News 
As part of its “Hublot loves Art” movement, the watch manufacturer regularly draws on great creative spirits such as Shepard “Obey” Fairey, Marc Ferrero, Richard Orlinski and Maxime Plescia-Buchi.
This team of ambassadors has now been joined for the first time by one of the most internationally renowned living artists: Takashi Murakami.
His visually very modern style offers a subtle reflection between Japanese tradition and pop culture. He masterfully achieves this result by combining leading-edge multimedia tools with traditional Japanese techniques such as gold leaf. A real rock star in the contemporary art world, he coined the name Superflat for the artistic movement he began.
An initial visit to the Manufacture in February 2020 enabled Takashi Murakami to familiarise himself with the work of a watchmaker and timepiece design. This triggered a creative process that resulted in the very innovative Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami, inspired by Murakami’s icon, the smiling flower. Here, it is present both in and on the watch. Thanks to an ingenious ball-bearing system developed by Hublot’s engineers, its petals start turning. The centre of the smiling flower is inserted onto the sapphire crystal, creating a unique three-dimensional effect to go along with its wide prominent smile.
The Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami All Black takes up one of the most evocative Hublot signatures, namely All Black. Invented by Hublot in 2006, it turns out that the “All Black” style is also one of Murakami’s artistic signatures. For an even more pronounced effect, the petals (456 brilliants) and face (107 brilliants) are set here with black diamonds.
As the first collaboration between Hublot and a Japanese artist, the Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami All Black will quickly become a real collector’s item since it is limited to only 200 models.
February 11, 2021