Hublot CEO: Jeff Koons Collab Was An “Artistic and Technical Adventure”

By Karen Dybis | September 16, 2026

The watch world got another major celebrity moment and big media hit with the debut of two new watches from Hublot and its newest ambassador, artist Jeff Koons.

On Wednesday, Hublot x Koons debuted the Classic Fusion Balloon Dog—based on Koons’ most recognizable artwork—and the MP-14 Origin.

The watch brand calls the Classic Fusion Balloon Dog watch “a radical object of horology.” It is available in three shiny, puffy editions: mirror-polished stainless steel in red, blue, or anodized aluminum (pictured at top). Each design, which retails for $25,100, is limited to 200 pieces per edition.

Hublot describes the MP-14 Origin as a blend of high jewelry and high watchmaking. Using baguette-cut diamonds and sapphires, titanium, and white gold as its signature, the watch introduces Hublot’s first automatic central tourbillon. It is limited to only 30 pieces, and retails for $488,000.

Hublot MP14 Koons — *The MP-14 Origin is limited to 30 pieces and retails for $488,000.*

“Working with Jeff Koons on this project was both an artistic and technical adventure. What appears effortless and playful is, in reality, an extraordinary exercise in engineering, craftsmanship, and detail,” Hublot CEO Julien Tornare said in a statement.

On its website, Hublot touts the new balloon watches as “Time, inflated into art.” The brand illustrates the watch’s whimsical balloon-dog movement—the blue dog seems to take over the site, wandering around and sniffing. For the MP-14, it crows “Two universes built on transformation,” and notes that it took some 534 hours to create.

The details matter here. The case of the Classic Fusion Balloon Dog watch boasts an inflated design featuring a rubber “dog tail” at 10:30. The crown is designed to look like a balloon’s inflation valve. And the hands feature a bas-relief (i.e., slightly raised) balloon dog counterweight. In other words, they’re seriously charming.

With their bright colors and unique features, the watches already have the industry talking. British GQ called the Hublot x Jeff Koons collab “the right kind of ridiculous.” (It’s not Royal Pop levels of ridiculous, but we digress.)

The real question, watch observers say, is whether Koons’ infamous artworks will translate into timepiece sales. Hodinkee in its review did gush about the colors, textures, and feel of the Koons-Hublot watches, especially the Classic Fusion Balloon Dog versions.

Jeff Koons Hublot visit — *Artist Jeff Koons worked closely with the Hublot team to create his watches with the brand, replicating the feel and look of his famous artworks.*

“To say the watch is a statement on the wrist couldn’t be more clichéd, and yet for this Jeff Koons collaboration, it couldn’t be more apt,” Hodinkee’s Tantan Wang wrote. “The execution of this design significantly values a larger presence over something subtle and discreet.”

WatchPro called the MP-14 “technically ambitious” and a very different interpretation of Koons’ artistic language.

“The Balloon Dog transforms the artist’s instantly recognizable sculpture into a wearable object, while the MP-14 Origin uses a central tourbillon, sapphire construction and gem-setting to create what Hublot describes as a mechanical interpretation of the birth of the universe,” WatchPro‘s May Garland wrote.

The hardest part of this collaboration was figuring out how to turn a balloon sculpture into a watch, Hublot and Koons said in a statement. Hublot said every component of the Classic Fusion had to be reshaped to get that fullness and feeling.

“The watch has that playfulness of the idea of a balloon dog, but at the same time, it has the seriousness of the conceptual part. It shows how a balloon dog not only represents an optimism for the moment, but it also refers back to the image of a balloon dog through time, and there is the realization it is also tied to the profound,” Koons told Wallpaper.

Hublot announced its Koons partnership on Sept. 9, noting that both of their legacies are tied to the year 1980. That is when Hublot was founded and introduced its disruptive mix of luxury and practicality, putting a gold case on a rubber strap. That same year, Koons had his first solo exhibition at the New Museum in New York City.

Koons has made a career of his pop-culture relevance, and it has paid off handsomely. In 2019, Koons became known as “the most expensive living artist” after his Rabbit sculpture (1986) sold at Christie’s New York for $91.1 million.

Top: Hublot introduced its first collaboration with artist Jeff Koons with its Classic Fusion reimagined as one of the Koons balloon dogs. (Photos courtesy of Hublot)