Hublot has just announced a new collaboration with one of the most important artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, American sculptor Jeff Koons. A collaboration that perfectly embodies Hublot’s motto, “The Art of Fusion”. Both the brand and Koons are masters at fusing styles, materials and inspirations, transforming tension into form, contradiction into harmony and excess into precision. As one might expect, this shared vision immediately took shape in a watch, the Classic Fusion Balloon Dog by Jeff Koons.
As enthusiasts will remember, this is not the first time Hublot has explored the affinities between the art of watchmaking and contemporary sculpture. The numerous timepieces created in collaboration with Richard Orlinski are testament to this. This time, however, the approach to the material is different, just as the two sculptors’ approaches are different. The Classic Fusion Balloon Dog by Jeff Koons is its fullest and most surprising expression.
CLASSIC FUSION BALLOON DOG BY JEFF KOONS: AIR-SCULPTED
The watch looks as though it came directly from Koons’s hands, like one of his sculptures in which steel seems to inflate and stretch into soft, sinuous, mirrored forms. Because Hublot’s Classic Fusion Balloon Dog by Jeff Koons is, in every respect, a sculpture to wear on the wrist. The familiar aesthetic of the Classic Fusion appears transfigured in a timepiece whose architecture has been transformed through inflated geometries. The surfaces are soft and domed, the lines convex, all creating the illusion of a watch shaped by internal air pressure.
The case, bezel, dial, caseback, strap with its buckle and even Hublot’s classic H-shaped screws securing the bezel all seem inflated by an invisible internal energy. Everything is given a mirror-polished surface, one of the American sculptor’s artistic signatures, skillfully translated by Hublot into the Classic Fusion Balloon Dog by Jeff Koons.
The watch dial is structured in two parts, both “inflated”. The minute track ring, which carries the large domed indexes with Super-LumiNova, is paired with a central section featuring a silver-powder Jeff Koons signature decal at 6 o’clock. The hour and minute hands also have a soft shape, while the central seconds hand features a miniature of Koons’s celebrated Balloon Dog as its counterweight, the work that inspired the timepiece.
HUBLOT’S SINUOUS FORMS AND PLAYFULNESS
Even more surprising, if possible, is the combination of case, bezel and caseback into a cohesive whole. Around the H-shaped screws, folds run continuously between the bezel and case, creating the impression that both form a single structure made up of several sections, each inflated like a balloon. The same effect is created by the fold that creates continuity between the lugs and the strap attachments. Speaking of the strap, it has a rubber base with a metallic leather insert, soft and padded, with stitched sections that likewise appear to be filled with air.
Since this is a playful watch, just like the sculpture that inspired it, the Hublot Classic Fusion Balloon Dog by Jeff Koons features a fun detail: a decorative rubber motif shaped like a dog’s tail at 10:30. An addition with no practical function other than, we imagine, to serve as an amusing stress reliever. And, speaking of imaginative details, it is impossible to miss the distinctive shape of the oversized rubber-covered crown, resembling a balloon inflation valve.
HUBLOT MANUFACTURE CALIBER AND THREE LIMITED EDITIONS
In terms of movement, Hublot has equipped the Classic Fusion Balloon Dog by Jeff Koons with one of its most reliable time-and-date calibers, the HUB1710. It is an automatic movement developed on the basis of the Zenith Elite 670. This means 28,800 vibrations per hour and approximately 50 hours of power reserve.
Naturally, neither Hublot nor Koons could settle for using the standard HUB1710, so to speak. In fact, the polished rhodium-plated oscillating weight also appears inflated both in the rotor section and in the skeletonized central section bearing the Hublot logo. A choice that maintains the same artistic coherence through to the caseback. Its soft forms almost recall those of a lifebuoy and it bears the name of the watch and the limited-edition number.
Because, as is easy to imagine, this is a limited edition – or rather, three. The Classic Fusion Balloon Dog by Jeff Koons is in fact offered by Hublot in three versions in three different colors. Two feature polished anodized aluminum cases and dials – one blue and one red – while the third features a polished stainless steel case and dial. Monochromatic watches in which the uniformity of color is interrupted only by the black date disc with white numerals. Each version is mirror-polished and limited to 200 pieces. The price: € 24,600 for all references.
HUBLOT MP-14 ORIGIN BY JEFF KOONS SAPPHIRE TITANIUM
The collaboration between the artist and Hublot has not, however, resulted in this watch alone. There is also a highly exclusive creation joining the Exceptional Timepieces collection: the MP-14 Origin by Jeff Koons limited to 30 pieces.
You can read more about Hublot’s MP collection here. The watch in question has a 44 mm octagonal case in sapphire and titanium and combines high jewelry with haute horlogerie to represent the creation of the cosmos on a microscopic scale – the universe to wear on the wrist.
On the hypnotic and visionary dial two suspended rotating rings indicate the hours and minutes; each is fitted with a floating indicator cube – in polished steel coated with translucent red lacquer for the hours and in grey polished steel for the minutes – that appears to orbit within the structure. Above concentric rings set with baguette-cut diamonds, these elements evoke celestial orbits. The two additional rings are fixed and do not rotate: the minute ring is set with blue sapphires marking the quarter-hours, while the hour ring is set with blue sapphires indicating the hours. Together, the four rings feature a total of 202 stones, for approximately 2.6 carats.
The watch is powered by the HUB9014 manufacture movement an automatic central tourbillon with a peripheral oscillating weight, operating at a frequency of 21,600 vibrations per hour and offering a 60-hour power reserve. The tourbillon cage is positioned like an anti-gravity element suspended beneath a sapphire dome. The integrated bracelet is made entirely of sapphire with titanium screws.
CLASSIC FUSION BALLOON DOG BY JEFF KOONS – CONCLUSIONS
In essence, then, the Hublot Classic Fusion Balloon Dog by Jeff Koons goes beyond the very idea of a watch, in keeping with the tradition of creations from the Nyon manufacture. It is an interpretation of materials and, ultimately, of time, poised between art, craftsmanship and modernity. All with a playful spirit that aims to lighten the narrative surrounding an industry – watchmaking – that is often inclined to take itself too seriously.
Jeff Koons commented on the partnership: “Hublot and I have always shared a fascination with material science. As an artist, I am always trying to transcend an object or a material so that the viewer can find meaning in the finished work that goes beyond the sum of its individual parts. Hublot uses all the technology required to create exceptional watches and also draws on material science to transcend the object and represent it in a way that allows all of us to find even greater relevance and meaning in it.”
This synthesis of individual parts giving rise to a finished whole is fully expressed in the Classic Fusion Balloon Dog by Jeff Koons. With one additional element: a playful, entertaining side that helps put time into its proper perspective and give it its proper value.
By Davide Passoni