Luke Benedictus
At this precise moment in time with apologies to Messrs Lewandowski, Messi, Mbappe et al ?Mo Salah is arguably the best football player in the world. The Liverpool forward is a truly astonishing player, who routinely bamboozles defences with his jinking brilliance, acceleration and technical skill. Despite being slightly built at just 5'9, Salah is also deceptively strong, shrugging off the hacks and lunges of hapless defenders with nonchalant disdain. Yet perhaps his greatest talent is his absurd productivity which at the time of writing has yielded 113 goals in 178 appearances for the Reds. ?Happily for watch lovers, Salah's footballing mastery is matched by his flamboyant wrist game, too.On Instagram, Salah recently posted a snap of him poking fun at his slumbering Egypt team-mate Mahmoud Trezeguet while the pair were on a flight heading for the African Cup of Nations. On Salah's wrist was a Hublot Big Bang Unico Sapphire that retails for $96,000 AUD.As the name would suggest, the 42mm watch is cased entirely in sapphire, a material commonly used on watch crystals because its extreme hardness makes it highly scratch-resistant. But this toughness also makes sapphire a difficult medium for watchmakers, which is why using it to craft an entire case is a serious horological flex of a brand’s technical abilities.On the Hublot Big Bang Unico Sapphire each individual case element ?– from the case middle to the bezel – ?is roughly cut from a single piece of sapphire, and then arduously polished to achieve the final shape. Suffice to say, this is a painstaking process, and Hublot's 500-piece limited edition represents the largest-ever production run of a sapphire case.It’s certainly refreshing to see a footballer branching out from the likes of Rolex and Patek, but Salah has plenty of form in this regard, often wearing weird and wonderful watches from the not-so-usual suspects.Among others, the Egyptian has previously been spotted wearing a Ulysse Nardin Freak, a?Roger Dubuis Excalibur Spider Pirelli-Skeleton and even a?Urwerk CT Stream-Liner UR-105. It’s an admirably eclectic mix that suggests the Liverpool flyer is a watch lover whose creative vision isn’t confined to the pitch.
04.01.22