One Last Dance

We roped in help as we look back at some of the standout timepieces of 2023.

- Asaph Low and Ben Kwok

Hublot MP-15 Takashi Murakami Tourbillon Sapphire

Asaph: Having worked with the Hublot Classic Fusion for the two previous rounds, it is only fitting that Takashi Murakami's three-peat collaboration with Hublot culminated with the Hublot MP-15 Takashi Murakami Tourbillon Sapphire. The masterpiece takes the form of Murakami's inimitable flower motif fashioned from transparent sapphire. One can only imagine the manufacturing complexity given the curvatures that run throughout the watch. At the watch's heart lies a central flying tourbillon with a whole week's power reserve. A special stylus designed for the Hublot MP-15 Takashi Murakami Tourbillon Sapphire winds the barrels fully in 100 revolutions.

Ben: The Hublot MP-15 Takashi Murakami Tourbillon Sapphire is - in some ways a reinvention of what a watch normally would look like. For this timepiece, Hublot and Murakami decided to integrate the watch's case, movement and dial singularly within Murakami's iconic twelve-petalled flower motif - an embodiment of the manufacture's "The Art of Fusion" motto. The case is also made from sapphire, elevating the watch by showing off the unique central flying tourbillon movement at the heart of the watch.

Cartier Santos-Dumont Micro-Rotor Skeleton

Asaph: Cartier's imaginative and at times whimsical disposition manifests as a fitting tribute to Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont. Without his request to Louis Cartier for a wristwatch, the Cartier Santos watch would not have seen the light of the world. The Cartier Santos-Dumont Micro-Rotor Skeleton plays on Cartier's signature skeletonisation technique with a figurine of Alberto Santos-Dumont's Demoiselle aeroplane as the watch's rotor. Upon motion, the aeroplane takes flight and powers the Cartier Santos-Dumont Micro-Rotor Skeleton into the realm of imagination.