Hublot Returns to Antikythera: New Documentary Tracks the Hunt for the World’s Oldest Astronomical Computer

By the Baer & Bosch editorial team | Collecting Times | June 2026

In 1901, Greek sponge divers pulled a corroded lump of bronze from a Roman-era shipwreck off the island of Antikythera. It took decades for scholars to understand what they were looking at: a geared mechanism, built sometime in the second or first century BCE, that could model the movements of the sun, moon, and planets and predict eclipses years in advance. Nothing of comparable mechanical sophistication appears in the historical record for more than a thousand years afterward. Watchmakers have been obsessed with it ever since, and none more publicly than Hublot. On June 8, 2026, the Nyon manufacturer announced a new documentary filmed with Swiss content creator Anil Brancaleoni, better known to his audience as Anil B. The film follows Hublot’s in-house Xplorations team through an 18-day archaeological mission on Antikythera itself, diving at the same wreck site that yielded the mechanism 125 years ago. It is streaming now on both the Hublot and Anil B YouTube channels, having premiered on May 13 at 6 pm CET. For collectors, the timing is worth noting. Hublot’s two Antikythera tribute watches, the 2012 concept piece and the 2013 Antikythera SunMoon, remain among the rarest complications the brand has ever produced. The press materials accompanying the documentary include full technical sheets and current pricing for the SunMoon in both titanium and King Gold, with each limited to 20 pieces. More on those below.

The Hublot Xplorations team on location at the Antikythera shipwreck site, 2026. Image courtesy of Hublot SA.

The Antikythera Mechanism: Where Mechanical Timekeeping Begins

The Antikythera mechanism is the reason this island of roughly twenty year-round residents matters to horology at all. Recovered from a shipwreck dated to around 60 BCE, the device used a train of hand-cut bronze gears to track the Metonic cycle of 19 years, the Saros eclipse cycle of 18 years, the position of the sun and moon in the zodiac, and even the four-year calendar of the Panhellenic Games. It was, in simple terms, an analog computer for the heavens, built two millennia before anyone coined the phrase.

Every perpetual calendar, every moonphase, every astronomical complication on a modern wristwatch descends conceptually from this object. That lineage is why Hublot has kept returning to the island and why the brand frames its archaeological work there as a search for what it calls the origin of time.

Inside the Documentary

Eighteen Days on a Remote Aegean Island

The film embeds Brancaleoni with an international team of archaeologists, professional divers, and technical specialists working the wreck site. Excavation campaigns at Antikythera resumed in the early 2010s after decades of dormancy, and the conditions remain punishing: deep water, unpredictable weather, and a site that has already been worked over by everyone from the original sponge divers to Jacques Cousteau, who dove it in 1976.

Beyond the dive footage, the documentary spends real time on island life itself. Antikythera has no airport, a single small port, and a permanent population you could fit in two rows of a theater. The film captures what it means to run a precision scientific operation from such a remote place.

Divers from the Hublot Xplorations team working the Antikythera wreck site in the Aegean Sea. Image courtesy of Hublot SA.

Underwater Drones Built by a Watch Manufacture

Hublot’s role on the island is not ceremonial. Instead of relying entirely on human visibility in punishing waters, the manufacturer deployed custom submersible reconnaissance drones to map out hidden historical fragments. Since 2014, the brand’s Xplorations department has spent more than two weeks each year on site, serving as the technical arm of the dive teams. The department’s engineers, who normally develop case materials and movement components, designed purpose-built underwater drones for the mission. These machines scan the seabed and flag buried artifacts with far greater accuracy than divers working blind, which matters at a site where every remaining fragment could rewrite what we know about ancient science.

Mathias Buttet, Hublot’s Director of Research and Development, frames the company’s motivation in characteristically direct terms. Time is precious, he says, and it “deserves to be honored with a bold and creative approach.”

Hublot’s custom submersible reconnaissance drone scanning the Aegean seabed for buried artifacts at the Antikythera wreck site. Image courtesy of Hublot SA.

Hublot Xplorations: From the Aegean Seabed to Mars

Xplorations is Hublot’s standing research and exploration program, run in partnership with academic institutions and scientific specialists. The Antikythera excavations are its flagship project, but not its only one. The department has also contributed to the European Space Agency’s ExoMars program, which gives Hublot the unusual distinction of having engineering fingerprints both on the floor of the Aegean and in Mars mission hardware.

For a brand often discussed in terms of marketing flair, this endeavor is substantive work. Materials research, drone engineering, and long-term archaeological partnership are not press-release garnishes. They are the kind of institutional commitments that tend to outlast product cycles.

The Watches: Hublot’s Antikythera Tributes

Hublot Antikythera Concept (2012)

Hublot unveiled its first tribute in 2012: a concept watch that miniaturized the ancient mechanism’s astronomical functions into a wristwatch format. Driven by the manufacture Caliber HUB9004, the Hublot 904.NX.4101.RX carries a 45.5 mm titanium case, 16.5 mm thick, finished in a mix of satin, polish, and microblasting, with 30 m of water resistance.

The dial-side indications read like a syllabus in ancient astronomy, mapping out complex micromechanical arrays:

The Hublot Antikythera was never a commercial product in the ordinary sense. It was a statement piece, built to prove the ancient functions could live on a wrist.

The Hublot MP-04 Antikythera concept watch, Caliber HUB9004, ref. 904.NX.4101.RX, unveiled in 2012. Image courtesy of Hublot SA.

Antikythera SunMoon: 20 Pieces in Titanium, 20 in King Gold

A year later came the wearable distillation. The Antikythera SunMoon takes the solar and lunar indications from the concept watch and builds them around the HUB9008, a manufacture manual-winding tourbillon running at 3 Hz with roughly 105 hours of power reserve, 295 components, and 30 jewels. Its signature party trick is the indication of the true zodiacal sign for a given date, accounting for the precession of the equinoxes, the slow wobble of Earth’s axis that has shifted the zodiac since antiquity.

According to Hublot’s specifications, the Antikythera SunMoon is available in two models, each strictly limited to 20 pieces worldwide. The technical breakdown and official June 2026 pricing reveal the exact specifications of these rare editions:

The Hublot MP-08 Antikythera SunMoon in titanium, ref. 908.NX.1010.GR, limited to 20 pieces worldwide. Image courtesy of Hublot SA.

The Hublot MP-08 Antikythera SunMoon in 18K King Gold, ref. 908.OX.1010.GR, limited to 20 pieces worldwide. Image courtesy of Hublot SA.

Why This Matters to Collectors

Twenty pieces is a vanishingly small production run, even by haute horlogerie standards. Watches at this level of rarity almost never circulate through retail channels once the initial allocation closes. When they change hands at all, they do so privately or at auction, and this release puts fresh attention on a model most of the market has never seen in the metal.

There is also a thesis embedded here that serious collectors will recognize. Complication watchmaking has always been a conversation across centuries, and the Antikythera pieces make that conversation literal. A SunMoon on the wrist is a direct mechanical descendant of a device built before the Roman Empire reached its height. Few watches at any price can make that claim with a straight face.

Given the limited production run, tracking their secondary market performance requires expert analysis. At Baer & Bosch, our specialists monitor the global watch market constantly to ensure we are always aware of shifting values, keeping a close eye on everything from highly limited-edition watches to everyday collector pieces. For collectors looking to evaluate an allocation or explore consignment pathways, our team provides discreet valuation counsel.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Hublot Antikythera documentary?
It is a film produced by Hublot with Swiss content creator Anil Brancaleoni (Anil B), documenting an 18-day archaeological mission to the Antikythera shipwreck site in Greece. It premiered on May 13, 2026, and streams free on the Hublot and Anil B YouTube channels.

What is the Antikythera mechanism?
A geared bronze device recovered in 1901 from an ancient shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera. It modeled solar, lunar, and planetary cycles and predicted eclipses, making it the oldest known astronomical calculator. Scholars date its construction to the second or first century BCE.

What is Hublot Xplorations?
Hublot’s internal research and exploration department has been working on Antikythera since 2014. It develops advanced materials and equipment, including underwater drones for locating buried artifacts at the wreck site, and has contributed to the ESA’s ExoMars mission.

How many Hublot Antikythera SunMoon watches exist?
Per Hublot’s press materials, the SunMoon is limited to 20 pieces in titanium (ref. 908.NX.1010.GR) and 20 pieces in 18K King Gold (ref. 908.OX.1010.GR).

How much does the Antikythera SunMoon cost?
As of June 2026, Hublot lists the titanium reference at CHF 250,000 (USD 302,000) and the King Gold reference at CHF 290,000 (USD 350,000).

Sources: Hublot press release, June 8, 2026, Nyon, Switzerland, and accompanying technical sheets via the Hublot press lounge. Antikythera mechanism dating per published scholarship on the wreck and device.

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