|
Hublot has never been a brand to color inside the lines, and the MP-17 Meca-10 Arsham Splash Titanium Sapphire proves it once again. Created in collaboration with New York–based artist Daniel Arsham, this limited-edition piece of 99 captures the kinetic beauty of water in motion—frozen in titanium, sapphire, and imagination. It’s not just a watch; it’s a sculptural experiment in transparency, form, and flow. Inspired by the organic curves of a splash and powered by Hublot’s in-house Meca-10 movement, it’s as much an art piece as it is a timepiece, expressing both Hublot’s technical audacity and Arsham’s fascination with the fluidity of time.  Hublot's MP-17 Meca-10 Arsham Splash is a limited edition of 99 pieces. Photo courtesy of Hublot. The 42mm case is a masterstroke of the Art of Fusion, merging a frosted sapphire crystal, titanium, and rubber into a single, continuous gesture. A splash-shaped aperture cuts across the dial—an evolution of Arsham’s previous Droplet collaboration—while every curve and contour seems in motion. Beneath this fluid surface beats the Meca-10, a hand-wound movement with a remarkable 10-day power reserve visible through the transparent caseback. Hublot’s signature details remain intact: the six H-screws, the bold lugs, and the architectural balance that has defined the brand since the first Big Bang. It’s an act of creative fearlessness—Hublot letting an artist reinterpret its DNA without restraint. The Splash revels in contradiction: sculptural yet wearable, minimal yet expressive, experimental yet engineered with Swiss precision. Arsham’s signature green illuminates the numerals, markers, and power reserve display, giving the piece an almost sci-fi luminescence that feels alive, in motion, suspended mid-splash. The result is pure creative chemistry between art and horology, collapsing past, present, and future into one continuous moment.  Multidisciplinary artist Daniel Arsham. Photo courtesy of Hublot. The MP-17 Meca-10 Arsham Splash Titanium Sapphire is Hublot at its most playful and most profound—a brand unafraid to turn high watchmaking into an art form that drips with personality and invention. Like a drop of water suspended in midair, the MP-17 captures the impossible — time, movement, and mischief, all at once.  Arsham’s first wristwatch design for Hublot is a wearable sculpture, and Arsham’s creative direction is evident from every curve. Photo courtesy of Hublot.
0 Comments
I’ve been lost lately in Netflix’s K-Pop Demon Hunters, a kaleidoscope of pulsing beats and supernatural battles where every frame is washed in a surreal violet haze. Whole cityscapes glow in lavender light; shadows bleed into pop shades of aqua and fuchsia. Watching it, I realized how rare the color purple truly is in our everyday lives, unlike black, blue, or silver—staples of the watch world—purple feels almost illicit, a shade reserved for dream sequences, royalty, or rebellion. That scarcity is precisely what makes it so irresistible. And in 2025, purple has also become the year’s breakout star in watchmaking.  The sure-to-be-influential color palette of Netflix's K-pop Demon Hunters includes a vast array of purples, violet, and lavender. End of 2024 NOMOS Glashütte set the tone with its Club Sport Neomatik 34 “Purple,” a Bauhaus silhouette enlivened by a sunburst dial that shifts from lilac sparkle to midnight plum. Rolex reintroduces a muted lavender Oyster Perpetual, reviving the cult memory of the “Red Grape” OP and proving the Crown knows the power of a color comeback. TAG Heuer goes bolder, with a Carrera Glassbox gradient dial that deepens toward black, a perfect marriage of sport and drama.  An example of the mesmerizing lavender hues of the most-watched movie in NETFLIX history, Kpop Demon Hunters. Hublot, predictably maximalist, builds an entire Big Bang case out of translucent purple sapphire, turning color into architecture. Independents take it further still: Speake Marin’s Tourbillon Purple Hour bathes its openworked dial in violet PVD, while De Bethune’s Starry Varius DB25XS heat-treats titanium into shimmering reddish-purple sky. Across price points and philosophies, purple is no longer a curiosity—it’s a movement. Playful, regal, cultural, futuristic: in 2025, purple is the shade through which watchmakers are rewriting the rules of color.  The Rolex Oyster Perpetual, featuring a matte lavender dial, is available in 28mm to 36mm diameter configurations. Rolex Oyster Perpetual “Lavender” – Rolex revives its cult-favorite purple tones, from lilac to the deeper “Red Grape,” bringing fresh energy to the Oyster Perpetual line. A rare burst of color from the Crown, it blends heritage with a dash of irreverence.  The Grand Seiko Spring Drive U.F.A. Limited Edition SLGB005 Ice Forest "Violet Dawn" Grand Seiko unveils the color's newest addition, Spring Drive U.F.A. Limited Edition SLGB005 Ice Forest "Violet Dawn", powered by the groundbreaking Caliber 9RB2, which achieves ±20 seconds per year accuracy. The textured violet dial captures dawn breaking over Shinshu's frost-lit forests, a poetic background for the smooth glide of the seconds hand. Limited to 1,300 pieces worldwide, this creation embodies Grand Seiko's relentless pursuit of beauty, precision, and innovation.  Nomos Club Sport Neomatik 34 “Purple” – A softer expression of the trend, this 34 mm everyday piece uses a sunburst purple dial that shifts between shimmer and shadow. It’s playful without abandoning Nomos’ restrained Bauhaus DNA.  TAG Heuer Carrera Glassbox Purple – This 39 mm chronograph goes bold with a gradient dial that fades from luminous purple at the center to near-black at the edge. Sporty yet elegant, it shows that purple can be powerful, not playful.  Part of the Big Bang 20th Anniversary “Master of Sapphire” set features five examples of the Big Bang MECA-10, each cased in a different sapphire or SAXEM case: transparent sapphire. The purple example, seen here. Hublot Big Bang Purple Sapphire – The most audacious of the lot, Hublot constructs the entire case from translucent purple sapphire. Architectural and futuristic, it transforms purple into both a material and a manifesto. Sold as an anniversary set of five different color sapphire watches.  Unveiled during Geneva Watch Days 2025, the Speake Marin Openworked Tourbillon Purple Hour. Speake Marin Tourbillon Purple Hour – A bold, high-complication take on the purple trend, this 38 mm or 42 mm titanium piece features a 3D purple PVD dial framing a flying tourbillon at 1:30. Technical yet theatrical, it pairs haute horlogerie mechanics with unapologetic color, proving that purple can be as serious as it is striking.
|
|
RSS Feed