Hublot teams up with SORAI to save endangered rhinos

Frank Sans C sets out on an incredible journey to South Africa to visit the SORAI wildlife sanctuary and witness a rhino rescue mission! This journey, organized by Hublot, warns us about the rapid extinction of rhinos. Kevin Pietersen, former international cricketer and founder of the SORAI organisation, whose mission is to protect these gentle giants, takes Frank to the South African savannah to show him exactly why this tragedy is unfolding. This programme is sure to leave us deeply moved and better informed about the plight that rhinos face today. As a bonus showstopper, little Daisy is bottle fed, and Frank presents the Big Bang Unico SORAI watch, third showpiece born of a fruitful collaboration between Hublot and SORAI.

By Chloé Redler, Frank Declerck

Hublot and Kevin Pietersen, together in the fight to save rhinos

Aerial view of a Kruger Nation Park helicopter tracking rhinos to dehorn them, a crucial way to protect them from poaching.

“Our actions on the ground (surveillance teams and equipment to prevent poaching, rhino sanctuaries and refuges) are vital. However, in order to act, we first need to raise public awareness, increase publicity and make this a visible cause. Hublot is helping us on the ground by donating proceeds from the sale of the Big Bang Unico SORAI and by lending the brand’s voice to our cause to bring it to global attention. In the three years since we began this joint venture, it has yielded concrete results.“
Kevin Pietersen, founder of SORAI

Kevin Pietersen, SORAI founder, with one of the park rangers

Hublot, the Swiss watchmaker, has been working hand in hand with SORAI – Save Our Rhino Africa India – an organisation founded by former international cricket star Kevin Pietersen, since 2019. This collaboration was formed during a 2017 meeting between Pietersen and Hublot CEO Ricardo Guadalupe, in England. Moved by the former cricket star’s commitment to the cause, Hublot now actively partakes in the protection of endangered rhinos, a species on the verge of extinction.

Support the cause by purchasing goodies at https://oursorai.com.

“There’s no way I could possibly turn a blind eye to Kevin Pietersen’s endeavour. He is a fascinating man, and when Ricardo Guadalupe, Hublot’s CEO, offered to introduce us, I immediately said yes! It was at that moment I understood the truthfulness of his message “Come here and visit us, you’ll be forever changed”, and that’s exactly what happened.”
Frank Sans C, on his return from Kruger Nation Park in South Africa

Over the last ten years, 90% of the rhino population was killed by poachers. Today, there are fewer than 30,000 left in the wild, in the entire world. This bleak observation only emboldened the organisation to work tirelessly to save these animals from certain extinction. Thanks to Hublot’s notoriety, Pietersen hopes to spread his message across the world and reach new audiences (who might not know him from watching cricket games)!

Rangers from Kruger National Park tracking poachers

One of the reasons why rhinos are targeted by poachers is because of a superstition that rhino horn powder possesses healing properties and is an aphrodisiac. This belief is inaccurate, misleading, and above all a scam. Pietersen makes a point of this during his interview with Frank Sans C on his YouTube channel, and we can feel how exasperated he is by this persisting myth. Especially since there is no scientific evidence of rhino horn having any therapeutic or aphrodisiac properties, being that it’s just keratin, like our fingernails.

Founded in 2018, SORAI supports organisations that rescue abandoned, injured, and orphaned endangered species and rehabilitate them where possible.

Knowing this fact becomes unbearable when you are aware of the barbaric methods poachers us to get the horns. This involves shooting the animals to saw off their horns with a chainsaw, leaving them to die in agonizing pain, sometimes creating orphans in their destructive wake.

The organisation ensures that these keystone African and Indian species survive and thrive, this includes saving and rearing baby rhinos at their sanctuary.

The trade of rhino horns has been outlawed globally by CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) since 1977. This, however, does not stop poachers from perpetrating atrocities, all because the price of a kilo of rhino horn exceeds that of gold. Shocking!

Kevin Pietersen and Ricardo Guadalupe, Hublot’s CEO

“If purchasing a watch can buy time, then it is a small gesture with huge implications. Saving the rhino is an urgent matter for both the planet and future generations. When brand ambassador and former international cricketer Kevin Pietersen launched SORAI in 2018, we felt it was entirely natural to join forces with him in his race against time to beat the poachers. We have used our limited editions to help him gain access to more state-of-the-art technologies on the ground, put together more surveillance teams, as well as rescue injured or orphaned rhinos, with the single shared aim of shielding this endangered species.”
Ricardo Guadalupe, Hublot’s CEO.

A limited-edition watch serving SORAI’s mission

The Big Bang Unico SORAI watch, third showpiece resulting from the collaboration between Hublot and SORAI.

To help SORAI with its many missions, Hublot showcases a new Big Bang Unico SORAI every two years. These missions include identifying new technologies to fight poaching (thermal imaging cameras, GPS trackers, drones and so on), raising awareness among current and future generations, providing a refuge to injured rhinos and orphaned ones (like the Kruger National Park and Sanctuary that Frank Sans C visited), and strengthening the ranger teams, which monitor the protected areas.
10% of all proceeds from this watch, limited to 100 copies, will be directly donated to the projects SORAI supports.

The watch’s grey ceramic casing evokes the colour of rhino skin. Limited-edition, 100 copies.

Water-resistant up to 100 meters, the Big Bang Unico SORAI measures 44mm in diameter and is sculpted from grey ceramic – Hublot is the unquestionable master of this craft. It sports a sapphire crystal case and an openwork skeleton dial that’s twilight tinged, displaying yellow, orange, pink, and purple hues. It’s precisely when the sun sets that rhinos become active, and vulnerable to poaching.

The dial sports a vibrant twilight shading blending yelow, orange, pink and purple.

Popping out of the 9^th counter is an orange rhino, the symbol of the organisation. Within the watch beats the Unico self-winding manufacture calibre with a 72-hour power reserve. Thanks to the ingenious One Click interchangeable strap system, it can be worn either with a grey fabric strap or a black, purple, and orange camouflage one.