Japanese watchmaker, Hajime Asaoka teams up with artist, Takashi Murakami to manufacture a ‘show-off’ timepiece that makes it difficult to tell time, but boy is it nice to look at.
Although tourbillon mechanisms were initially added to watches in an attempt to improve accuracy of time telling (via nullifying gravity), they are still included in some high end models as a novelty item, demonstrating the watchmakers bravura craftsmanship.
Skulls, on the other hand, are predominantly found on cheap watches. Unless you’re wearing something from Alexander McQueens collection, the skulls scream tacky. The Japanese collaboration of Takashi Murakami x Hajime Asaoka has produced a watch somewhere in the middle of that spectrum.
The Death Takes No Bribe watch is a manual winding one with a tourbillon mechanism and skull designs on the face. Each skull’s eyes are filled with an illustration of a smiling flower – Asaoka x Murakami signature sits near the right side of the face with an inscription that reads ‘Death Takes No Bribe’. The hour hand looks like a dagger while the minute hand offers diminishing waves, perhaps symbolizing a pulse coming to a flatline.
If you’re interested in this piece, Asaoka will premiere the watch at the Academie Horlogere des Createurs Independants’ (AHCI) 2013 watch fair in Basel, Switzerland.
Death Takes No Bribe Tourbillion Watch from Takashi Murakami x Hajime Asaoka – more info
