- Hublot and Jeff Koons have kicked off their partnership with the release of the Classic Fusion Balloon Dog
- The Classic Fusion Balloon Dog is inspired by Koons’ mirrored sculptures and translates their inflated aesthetic into miniature form
- The Classic Fusion Balloon Dog is available in red, blue, and silver, each limited to 200 examples
- The Hublot x Jeff Koons Classic Fusion Balloon Dog is priced at $37,100AUD
Where other manufactures focus on ticking along, Hublot keeps things barking. For the first part of its partnership with newly announced brand ambassador Jeff Koons, the Nyon manufacture and the American contemporary artist have collaborated to produce the Classic Fusion Balloon Dog.
The collaborative timepiece translates the visual language of Koons’ emblematic Balloon Dog sculpture series into horological form. Miniaturising and transposing the key aesthetic codes of the mirrored sculptures onto the wrist, the Classic Fusion Balloon Dog sees the ordinarily sleek Classic Fusion pumped up with inflated geometries and convex surfaces to create the illusion of a watch filled with air pressure.
The voluminous ‘puffy’ dial is encased in a 42mm case hewn from stainless steel (silver) or anodised aluminium (red and blue) and fitted with a flexible decorative ‘balloon tail’ at 10:30 and a balloon-inspired crown crafted from rubber-molded aluminium. Back on the puffy dial, the seconds hand has a balloon dog-shaped counterweight, while the luminescent hour indices are nestled within inflated sectors. The Classic Fusion Balloon Dig is presented on a padded metallic leather strap, colour matched to the case and dial for a monochromatic effect.
“Translating Balloon Dog into the language of the Classic Fusion required far more than fusing an artwork with an existing watch,” explained Jeff Koons. “The challenge was to fundamentally reinterpret the architecture of the Classic Fusion through the visual and sculptural language of inflatable forms. Traditionally defined by its sleek and relatively flat profile, the Classic Fusion was entirely re-engineered to create the illusion of inflated volume and tension, as though each component had been shaped by air pressure.”
Price: $37,100AUD
Availability: 200 examples/colour
Model: Classic Fusion Balloon Dog (ref. 542.SX.0820.NR.JKN26 [silver]; 542.UR.8170.NR.JKN26 [red]; 542.UB.5170.NR.JKN26 [blue])
Case size: 42mm
Movement: HUB1710 (automatic)
Water resistance: 5ATM
Functions: hours, minutes, seconds, date
Power reserve: 50 hours
Although Hublot is no stranger to collaborations with artists and influential figures—some more impactful than others—the team up with Jeff Koons seems a natural one. Both are something of enfants terribles within their respective niches; Hublot making waves in the horological industry for being the first to pair rubber with gold in its debut timepiece in 1980 (simply called ‘Hublot’, which means ‘porthole’ in French — named for its porthole-shaped bezel and screws) and Koons focusing on elevating oft-overlooked quotidian objects into works of art.
Not content to stop at one timepiece, the duo have also created the Hublot x Jeff Koons MP-14. Limited to 30 examples, the haute horology timepiece distills the universe into a 44mm octagonal sapphire crystal case with a titanium caseback and screws. Described by Koons as “ a horological interpretation of creation itself: the moment where energy becomes form and form becomes time,” the MP-14 depicts the gravitational system through white gold concentric rings set with baguette-cut diamonds and blue sapphires.
At their centre is a partially concealed central tourbillon coated in translucent blue varnish, a nod to Koon’s Gazing Ball works. The time itself is told through two suspended rotating rings which carry a floating indicator tube crafted from stainless steel; coated in red for the hours and polished gray for the minutes. These rings are fixed and non-rotating, but are given a similar stone-set treatment to the aforementioned rotating rings, each set with baguette-cut blue sapphires to mark the hours on the hours ring and quarter-hours on the minutes ring.
Price: $722,000AUD
Availability: 30 examples
Model: MP-14 Origin by Jeff Koons (ref. 914.NJ.0100.JX.9941)
Case size: 44mm
Movement: HUB9014 (automatic)
Water resistance: 3ATM
Functions: hours, minutes
Power reserve: 60 hours
Equally a very Hublot duo of watches as they are a very Koons duo of watches, the Classic Fusion Balloon Dog and MP-14 are as bold—and set to be as divisive—as their makers.
Words by Theo Rosen
