Hublot introduced its sandwich case construction in 2005 - bezel, middle case, and caseback engineered as distinct components in materials chosen for their specific properties. The Big Bang e Gen 3 applies that same architecture, unchanged, to a Wear OS smartwatch: Grade 5 aerospace titanium or black ceramic, priced between $5,200 and $5,800, with 11 exclusive horological watch faces drawn from Hublot's mechanical catalog. Hublot's buyers are predominantly iPhone users - Merge makes that connection complete: notifications, Apple Health sync, contacts, music playback, and camera control from a watch built in the haute horlogerie tradition.
What works with iPhone via Merge
Merge delivers every iPhone notification to the Big Bang e Gen 3 in real time - across messaging apps, email, calendar, and any third-party app on your phone. You control exactly which apps forward alerts to the watch, so the notification feed stays curated to what matters at a given moment. Health data routes to Apple Health automatically in the background: heart rate, steps, distance, floors climbed, calories, workouts with GPS routes, and pace all sync through Merge's health bridge.
iPhone contacts sync to the watch - at a $5,500 price point, having your full contact list accessible from the wrist during events is a natural expectation. Music playback and volume are controllable from the watch, and camera control lets you trigger the iPhone remotely when the camera app is open - useful at events where you want to step back into frame. The 11 Hublot-exclusive watch faces - including skeletonized dial layouts and chronograph designs pulled directly from the house's mechanical collection - are entirely on-watch and independent of phone platform. For most Big Bang e owners, the watch is a statement object first and a notification surface second; Merge ensures the notification surface performs completely with iPhone.
Android activation note
The first-time setup flow for the Big Bang e Gen 3 is not available from an iPhone. An Android device is required to complete the initial Wear OS activation. In practice, this is a single 15-minute session: turn on the watch, connect it to an Android phone via Bluetooth, sign into a Google account, and allow the watch to finish its initial configuration. Once that's done - and given the watch's price point, it's worth knowing about this upfront - the Android phone plays no further role. Everything from that point runs through Merge and your iPhone.
Pairing Hublot Big Bang e Gen 3 with your iPhone
Keep your iPhone and watch within a few feet of each other throughout this process.
- Complete initial Wear OS activation using an Android phone.
- On your iPhone, search for Merge Watch in the App Store and install it.
- On the Big Bang e, open Play Store, search for Merge Watch, and install it.
- Open Merge on your iPhone - approve the Bluetooth permission when prompted, then keep it foregrounded.
- On the Big Bang e, open Merge and approve the Bluetooth permission when prompted.
- Tap Start Pairing - the watch stays discoverable for five minutes.
- On your iPhone, open Settings → Bluetooth and wait for the watch to appear in the list, then tap it to pair.
- Once paired, your iPhone will appear in Merge on the watch - tap it to complete the connection.
- Set up your Merge subscription via the iPhone app if prompted.
- Grant notification and health permissions on both devices when asked.
The Big Bang e as a daily iPhone watch
Once Merge is running, the daily experience is complete. Notifications arrive on the 454x454 AMOLED under the sapphire crystal - sharp, readable, and bright enough for outdoor use. The watch is a large presence on the wrist by design; the 44mm Big Bang geometry was built to be noticed in 2005 and that intent carries forward unchanged. Battery runs around 24 hours, which means nightly charging - for a watch worn in environments where it comes off in the evening, that rhythm is natural rather than limiting. Music playback at events, contacts on the wrist, and camera remote for capturing moments round out the day. The black ceramic option is worth noting for long-term wear: the color is through the material, not a surface treatment, so the watch looks identical on day one and year five. For the buyer who chooses it, permanence is part of the point.
