Hublot & Takashi Murakami present the unique Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami Black Ceramic for Phillips’ TOKI: Watch Auction.

Nyon, Switzerland, October 16th 2024 - The 13th and highly anticipated final unique piece from Hublot and Takashi Murakami’s groundbreaking series of watches and matching NFT artworks is finally going to be available. Available as Lot #100 in Phillips “TOKI: Watch Auction” on November 22, the auction house’s first thematic auction focused on Japanese watchmaking, the Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami Black Ceramic Rainbow bridges the worlds of watchmaking and contemporary Japanese art – and it’s for a great cause, the Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami Black Ceramic Rainbow bridges the worlds of watchmaking and contemporary Japanese art – and it’s for a great cause.

True to Takashi Murakami’s multimedia and multidisciplinary approach to breaking down the constructs of contemporary art and Hublot’s daringness to go where no watchmaker has gone before, the pair introduced a novel concept in 2022 by bridging the digital and the physical. What began as a series of 324 unique NFT artworks by Murakami inspired by low-res videogame graphics and TVs from the 1970s gave way to accessing 12 unique editions of the Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami, each paired with its own unique artwork that were available on Hublot.com.

Based on Hublot and Takashi Murakami’s first-ever collaborative timepiece, the Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami Black Ceramic is the perfect fusion of innovative watchmaking and contemporary, kinetic art. Featuring Murakami’s signature Smiling Flower, its gem-set face is set above the sapphire crystal, adding three-dimensionality to the piece. Between the dial plate and the hands, the twelve petals form a disk that spins with the motion of the wrist. Powered by Hublot’s UNICO automatic manufacture movement with a power reserve of 72 hours, the petals spin thanks to an ingenious ball-bearing system developed by Hublot’s engineers.

And while each of the 12 unique Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami Black Ceramic pieces featured a rainbow smiling flower face with 103 gemstones, each piece had a single color and type of gemstone on the spinning petals. The 13th and final piece essentially combines the 45mm black ceramic case of the first-ever Hublot X Takashi Murakami Classic Fusion series with the rainbow petals of the Sapphire Rainbow edition, incorporating 384 gemstones onto the petals to form a perfect color gradient with different types of rubies, sapphires, amethysts, tsavorites and topaz stones.

Along with the unique timepiece, the lot also features an NFT artwork linked to the watch, as well as a very rare opportunity to immerse in the artist’s world with a private tour of Takashi Murakami’s studio in Japan.

As Hublot believes in using its platform for the greater good and supporting initiatives that can concretely bring positive changes, all proceeds from the sale of this unique piece will be donated to Fond’Action, a Swiss-based non-profit foundation established in 1999 with the objective of financing innovative research projects in oncology, with treatments in the pre-clinical or clinical phase that are directly applicable to cancer patients in Switzerland and around the world.

The Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami Black Ceramic Rainbow will embark on the Phillips TOKI: Watch Auction world tour, beginning in Singapore on the 17th to 20th of October, followed by Taipei on the 2nd and 3rd of November and finally Geneva from the 6th to 10th of November, and finally Geneva from the 6th to 10th of November, 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.