The floral arrangement is at the heart of the work of the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, who has been Hublot’s Friend of the Brand since 2020. The timepieces resulting from this collaboration have always been produced in limited editions and now there is a new creation, even more exclusive, given that it is a single copy. The watch is also unique in its structure. What distinguishes the MP-15 from any other piece created by the manufacture in its more than forty years of experience is the central tourbillon. The watch is part of the Only Watch 2023 collection. It will go on sale in September.
Only Watch was born in 2005 and our manufacture was founded just four years later, in 2009. We belong to the same generation. We have grown rapidly and set new standards in our respective sectors: Hublot in fine watchmaking and Only Watch in philanthropy. When Luc Pettavino, founder of Only Watch, needs us, we are there. Hublot has never shirked its moral and social obligations, and never will.
Ricardo Guadalupe, CEO of Hublot
Only Watch is the initiative created in 2005 by Luc Pettavino, under the high patronage of Prince Albert II of Monaco. A collection of watches from different brands is being auctioned to raise funds for Duchenne muscular dystrophy research.
Hublot’s first central tourbillon
The idea of the new watch is to physically bring haute horlogerie back to center stage, but also to show that the tourbillon at the heart of the watch represents both the heart of the person who buys it at the auction in support of Duchenne dystrophy research.
When designing this watch, Takashi Murakami explicitly requested the integration of a central tourbillon. A challenge in itself, because it would have been Hublot’s very first central tourbillon, but also because it becomes very complicated to indicate the hours and minutes that vie for the same central position.
In this design, it was necessary to rotate the pinion and the hour wheel around the tourbillon holder, creating a coaxial structure. This was made possible by the central flying tourbillon which appears to be suspended in mid-air, with two hands passing under the cage to indicate the hours and minutes.
These hands gravitate towards 12 luminescent indexes that recall the colors of the 2023 edition of the Hublot for Only Watch, maintaining the same proportions required by the design, so loved by Murakami and which the Hublot Research and Development department had to follow to the letter. Thanks to the two barrels, the manual movement offers a power reserve of 150 hours (almost a whole week), a very rare feature for this type of construction. These generously proportioned barrels, mounted in series, but in a single plane: they are visible through the all-sapphire caseback.
Outside, the 12 petals are embellished with 444 colored stones. As in a real flower, the petals are angled towards the center of the movement. The clear and decisive color demarcations are representative of the Only Watch 2023. The idea was not to offer the traditional gradient effect of the rainbow, but rather to play with the luminosity of the tones and the brilliance of the stones,
MP-15 TAKASHI MURAKAMI TOURBILLON ONLY WATCH
EARNINGS
MP-15 Takashi Murakami Tourbillon Only Watch
915.JX.4802.RT.1198.OWM23
Polished sapphire crystal
Polished titanium screws
Diameter: 42mm
Thickness: 13.4mm
Water resistance: 30m
Polished sapphire crystal
Polished stainless steel, with 444 colored stones
Black plated applique elements with colored SuperLuminova
HUB9015
Manual winding central tourbillon
Frequency (Hz): 3 Hz (21’600 alternations/hour)
Power reserve: Approximately 150 hours
Number of components: 236
Rubies: 25
Transparent decorated rubber
with Takashi Murakami flower motif
Deployant buckle in titanium and sapphire crystal
