LIMPIDE BLISS
Unveiled last November in Singapore, the latest work born of the collaboration between the Japanese visual artist and the Manufacture de Nyon displays the famous radiant flower with its transparent petals, with no modesty but with great technical skill.
The exciting creative adventure between Takashi Murakami and Hublot takes the fusion of artistic beauty and mechanical prowess to a new level, as demonstrated by their latest joint creation. After the limited editions Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami All Black, Sapphire Rainbow and Black Ceramic, featuring a corolla lined with a range of colorful gems (black diamonds, rubies, blue, yellow, orange or pink sapphires, amethysts, tsavorites, among others), the famous radiant flower from the specialist in Superflat, a contemporary movement strongly influenced by the world of Japanese pop culture, “japanimation” and manga graphics, opts for limpid bliss. With the MP-15 Takashi Murakami Tourbillon Sapphire, a spectacular horological composition produced in 50 pieces, the crystalline material is magnified with the same force as the most precious metal.
“Up until now, my work has focused on color. It was a really exciting challenge to start a whole new chapter focussing on absolute transparency. The forms and volumes are perceived completely differently”, explains the Tokyo-born artist. The twelve delicately machined sapphire crystal petals shape the unique, curved silhouette of the 42mm-diameter, 13.40mm-thick case with an almost organic softness. This roundness echoes the hyaline fluted crown.
As a tubular finial, under the joyful gaze and blissful smile of the stylized daisy, the dial in diaphanous composite resin supports a central tourbillon on which are secured the two white hands trimmed with a dark border. These indicate the hours and minutes by pointing towards the luminescent hour-markers affixed to an anthracite ring towards the top. Assembled with 236 extremely openworked components to diffuse the light freely, the hand-wound HUB9015 caliber beats at the quiet frequency of 3hz and provides, via a pair of barrels, an energy reserve of close to 150 hours (more than six days), the average life of a lovely bouquet.
