Jeff Koons just taught his Balloon Dogs a new trick.
The famed artist, known for his vibrant, playful sculptures of inflatable pups (one of which fetched over $58 million at auction in 2013), has teamed up with Hublot to turn his creations into a collection of watches. The new trio, done up in bright, shiny hues of blue, red, and silver, offers up a puffed-up take on the brand’s Classic Fusion timepiece, bringing a piece of contemporary art right to your wrist.
Indeed, Hublot has injected its sleek (and much flatter) Classic Fusion with much more volume for the 42 mm Balloon Dog iteration, an effect that it achieved by completely re-engineering the timepiece. As a result, the watchmaker reshaped and domed many elements on display: The sapphire crystal, for one, has been raised, while the case, bezel and dial were all given a distinct puffy appearance—even the titanium screws were inflated. And the dial, adorned with Koons’s signature as well as Hublot’s emblem, is home to a “balloon tail” at 10:30, a date display at 3 o’clock, a Balloon Dog-shaped seconds hand counterweight, and inflated Super-LumiNova indexes and hands.
As for material, the blue and red variants have been made from polished anodized aluminum, which allows Hublot to nail the exact vibrant hue pulled from Koons’ artwork. The silver number is made from polished stainless steel. Inside, each watch is powered by the brand’s HUB1710 automatic movement (which can be seen through the caseback), offering up a frequency of 4 Hz and a 50-hour power reserve. The strap got the inflated treatment, too, made from rubber with a debossed metallic leather insert in the corresponding color.
“Working with Jeff Koons on this project was both an artistic and technical adventure,” Julien Tornare, Hublot’s CEO, said in a press statement. “What appears effortless and playful is, in reality, an extraordinary exercise in engineering, craftsmanship and detail. We challenged every construction principle of the Classic Fusion to create the illusion of inflation and volume while preserving the integrity of fine watchmaking.”
The Classic Fusion Balloon Dog by Jeff Koons, limited to just 200 pieces per colorway, is priced at $24,100. It’s a collection that’s definitely going to drive chatter online, since people are bound to have opinions about the trio’s look. Hublot really leaned all the way in here, crafting a watch that does truly encompass the vibrancy and fun of the Balloon Dogs on the wrist. And whether you think the models are a bit too loud or not, we bet this lineup will get some collectors’ tails wagging.