Takashi Murakami is a Japanese Pop Art superstar for all the right, colourful reasons, with a vibrant take on contemporary culture. While at first reticent about a collaboration with a watch brand, the fruitful Hublot partnership have proven to be perfect canvases for Murakami-san’s colourful oeuvre. This final piece in the Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami Black Ceramic hits vibrantly different and expands on Hublot’s focus on the greater good. It’s a fitting finale.

In earlier interviews, Takashi Murakami has drawn strong parallels between art and watches, underlining that both can survive for a hundred years or more and need a timeless quality. But that doesn’t equate to demure designs for Murakami-san, viscerally obvious in the Black Ceramic Rainbow. Unfortunately, suppose this is your first taste of his vibrant imagination at work. In that case, it is also the 13th and last collaboration in this form, linked to an NFT, and to be auctioned as lot #10 in Phillips “TOKI” Watch Auction on November 22.

The fact that this intensely colourful collaboration is one of the star lots in the auction is interesting in itself, as is the event. The “TOKI” Watch Auction is Phillips’ first thematic auction on Japanese watchmaking, and Murakami-san’s Black Ceramic Rainbow bridges the worlds of watchmaking and Japanese contemporary art. Unlike the wild expression of haute horology seen last year in the MP-15 Takashi Murakami Tourbillon Sapphire, this watch, like the previous 12, is based on the broad-shouldered 45mm Classic Fusion case.

The menacing black of the stealth-tough ceramic case perfectly contrasts the vibrant calling card of the Japanese artist. Seeing the smiling flower of Murakami-san has been a feature of all 12 other watches, known by a face set with 103 gemstones, but with a single colour and type of gemstone on the spinning petals. With this 13th and final piece, the 45mm black ceramic case has married the rainbow petals of the flamboyant Sapphire Rainbow edition. The dazzling face incorporates 384 gemstones within the petals to form a perfect gradient rainbow of rubies, sapphires, amethysts, tsavorites and topaz stones.

While we love the spectacle of a sapphire case with its transparent architecture, seeing the dark ceramic case of the Classic Fusion in this context only makes it a stronger proposal. I greatly respect the recently appointed big dog Julien Tornare for exhibiting such restraint for this final piece in the Japanese-Swiss art puzzle because it works all too well. Even with the perceived slimming effect of delicately brushed and faceted black, at 45mm the Hublot Classic Fusion is everything but demure. But Murakami-san’s flamboyant style deserves a large canvas, made even more spectacular through the theatre of movement. 

As exhibited in his earlier pieces for Hublot, this 13th and final watch has a spectacular spinning party trick. Time is shown in a distinctly minimal fashion by sword hands peeking out from under the grinning flower, the nexus of all the coloured gems. But the pièce de resistance is made possible by a ball bearing system engineered by Hublot, making the gem set petals spin at the flick of a wrist. The watch itself is powered by the well-known 4hz Unico manufacture movement, within a satin brushed and polished full ceramic case with a 13.45mm thickness. The Classic Fusion range has transcended the late 2000s trends with its big onion crown, even ironically given its strong, uncompromising design, evolving into Hublot’s most understated range. And that speaks volumes for the brand’s strength in 2024. 

It comes across as a fitting and dazzling finale to a project that began with a series of 324 NFT artworks by Murakami, inspired by low-res videogame graphics and giving birth to 12 unique watches, each paired with its unique NFT artwork made available at the Hublot homepage. And this time, the 13th and perhaps most spellbinding of all, the Hublot Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami Black Ceramic has a big heart. All proceeds of the sale will be donated to Fond’Action, a Swiss foundation established in 1999 with the objective of financing innovative research projects in oncology, with treatments directly applicable to cancer patients in Switzerland and around the world. And that adds importance and a deeper meaning to the mood-enhancing and all-embracing smile of Takashi Murakami’s art. 

The Phillips TOKI: Watch Auction will embark on a world tour beginning in Singapore on the 17th to 20th October. It will then travel through Taipei and Geneva before making its way to Hong Kong where the preview will open on 16th of November, leading up to the live auction on the 22nd of November.