Classic Fusion Cruz-Diez timepiece in titanium, 38 mm for $9,800, and 45 mm for $10,800 at Hublot, Beverly Hills; Hing Wa Lee, San Gabriel Square, hingwaleejewelers.com; Westime, West Hollywood, westime.com; hublot.com
A bold, inkworthy watch created with international tattoo sensation Sang Bleu. An angular, gemlike timepiece done in partnership with pop artist Richard Orlinski. A street-style art watch developed with Obey Giant artist Shepard Fairey. A sexy art-inspired piece from Marc Ferrero. These are only a few of Hublot’s unexpected collaborations that underline the fact that watch design can be an art form of its own.
Now, in a new project with the late artist Carlos Cruz-Diez, that practice takes on a whimsical yet technical new direction. The Classic Fusion Cruz-Diez timepiece presents a dial in an array of constantly changing colors as hours, minutes and seconds pass by. A set of parallel discs—saturated in Pantone colors and tied to the movement of the hour and minute hands—rotate in sequence, creating an ever-changing sea of tonality as light is polarized across a grid of black lines on the face. Cruz-Diez, who was considered a modern master of color theory, once said: “Color is light, time and space. Color is not the past; it is a continuous present.”
“We are very excited to present this project,” said Hublot CEO Ricardo Guadalupe from the watch’s recent unveiling at the Espace Expression gallery during Art Basel in Miami Beach. “It is the culmination of developments made since our first collaboration with Carlos Cruz-Diez in 2015 and a tribute to his work.”
Photography by: courtesy of Hublot
