Hublot is no stranger to opening its doors to outside creativity, with some of its most memorable (and often infamous) releases of the past few years in collaborations with artists and designers—Takashi Murakami, Daniel Arsham, and Samuel Ross, to name a few. Late last week, the brand dropped the news that the next big name in line for a collaboration would be the contemporary American artist Jeff Koons, most widely known for his series of bright, shiny balloon dog sculptures in a whole range of colors.
Image courtesy of Hublot
Balloon Dog (Orange) – Image courtesy of Christie’s
Rabbit – Image courtesy of Christie’s
Koons’ name has reached a certain level of infamy and popularity alike in the art world, as the world’s most expensive living artist today. His Balloon Dog (Orange) piece hammered at Christie’s in 2013 for a whopping $58.4 million dollars, breaking auction records for an artwork by a living artist. Then, in 2019, his 1986 Rabbit piece shattered that result, selling for more than $91 million and taking the title. To this day, both pieces remain among the top ten most expensive artworks by living artists. Naturally, Koons faces criticism from critics and the wider public, from the overt commercialism and kitchiness of the art to the factory-style production methods he employs. Regardless, it’s impossible to deny how iconic and recognizable the Balloon Dog series is worldwide.
With that iconic look and a touch of infamy, the Balloon Dog feels like the perfect subject for Hublot to approach when considering what a collaboration with Koons might look like. And today, we have the final result: the Classic Fusion Balloon Dog By Jeff Koons series, a trio of watches that takes the spirit of Koons’ Balloon Dogs and distills it into—and I can’t stress this enough—extremely shiny spins on Hublot’s Classic Fusion silhouette. This is not just a small version of a Balloon Dog sculpture affixed to a strap. Instead, the collaboration takes the porthole-inspired bezel and sharp edges of the regular Classic Fusion and injects a healthy dose of air—metaphorically speaking, of course—into the watch’s entire form. Except for the date disc, no sharp edge line or flat surface is visible when the watch is on the wrist.
The Classic Fusion Balloon Dog series comes in three bright colors—red, blue, and silver. It comes in a larger (though not the largest) case size in the Classic Fusion series: 42mm in diameter and 11mm thick. While the silver edition of the Classic Fusion Balloon Dog is made of fully polished stainless steel, the bright colors of the red and blue editions come from anodized aluminum. As a result, the textures of the blue and red cases feel quite different from that of the steel case, with a more diffused, grained texture as opposed to the glossy smoothness of the steel. Those who worry about case coatings should stick with the steel option, as anodized aluminum will show its raw aluminum layer when scratched.
The case, with its distinct puffy shape achieved through five-axis CNC machining, feels smooth and rounded to the touch, with a few extra balloon embellishments. The crown is designed to resemble a balloon knot, with a soft touch in the rubber-overmolded portion of each crown. Funnily enough, while this detail was conceived as an aesthetic one, the oversized rubber crown actually makes for a pretty easy user experience when winding and setting the time. Near the top left lug is a little extra piece of rubber jutting out from the side of the case, meant to symbolize the tail of the Balloon Dog, though I could have done squarely without it, since the case isn’t meant to mimic the shape of the balloon animal itself. It feels extraneous, which I know is a silly thing to say about such a maximalist design, but I think the case would have looked even better without it.
For the most part, every little detail on this watch feels deliberately designed, including the H-shaped titanium screws, which now have a domed look to match the puffier lugs and bezel. The dial continues the theme, with a puffed-up surface that seems chaotic at first but actually incorporates curves and dips to accommodate the applied oval hour markers. It’s printed with Hublot’s logo at 12 o’clock and Jeff Koons’ signature at six o’clock, and tying it all together is probably what all buyers of this watch are eager to see—the literal Balloon Dog, serving as a counterweight on the seconds hand. While the red and blue dials continue that slightly textured anodized look, the dial of the silver edition is mirror-polished for one of the most reflective I’ve ever seen.
What does disappoint on the dial is the date window. Here, it feels like an afterthought in what is overall an incredibly intentional design. But the date window feels a bit awkward and breaks the illusion of the overall design, with a frame that’s a bit too cramped relative to the numerals on the date disc. Some sort of extra detail, whether it is a frame for the date window, a color-matched disc, or even a new typeface, would have been a welcome addition here.
But the date window distraction will probably be forgotten soon, as the shiny, puffy strap comes into view. This is an absolutely gnarly strap that, while continuing with the inflatable theme, evokes tuck-and-roll car seating and diner booths for better or for worse. The insert, stitched all around, is finished in metallic leather for the blue and red editions and glossy polymer for the silver. The insert is then fitted into a rubber base for the strap, which frames the padded insert and lines the wrist.
Turn the watch around, and the caseback continues the inflated execution of the front, framing the automatic HUB1710 caliber behind the sapphire caseback. Unlike the Sellita-based calibers you typically expect in a Classic Fusion, this caliber is based on the (in-group) Zenith Elite 670, with a power reserve of 50 hours and a frequency of 28,800 VpH. The tungsten winding rotor is the main attraction on this side of the watch, with the Hublot “H” and rotor outline given a rounded balloon-animal treatment.
To say the watch is a statement on the wrist couldn’t be more clichéd, and yet for this Jeff Koons collaboration, it couldn’t be more apt. The 42mm Classic Fusion sizing, paired with the extremely bright and shiny coloring of each edition, makes this a very loud watch. It’s a bit broad, though still wearable on smaller wrists, but when I saw all types of wrist sizes try on the watches, I realized it doesn’t matter for something like this. The execution of this design significantly values a larger presence over something subtle and discreet.
Each Classic Fusion Balloon Dog watch comes with a box featuring—you guessed it—the Balloon Dog on top, in a chrome finish and color-matched to the watch inside. It contrasts with the rest of the box, which frames the reflective Balloon Dog with soft, rubber-like surfaces.
Image courtesy of Hublot
The Classic Fusion Balloon Dog watches are limited to 200 pieces each and priced at $25,100. For a non-precious-metal and non-complicated Classic Fusion, I believe that this edition marks the highest price point in the line’s history by a long shot. It’s a hundred dollars short of a 42mm Classic Fusion in solid gold, and almost three times as expensive as the standard Sellita-powered titanium Classic Fusion in the same size. But with this product straddling the watch and art worlds—even in its retail experience, as the watch will be available in select art galleries in addition to a select number of Hublot boutiques—it feels expected that the pricing strategy of such a piece would defy rationality (and let’s not forget that Jeff Koons is sure to want his cut of each sale). The buyer for this piece doesn’t think in terms of value delivered on a spec sheet, but through the more emotional lens of purchasing a piece of art.
I imagine this will be the most headline-grabbing and polarizing release Hublot produces this year. But as far as this collaboration is concerned, I think both Hublot and Koons have succeeded in accomplishing exactly what they sought to do, regardless of whether you see yourself as the target audience for this release—conceiving a ridiculously bright, shiny, rather kitsch trompe-l’œil watch that draws on one of the most iconic and recognizable pieces of modern pop art to this day. And, boy, I’m sure people will be talking about this one.
