After a trendy evening event to launch the series and its game, for Watches and Wonders 2023, Hublot has just announced the other 12 watches in the Hublot Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami NFT series. We covered the original news of these 13 watches (and the NFTs that were required to buy them), and Ariel went hands-on at the launch event with the full rainbow edition. If you want the full rundown of what the hell is going on here or a more in-depth look at the models through Ariel’s experience with the most important one, I suggest you check out those two stories. Here’s a short version: Each of the 12 black ceramic watches shown herein comes with its own NFT, but to buy any of them, you need to already own one of the 324 previously released Hublot x Murakami NFTs. In turn, to buy the full rainbow, you need to somehow gather all 12 of the NFTs associated with the watches (by trade, purchase, or other means). Then and only then will you have the opportunity to buy the rainbow edition (at which point you must shout “Takashi, I choose you!”). If no one gets all 12 NFTs within the next year, the rainbow edition will be auctioned off for charity. It’s a game that sounds like it could be part of the next season of Squid Game, though with lower stakes (I hope). Herein, a brief look at the remaining 12 Hublot Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami models, just so you can decide if you want to try to get one.

The Hublot Classic Fusion Takashi Murakamis are solid black ceramic watches that measure 45mm across and 13.45mm thick. They feature a combination of satin finishing and polishing, a bezel with exposed screws, a sapphire crystal, and 50m of water resistance. The watches are all attached to black rubber straps. But the dials are of most interest here. Instead of the full rainbow of what I hope will be the charity model, these 12 references each feature freely spinning flowers with 12 petals set with a total of 324 gemstones of a single color (except for one model, which splits each petal between pink and lavender). They are set against a micro-blasted rhodium-plated background, and given that the flowers spin freely, they are not usable as hour indicators, so you’ll have to do your best to read the time on the polished sword hands. Those hands are partially concealed by a gem-set rainbow smiley face—Murakami’s signature design—at the center of each dial, but set above (that is, outside) the sapphire crystal.

For those who want to be ironic and actually use this as a daily wear and tell the time, they can be assured that the movement driving those stubby hands should keep the watch accurate. This is the self-winding Unico Manufacture, operating at 4hz with about three days of power reserve. The caseback is solid polished ceramic as well, with a sapphire crystal for movement viewing parties. Even with rather simple movements, the chasm between the beauty of the dial and that of the movement is rarely as wide as it is between this caliber and the Murakami dial.

This is Hublot doing what it does best: collaborating and having fun. The brand is simultaneously hitting on three huge trends: NFTs, art, and gaming (to an extent). Add to that the insatiable desire for people with money to have things other people with money don’t have, and you’ve got a sure hit on your hands. By the time you get to this sentence, odds are these 12 watches will be spoken for, and the race to gather all 12 NFTs will have started. Or, if I may be optimistic, everyone will get together and decide that auctioning the watch off for charity is noble and the right thing to do, and in a year, we’ll get to see what the full rainbow hammers for. The 12 non-rainbow Hublot Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami models are priced at CHF 50,000. For more information, please visit the brand’s website.