The first Time Object transforms Murakami’s skull and flower motifs into a sculptural titanium watch featuring a cylindrical jumping-hours display and a dedicated tourbillon movement.
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Photo Courtesy: Takashi Murakami
A New Time Object by Takashi Murakami
Takashi Murakami introduces the Skull Flowers Cylindrical Jumping Hours Tourbillon, marking the first chapter of an exploration that brings the artist’s visual language into Swiss Haute Horlogerie.
Conceived as a wearable art object, the creation transforms Murakami’s iconic skull and flower motifs into a three-dimensional watch architecture. Rather than placing the artwork on a conventional dial or case, the skull itself becomes the structure of the timepiece.
From 600 Skull Designs to One Sculptural Form
The development of the skull case began with an extensive artistic exploration. Murakami considered more than 600 skull shapes before defining the final sculptural design.
His signature flowers occupy the skull’s eye sockets, with petals that rotate through a ball-bearing system as the wearer moves their wrist. The resulting animation introduces movement and playfulness into the watch’s visual composition.
The skull and flowers represent contrasting aspects of human existence: life and mortality, beauty and impermanence. These themes form the foundation of Murakami’s concept, The Chronos Paradox.
A New Approach to Reading Time
The watch introduces what the brand describes as the world’s first cylindrical jumping-hours display.
There is no conventional dial, crown or set of hands. Instead, the hours and minutes are displayed through a lateral aperture positioned at six o’clock. The wearer reads the time by tilting the watch outward.
The 24-hour indication appears on a rotating cylinder, jumping instantaneously at the beginning of each new hour. Minutes are displayed on a trailing disc and advance continuously.
This unconventional arrangement makes the time display an integral part of the sculptural design.
Grade 5 Titanium and Sculptural Architecture
The skull-shaped case is sculpted from Grade 5 titanium and measures approximately 44mm in diameter and 18.4mm in height.
Its three-dimensional construction accommodates the unusual time display, rotating flowers and mechanical movement within a single artistic form.
The architecture reflects the central idea behind the Time Object: the watchmaking construction adapts to the artwork rather than the artwork being adapted to a conventional watch design.
Calibre KM 7012 TM: A Dedicated Tourbillon Movement
Powering the Skull Flowers is the hand-wound Calibre KM 7012 TM, developed exclusively for Takashi Murakami.
The movement comprises 409 components and 81 jewels, operates at a frequency of 3 Hz and delivers an approximately five-day power reserve.
A tourbillon decorated with Murakami’s signature flower motif is positioned at twelve o’clock and can be viewed through the sapphire caseback. The reverse also reveals a barrel bridge engraved with the artist’s skull and flower design.
The movement brings together the cylindrical jumping-hours mechanism, trailing-minutes display and tourbillon within an architecture designed around Murakami’s artistic vision.
The Chronos Paradox: Art, Time and Mortality
At the centre of the project is The Chronos Paradox, an exploration of the relationship between time and human mortality.
The skull represents the finite nature of life, while the flowers introduce the themes of beauty, renewal and vitality. Together, they create a visual expression of the tension between permanence and the passing moment.
Through the Skull Flowers Cylindrical Jumping Hours Tourbillon, Takashi Murakami brings this philosophy into a mechanical object, where artistic expression, movement and time display become part of a single creation.
Availability
The Skull Flowers Cylindrical Jumping Hours Tourbillon by Takashi Murakami are available through the official website. For further information, visit: https://watch.kaikaikiki.com/
