Takashi Murakami has wanted to make a watch for a long time, and now that he has, it is nothing like a watch. The first piece from his new Time Objects project is called SKULL, and the case is the skull, sculpted in titanium. His famous smiling rainbow flowers sit in the eye sockets and spin as you move your wrist. There is no dial, no hands and no crown. To read the time you tilt it toward you and look at the side.
It is a real piece of mechanical watchmaking too. Behind the joke is a hand-wound tourbillon movement built only for him, with 409 parts.
How you read a watch with no face
The time shows through a small window at 6 o'clock, on the skull's chin. Hours sit on a rotating cylinder that jumps instantly when the hour changes, in 24-hour format, while the minutes creep past on a trailing disc below it. Murakami's studio calls it the world's first cylindrical jumping-hour display. Whether or not you buy that claim, it does mean the time is mostly private. Someone across the table sees a grinning skull, and only the wearer sees the numbers.
The details keep going. Murakami worked through more than 600 skull shapes before settling on this one. The case is about 44mm across and 18.4mm tall. Flip it over and a sapphire caseback shows the tourbillon at 12 o'clock, its cage decorated with a flower, next to a barrel bridge engraved with his skull and flower motif. Even the folding clasp on the rubber strap is a little titanium skull. Power reserve is about five days.
Five versions, very few of each
Chapter One comes in five takes on the same skull. The two titanium versions, Black Rainbow and All Black, are limited to 12 pieces each. Three gem-set versions, Full Pavé Diamonds, Full Pavé Black Diamonds and Full Pavé Rainbow, will be made in small numbers.
Here is the part most people will miss. You cannot just order one. Time Objects sells only through Kaikai Kiki and a short list of authorized dealers, and right now that list is all in Asia and Australia: three Japanese retailers in Tokyo, Obu and Kobe, Takashimaya in Singapore, L'atelier in Bangkok, and The Hour Glass in Kuala Lumpur and Sydney, with Hong Kong coming. Nothing in Europe or the US yet.
The reason he did it is the best line in the launch. In his own words, he has a fetish for mechanical forms like the ones in Star Wars, and he is fascinated by the capitalism inside the mech-fetish world of mechanical watches. Coming from the artist behind Superflat, that reads less like a confession and more like the whole concept. For another artist and watchmaker pairing, see our story on the Piaget Andy Warhol watch, and if tourbillons are new to you, start with how watch movements work.
Our call: the Black Rainbow is the one, if you can get an allocation. The gem-set versions bury the best idea, a matte black skull with color only in the eyes, under stones. With 24 titanium pieces in total and dealers only in Asia and Australia, expect a waiting list. For everyone else, the name Chapter One says there is more coming, and that is worth following.
