Jacob and Co. watches. Note the clip used to secure the flying tourbillon, which is something you’ll see on multiple Hublot tourbillons. 

Back in 2007 Franc Villa claimed it was “The first movement in history which incorporates a chronograph with all its mechanism located in the dial side” which obviously isn’t true. I don’t know why they would lie about that either, very strange. The Bell & Ross version is still in production but now by Timeless SA (also makes Moser repeaters). MHC also made the movements for AkriviA. 

When Hublot leaned into skeletonization they kept the chronograph but redesigned the base. The Barrel was moved to 12 and the train shuffled around to make the skeletonized version more airy, For the AK-03, AkriviA grounded the flying tourbillon and switched to this new platform. When comparing this to an Hublot equivalent you’ll notice the AkriviA version has been customized with two third wheels for symmetry—this was done away with for the AK-05. 

The Aquanautic Super King Diving Tourbillon is the only automatic version, but I’m skeptical any were actually built since the only pictures out there are renders.

A unifying theme here is the avant garde aesthetic of the watches using this movement. Which is the best? I'd say the big bangs with the red pusher, the caseback look great too