Hublot’s art program, Hublot Loves Art, has produced collaborations with tattoo artists, musicians, and street artists for limited-edition Big Bang timepieces. Today, the brand is celebrating its newest partnership with artist Shepard Fairey.
Available in black and navy blue, the new Big Bang Meca-10 by Fairey features Hublot’s signature transparent style to its gear-driven mechanisms, and features a 10-day power reserve, Fairey’s “STAR GEAR” logo at 3 o’clock, and the brand’s “one click” technology on its wrist strap. To complement, the watch is also presented in a special case containing a signed and numbered print of either Star Gear Collage Red or Star Gear Collage Blue, framed in concrete.
Shepard Fairey.
Courtesy of Hublot.
“Deliberately thought-provoking and brilliantly controversial, Fairey is an icon and a legend in his field,” said Ricardo Guadalupe, CEO of Hublot. “For the first time, the street art star gives life to a miniature ‘mural’ on a time object. The ever-creative rebel has transformed our Big Bang Meca-10 into a canvas on which he distils his iconic aesthetic codes. The watch becomes a creative work fusing the Hublot take on watchmaking with Fairey’s street art.”
Last week, the brand celebrated the new collection with a soirée at the historic Mack Sennett Studios in Los Angeles. Outside, guests got a glance at American Dreamers—a mural that was painted by Fairey and artist Vhils in February. Inside, special attendees enjoyed an assortment of street food and crafted cocktails, interactive entertainment, and a DJ set by Fairey himself.
Big Bang Meca-10 by Hublot and Shepard Fairey.
Courtesy of Hublot.
Whitewall spoke with Fairey about the new watch, his very first art piece, and what he discovered within himself that’s led to success.
WHITEWALL: Tell us a bit about your Big Bang collection with Hublot. Where did your creative process begin?
Big Bang Meca-10 by Hublot and Shepard Fairey.
Courtesy of Hublot.
SHEPARD FAIREY: My creative process for working with Hublot was to look at the size of the “canvas” and think, “What are the natural elements within my work that would work harmoniously with the overall watch?” There isn’t a lot of surface area and the design shouldn’t be too flashy. I looked at the subtle elements of my work; a lot of the foundation work that I do in my collages have a subtle, tonal quality I thought would be elegant and could work well. The amazing thing [about] working with Hublot is that they say, “We can try anything that you want.” They were very open to anything that I wanted to experiment with and they take a lot of pride in pushing the envelope in terms of technique. This is a luxury timepiece so there’s no limitation to the length that they will go to execute something in a beautiful and sophisticated way.
WW: What about the brand do you most align with?
Big Bang Meca-10 by Hublot and Shepard Fairey.
Courtesy of Hublot.
SF: I like the design of Hublot and also find that they’re really innovative. Hublot is partnering with amazing people and pushing what’s possible with a watch. Moreover, we both share a certain sophistication meshed with elegant understatement is exactly my style.
WW: What was your starting point when co-creating these pieces?
Big Bang Meca-10 by Hublot and Shepard Fairey.
Courtesy of Hublot.
SF: I looked at the elements I use in my work that I think work well graphically and that can be read in a small area but also have a signature look that is recognizably mine.
WW: How does today’s climate (artistic, political, environmental, etc.) influence your design choices? Where are you drawing inspiration from?
Mack Sennett Studios.
Courtesy of Hublot.
SF: I draw inspiration from everything out there that’s powerful. I’m a student of art history and design history. I walk around cities and take photographs. I look at hand painted signage, murals, architecture, patterns in ironwork, in tiles, all these things inform what I make. But it’s all filtered through my sensibility in a way that I think is recognizably my own. I’m standing on the shoulders of all the great work that has come before me, but I think with my own voice.
WW: What was your very first creation?
Ricardo Guadalupe and Shepard Fairey.
Courtesy of Hublot.
SF: My involvement in street art began very humbly with 2½ inch (6.35 cm) stickers. I come from skateboarding and punk rock culture, but I loved graffiti and I loved the freedom of it. It wasn’t about anything commercial but about personal expression. I wanted to do something similar to that, but with imagery rather than ‘writing my name’. It started off very simply with the stickers. As I found some success around Providence in Rhode Island, Boston, and NYC, I then started to make stencils and posters and “liberated” some billboards, and just kept going bigger and bigger. With each small success I started to unlock my own potential and my own power and understand that I did have the ability to affect how people perceive the visual landscape. And that’s a really amazing thing to discover in yourself.
