Hublot and Takashi Murakami launch 13 unique watches featuring the Japanese artist's flower

Hublot, the historic Swiss watchmaker, and the great Japanese artist Takashi Murakami are collaborating to launch thirteen new watches featuring theiconic smiling flower that is at the center of the Japanese artist’s work. Indeed, at an event held at the Glass House in New York on February 2, Hublot and Takashi Murakami announced their fourth joint artistic project: the launch of thirteen new timepieces (all one-of-a-kind pieces) and as many NFTs. This announcement is a continuation of past projects, rewarding the first buyers of the watches and collectors of the first NFTs through a very special approach.

The thirteen unique NFTs are inspired by Japanese video games and TV from the 1970s as well as the Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami All Black, the first collaboration between the Swiss watchmaker and Takashi Murakami launched in January 2021. These NFTs are linked to a limited edition of 13 new and unique Classic Fusion watches that will be unveiled at Watches & Wonders 2023 in Geneva.

Twelve of these watches will be available for purchase exclusively online at hublot.com at a price of 50,000 Swiss francs excluding tax (just under 50,000 euros), which can only be accessed by owners of at least one of the 324 All Black or Sapphire Rainbow NFTs issued in April 2022 as part of Hublot’s third collaboration with Takashi Murakami. These 324 NFTs were originally offered to owners of one of the two Hublot x Takashi Murakami watch models(Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami All Black and Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami Sapphire Rainbow) before they could be traded on the decentralized NFT trading platform, OpenSea . The period between the announcement of the project in New York in February 2023 and the start of online sales in early April 2023 will allow any collector interested in accessing the sale of the 12 new watches to pick up one of the 324 NFTs available on OpenSea.

Each buyer who purchases one of the 12 unique new watches will receive a matching exclusive NFT.

The 13th watch in the collection, unveiled in New York, is the Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami Black Ceramic Rainbow and is also the one that is considered a masterpiece. Inspired by the two pieces launched earlier, this watch reinterprets Takashi Murakami’s iconic emblem: the smiling flower. Here the flower’s 12 petals form a gradient of rubies, sapphires, amethysts, and topazes. Using a ball bearing system developed by Hublot engineers, the petals create a show of colors as they rotate on an axis with each movement. Thekinetic effect of the petals is appreciated against the 45mm black ceramic case. The center of the smiling flower is placed above the sapphire crystal to create a three-dimensional effect.

Collectors who have purchased the first twelve watches will have a one-year period during which they will have the opportunity to exchange the twelve new unique NFTs on the OpenSea platform. In April 2024, at the end of this period, only the collector who has managed to collect all 12 new unique NFTs will be able to purchase the thirteenth and most sought-after watch: the Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami Black Ceramic Rainbow. In the event that no single person has managed to collect all 12 NFTs, the watch will be auctioned off by Hublot to raise funds for charity.

“Our partnership with Takashi Murakami,” says Ricardo Guadalupe, CEO of Hublot, “is allowing us to build a story that connects all the work we have published with Takashi, both the digital pieces and the watches themselves. True to its history, Hublot rewards its collectors by providing them with privileged access to both the ownership and trade of unique artistic pieces. Hublot loves ’art!”

“When my collaboration with Hublot was announced, we let it be known that we would adopt new forms of artistic expression,” Takashi Murakami points out. Having created all the watches together, as well as the digital artworks , we are now imagining new ways of accessing contemporary art."

Hublot and Takashi Murakami launch 13 unique watches featuring the Japanese artist's flower

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