This fabled Africa owes its great magic to the presence of the “Big Five”: elephants, lions, buffalo, leopards, and rhinos. However, these animals and the incredible ecosystem they help to sustain are under constant threat. It is at this crucial moment that replica Hublot launches the follow-up to its 2019 joint project with Ambassador Kevin Peterson and his non-profit organization SORAI, which is dedicated to the protection of the rhinoceros, an incredible creature whose future in the wild remains rather bleak without help. 
With such a goal in mind and an extremely cool brushed and polished dark green ceramic case, the fake watch once again features a fully skeletonized dial accented by a small black rhino statue under a running seconds hand at 9 o’clock. This color scheme works particularly well with the olive nylon camouflage strap and the black titanium mid-case and should be new to many fans of Hublot’s other, more vibrant special ceramic Big Bang watches, such as the “Millenial Pink” version designed for an Italian design house, or the bright yellow ” Magic Ceramic” version.
As we’ve seen before in other Big Bang collaborations, the SORAI version comes with a pair of prismatic straps that can be easily changed by pressing the black rectangular buttons at 12 and 6 o’clock. Both options are very cool – there’s a rugged canvas-style strap that fastens with Velcro, and a SORAI signature: a rubber-backed camouflage number that’s both wild and cool, and makes a surprisingly excellent textural contrast with the sleek ceramic case. Both are secured to the wrist by a branded ceramic clasp.
But for all the Rhinos, it doesn’t have to be that way. Hublot ambassador and former cricket batsman turned conservationist Kevin Pietersen believes he wants to help turn the plight of the rhino around with SORAI. Pietersen’s own African epiphany came on a miniature tagging safari in 2012, where he fell in love with these gentle giants while realizing that black rhinos were really close to the edge.
The collaboration comes at a time when much of the world is still grappling with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, a global crisis whose roots can be traced back to the illegal wildlife trade, which is particularly poignant. Of course, no single replica watch or altruistic program can reverse the damage done by generations of poaching and illegal hunting, but Peterson believes that the more conversations there are, and the more people who travel to Africa to explore its wonders and see firsthand, as he once did, what must be done to protect these animals, the better our chances of avoiding another rhino extinction event.
