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When Hublot announced an upcoming partnership with artist Jeff Koons last month, it raised plenty of speculation. What would the watch look like? Would it resemble a piece of Koons’ art or something altogether different?
The answer came a week later, when the Classic Fusion Balloon Dog was unveiled, along with the MP-14 Origin by Jeff Koons in the Exceptional Timepieces collection.
And indeed, the Balloon Dog watch incorporates many aspects of Koons’ outsize sculptures of the same name that look like the dogs shaped out of balloons you might find at a child’s birthday party.
Despite their puffed-up appearance, they’re hardly childish. Several of the watch’s poofy design elements required material experimentation and technical innovation, including the dial’s inflated-looking convex domes and the case’s rounded, domed titanium screws. Further design nods to Koons’ iconic sculptures include a crown shaped to resemble a balloon’s inflation valve and a flexible “tail” at the 10:30 position.
“Translating Balloon Dog into the language of the Classic Fusion required far more than fusing an artwork with an existing watch,” Koons says in a statement, adding that it was reconstructed “to create the illusion of inflated volume and tension, as though each component had been shaped by air pressure.”
The watches are being produced in three colors: red, blue and silver, each run limited to just 200 pieces. While the red and blue versions are crafted of anodized aluminum, the silver is made of highly polished stainless steel.
All three house the self-winding HUB1710 movement and are priced at $25,100.
To drive home the famous artist’s puffy motif, the rubber straps have a debossed leather insert that extends the illusion of inflation around the wrist.
Talk about living life to the fullest.