The 13th, and last piece in the Hublot X Takashi Murakami’s NFT series has sold at Auction in Hong Kong by Phillips, and at a record price, with the proceeds going to fund cancer research.
For those astute readers, you may recall at the start of last year, Hublot once again teamed up with Japanese artist, Takashi Murakami to produce a set of 13 unique Classic Fusion watches with Takashi Murakami’s smiling flower gem set into the dial. These were all linked to an NFT, which was something of a first at the time. For those that don’t recall this, we coved it here. But here is a quick refresher on how this initiative worked…
Twelve of the thirteen Classic Fusion watches, with the iconic Takashi Murakami Smiling Flower, were sold exclusively online at Hublot.com, but only to owners who bought or traded one of the 324 NFTs issued in April 2022 during their last collaboration. These were all offered to people who purchased one of the Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami All Black & Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami Sapphire Rainbow watches. Are you following?
Each of the watches was then linked to an exclusive and unique NFT mirroring the watch’s colour and design, which were then available at Watches and Wonders in Geneva (2022). So basically, you could only get your hands on one of the 12 Classic Fusion Murakami pieces if you had bought one of the 324 NFTs the year prior, which was only offered to people who purchased the last collaboration piece from Hublot x Murakami. However, the NFTs were available on a trading platform, so getting one of them off this was another way to be eligible for the 12 Classic Fusion pieces up for grabs last year.
But, there was a 13th watch, with a full rainbow gem-set smiling flower in the dial, whereas all others were done with set colourways. This piece could only be bought one of two ways. The first was by collecting all other 12 NFTs from other collectors via the trading platform, and if no one did, then the watch would be auctioned off to the highest bidder, with proceeds going to charity. Well, it seems no one wanted all NFTs bad enough, or wasn’t able to acquire all of them, so two weeks ago, this piece was auctioned off by Phillips in Hong Kong for a record price!
The expectation from Hublot and Phillips was this piece would hammer in at around HKD 450,000, or about A$91,000. However, the result, eclipsed this by more than 4x, finally selling for a record price of HKD 2,095,500, including the buyer’s premium, which is around A$423,000! The lucky recipient also received the corresponding NFT as well as a rare visit to Takashi Murakami’s studio in Japan, something that normally money can’t buy.
The proceeds of this (excluding the buyer’s premium) are being donated to Fond’Action Contre le Cancer, 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. It’s a great cause, and it is great to see a brand like Hublot giving back to a worthy organisation such as the Fond’Action Contre le Cancer.
“Fond’Action has been one of the Switzerland’s leading foundations in cancer research for many years, and Hublot has always believed in its cause and sought different ways of supporting it. With our dear friend Takashi Murakami, we are proud to demonstrate that watchmaking and art can be used for a greater good.“
Julien Tornare, Hublot CEO
This Classic Fusion isn’t your run-of-the-mill Classic Fusion either. Done in a black ceramic case, the dial has been set with 384 coloured gemstones arranged in a gradient rainbow pattern in the flower itself. These are actually set above a sapphire disc on the dial, attached to a ball bearing system so the flower petals rotate in the dial with the movement from the wearer’s wrist, or as Hublot calls it, kinetic art.
So, this ends what has been effectively a 2-year journey for the Hublot Classic Fusion x Murakami NFT series. It has also been a highly successful one at that with all 13 watches being sold, and with a charitable fund being the recipient of around A$350,000 or so (assuming a buyer’s premium of 20%).
Reference: 507.CX.9099.RX.TAK23 – UNIQUE PIECE
Specifications:
- Dimensions: 45mm x 13.45 mm thick.
- Case: Satin-finished and polished black ceramic
- Dial: Microblasted rhodium-plated, rotating décor with 12 petals set with 384 coloured gemstones
- Crystal: Polished black ceramic with sapphire crystal display back
- Water resistance: 50 metres
- Movement: Unico Manufacture, self-winding, beating at 4Hz (28’800 VPH)
- Power reserve: 72 Hours
- Strap Black lined rubber with black-plated stainless steel deployant buckle clasp
