Hublot and Takashi Murakami Collaborate on 13 Phygital NFT Watches
The avant-garde Swiss watchmaker and lauded Japanese contemporary artist join forces on an exclusive set of unique, phygital NFT watches!
FEBRUARY 10, 2023. NEWS. WRITTEN BY JENZ ALIPAR.
Contemporary art and luxury watches meet on the blockchain!
Last week, Hublot, the luxury Swiss watchmaker, and Takashi Murakami, the popular Japanese contemporary artist, launched their fourth joint artistic project; a set of 13 NFTs and 13 unique timepieces, unveiled at the Glass House in New York City.
Twelve of the timepieces, and the corresponding NFTs, will be shown again in April 2023 at Watches & Wonders in Geneva, with the 13th watch – the masterpiece of the collection – only available for purchase if one individual is able to acquire all twelve of these NFTs by April 2024.
All thirteen unique NFTs are inspired by 1970s Japanese TV and video games, as well as the Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami All Black, the first collaboration between Hublot and Takashi Murakami which launched in January 2021.
These phygital watches are only available to owners of the 324-piece Hublot x Takashi Murakami NFT collection, initially offered to holders of either the Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami All Black or Sapphire Rainbow models in April 2022, and which are now openly available on secondary marketplaces.
The masterpiece of the new collection, the Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami Black Ceramic Rainbow, takes inspiration from previous Hublot x Takashi Murakami collaborations, reinterpreting Murakami’s smiling flower emblem in a brillant gradient of rubies, sapphires, amethysts, tsavorites and topaz, which spin within the timepiece in a shining example of fine watchmaking at its very best.
The twelve other references recall the master flower, each representing one of these vibrant petals.
Speaking of this latest collaboration, Takashi Murakami said:
“When my collaboration with Hublot was announced, we made it known that we would be adopting new forms of artistic expression. After creating all the timepieces together, as well as the digital works of art, we are now imagining new ways of accessing contemporary art.”
The collection will be available exclusively via hublot.com. If no single person gathers all twelve NFTs by April 2024, the Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami Black Ceramic Rainbow masterpiece will be auctioned by Hublot to raise money for charity.
For more information on the Hublot x Takashi Murakami collaborations, visit the Hublot website.
