Hublot Casts Soldier’s Toy Soldier in Black Ceramic

The Lagos-born, London-based artist Soldier has designed his first watch with Hublot: a 42mm black-on-black chronograph, limited to 50 pieces and two years in the making.

The toy soldier is a cheap object. It is moulded in plastic by the million and handed to children. Hublot has now cast one in black ceramic, and the Big Bang Soldier All Black is limited to 50 pieces.

The watch was unveiled in London on 9 November. It is the first timepiece designed by Leonard Iheagwam, the Lagos-born, London-based artist who works as Soldier, and it took two years to make. The case is 42mm, built in black ceramic and black-plated titanium, and it houses a chronograph.

A name taken from a ban

Soldier’s biography explains the motif. He is entirely self-taught. He left home in Lagos at sixteen to pursue art and skateboarding, then co-founded the Lagos collective Motherlan. His work has since been shown in global institutions, among them London’s Saatchi Gallery.

The name comes from a rule. In Nigeria, civilians are legally restricted from wearing military camouflage. He wore the pattern anyway and made it his own.

The toy soldier carries the same tension. Hublot describes it as a form that shrinks the enormity of conflict into something small, familiar and almost playful. Put that figure on a working object worn on the wrist, and the symbol starts to behave differently. “With this watch, I explore what happens when symbols of power are moved somewhere they don’t traditionally belong,” Soldier said.

Black on black, separated by texture

This is where the craft comes in. The Big Bang Soldier All Black follows Hublot’s All Black idea, introduced in 2006. Every element sits in one colour, and only texture tells the parts apart. The case and bezel pair microblasted and polished black ceramic, so matte and gloss share an identical shade. The sapphire dial lets you see the architecture of the Unico movement, with black-plated satined and microblasted hands passing over it.

Inside is the HUB1280 Unico, Hublot’s in-house self-winding chronograph calibre. It has 354 components and a 72-hour power reserve, and it was developed and assembled at the Manufacture in Nyon. Hublot’s pitch is that the figurine, once plastic, now gets the one thing the original never had: permanence, engineered to the tolerances of fine watchmaking.

The case-back carries the co-ordinates of the Hublot London boutique, where the collaboration began.

Colour appears only on the straps. The watch arrives on a black fabric strap with two extra rubber straps, one lined in red and one in green. They come from a book Soldier produced in 2024, which gathers paintings, sculptures and conversations from 2018 to the present. In it, red stood for the present and green for the past. On the wrist you choose between where he is and where he came from, while the case reveals nothing.

Julien Tornare, CEO of Hublot, was clear about how the brand sees the project. “What Soldier has done with the Big Bang is not decoration; it is a reinterpretation of our All Black philosophy through his own language,” he said. He called it “the Art of Fusion at its most contemporary.”

Artists on the dial, collectors at the door

Hublot says it has collaborated with artists since 2011, specifically those who reshape culture rather than illustrate it. Its recent run shows the range. The 2026 news page lists a Jeff Koons pairing, a Samuel Ross design partnership and a fourth Yohji Yamamoto All Black collaboration, among others. Soldier joins that list as a first-time watch designer, and the numbered edition of 50 keeps the supply small.

Collaborations like this suit Hublot’s own story. The brand was founded in 1980 on one challenge to convention, a gold case on a rubber strap. Soldier talks about fusion in much the same terms, as a way to understand what already exists and then bring another story into it. A piece limited to 50 suggests the brand expects collectors to read the dial as an artist’s statement, not only as a spec sheet.

The watch comes with Hublot’s 5+5 warranty programme, which extends coverage to up to ten years. It is available at selected Hublot boutiques and points of sale, and online at hublot.com.

The star-studded side of the story

The brand’s celebrity guest list belongs to a different night. In December 2025, Hublot closed the Big Bang’s 20th anniversary year at its annual Miami Art Week party, held in The Basement at The Miami Beach EDITION. The special guests were 50 Cent, Tyriq Withers and Leon Bridges. 50 Cent performed wearing a bespoke one-of-one Hublot made for the occasion. Its colours honour his character in the forthcoming Street Fighter film, and a gold chess piece sits on the dial as a nod to his Le Chemin du Roi champagne brand. His name is engraved on the caseback.

That watch is a one-off and will stay one. The Soldier is the one you can order, in an edition of 50.

Via Hublot