Posted By: Sorbet
Jeff Koons’ Balloon Dog sculpture has been shrunk down to wrist size. It may not woof, but it does know how to tell the time.
Courtesy of Hublot
Courtesy of Hublot
Who let the dog out? Hublot did, and Jeff Koons is holding the magic leash. The Swiss watchmaker named the American artists its newest ambassador and on that fateful day, the 16th of September, Koons’ first watch collaboration came through in two very different timepieces.
Courtesy of Hublot
Courtesy of Hublot
Courtesy of Hublot
Starting off with the playful one, the Classic Fusion Balloon Dog takes Koons’ most recognizable sculpture and gambols it onto the wrist, borrowing all of that glossy, puffed-up charm. The 42mm case has domed surfaces and convex lines designed to create the illusion of air pressure, as if the whole watch has been inflated (yet still very much pop-proof). The timepiece comes in three colorways; mirror-polished stainless steel, red anodized aluminum, and blue anodized aluminum, each on a padded metallic leather strap, with a tungsten oscillating weight tucked inside, hiding the serious engineering out of sight. Even the packaging joins the party, with a chromed inflated dog color-matched to each watch, and we’d happily keep the box on display. Each edition is limited to 200 pieces, so it’ll be hard not to let these miniature dogs get away.
Courtesy of Hublot
Courtesy of Hublot
Then reaching into the cosmos, the MP-14 Origin by Jeff Koons swaps balloons for creation itself in a pure horological bravura: Hublot’s first automatic central tourbillon, framed in sapphire, and limited even further to just 30 pieces worldwide. That pellucid case lets the movement take center stage, and honestly, why would you hide something this mesmerizing? Koons calls it “a horological interpretation of creation itself.”
Courtesy of Hublot
The pairing makes more sense than you’d think in a sort of cosmic alignment kind of way. In 1980, Hublot was founded the same year Koons staged his first exhibition, and even more so, both have spent decades playing with materials and pushing at the edges of their worlds. Hublot has form in the art world too, having collaborated before with artists like Daniel Arsham, Takashi Murakami, Richard Orlinski, and Maxime Plescia-Buchi. Koons meanwhile, is making his watch-world debut, and of the Ballon Dog watch he says its “dignifies to the Balloon Dog.”
Courtesy of Hublot
Courtesy of Hublot
So, is it a watch or a work of art? We’d like to put forward option C: both. The Classic Fusion Balloon Dog is playful on the outside and carefully engineered underneath, while the MP-14 Origin by Jeff Koons proves Hublot can go grand and cosmic too. Neither is a simple logo-on-dial job, because each exists thanks to the artist collaboration, and that’s what makes them worth a second look. If not for anything else, for the little doggy tail addition to the Classic Fusion, and for the shared idea of craft and creation in the watchmaking world and broader universe in the MP-14 Origin.
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