Hublot and Takashi Murakami unveiled a completely translucent watch that will retail in the six figures on Friday, the latest of the brand’scollector-driven special editions produced in partnership with the famous Japanese contemporary artist, best known for his iconic smiling flower motif.
Made of sapphire crystal, the MP-15 Takashi Murakami Tourbillon Sapphire, priced at US$316,000, is a follow-up to 13 rainbow-bright unique pieces with corresponding NFTs that launched last spring. It’s modeled on the brand’s vivid high-jewelry unique MP-15 Takashi Murakami Tourbillon Only Watch, created for this year’s now-delayed Only Watch charity auction.
The limited edition of 50 is the brand’s first series piece with a flying tourbillon front and center, translating Murakami’s famous quirky flower into a translucent sculpture, a kinetic work of contemporary horological art.
“Our customers do not want to choose between technology and style: They want both, with no compromise on either,”
Ricardo Guadalupe,
Hublot’s CEO, said in a news release. “Our mission is not to fulfill their expectations, but to surpass them. Our MP-15 is designed to do just that.”
Murakami’s flower is composed of 12 rounded sapphire petals framing the central tourbillon in a 42mm sapphire crystal case with a sapphire case back and crown and fitted with a translucent flange and a translucent rubber strap for maximum clarity.
The central flying tourbillon has no upper bridge to create the sense of floating at the center of the case, and all its components have been skeletonized to let light flow through freely. It’s framed by a flange with 12 white hour indices and peripheral, rather than central, black-plated hour and minute hands with white Super-LumiNova that illuminates the watch after dark. To achieve this technical feat, the hands must literally pass beneath the tourbillon cage at the center, thanks to an ingenious co-axial construction.
For efficient winding, Hublot created a special stylus, rechargeable via USB, that smoothly winds the crown through 100 revolutions until both barrels that drive the central tourbillon are fully wound to generate an impressive 150 hours of power reserve.
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Embellishing on the dynamic perpetual motion of the central tourbillon, the twinkling eyes and broad smile of Murakami’s happy flower are engraved on the domed crystal.
“Up until now, my work has focused on color,” Murakami said in the news release. “It was a really exciting challenge to start a whole new chapter focusing on absolute transparency. The forms and volumes are perceived completely differently. With Hublot, we were able to preserve the individuality of my floral motif, but with a unique and different identity which was purer and perfectly in tune with Hublot’s mechanical universe.”
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Murakami’s collaboration with Hublot was on the condition they make “some super unique stuff,” as he explained at the unveiling of the first unique piece in February in New York City.
“For me, a watch is not something to measure time,” the artist said during the presentation. “We of course live by the time, and time is always there. A watch is something like conceptual art to present the concept of time.”
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