Hublot and its competitors have reimagined and reinvented the wristwatch countless times over—the Swiss watchmaker’s “verticalized” MP-10 Weight Energy System Titanium, released earlier this year, looks and functions unlike anything else on the market today.
But the pocket watch, the wrist watch’s predecessor, is seldom the subject the innovation, let alone the platform on which a leading contemporary artist leaves his mark. In this way, the Hublot Arsham Drop is truly unprecedented.
The bauble is named for Daniel Arsham, renowned for his signature “eroded” approach to casting everything from classic Greek busts to modern sports cars in crumbling resin, plaster and aluminum oxide. While his Hublot creation may seem like a sideshow to his typical artistic focus, it’s really anything but.
“So much of my work is about thinking about the past and connecting it with the future, it’s like mixing times. This object looks like something with the past, it recalls this way of telling time that’s from another era, but it feels like a kind of technology of the future. In a way it has a lot of relationships with the other works that I make.”
Featuring a sandwich construction and dual domed teardrop-shaped sapphire crystals, the open-worked titanium case resembles delicate lace woven in a droplet pattern. Exactly 17 O-ring seals and six H-shaped screws ensure water 30 meters of water resistance, while the side bumpers are rendered in a custom Arsham Green rubber and covered in stamps of Arsham’s monogram.
The heart of the watch—partially visible through the caseback behind the largest Arsham monogram—is Hublot’s Meca-10 manufacture movement, boasting a 10-day power reserve. The Arsham Drop is presented with two titanium chains allowing it to be worn as a necklace or a pocket watch, but a mineral glass stand is also included on which to present the timepiece as a decorative sculpture.
Limited to 99 examples, the Hublot Arsham Drop is available to purchase now.