We continue to highlight a few of our favorite watches from among the more than sixty watchmakers that have created timepieces for the Only Watch charity auction, which commences Sunday, November 5, in Geneva. Christie’s will auction these incredible one-of-a-kind watches to raise funds that benefit research in the battle against Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
While you may have seen a few of the watches set for auction earlier this year when Only Watch announced them, we thought you’d enjoy seeing many of these impressive designs again just ahead of the event.
The watches are currently touring the globe. After concluding their U.S. visit at Christie’s in New York on September 17, the tour will visit Monaco next, followed by stops in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Dubai and back in Geneva. See the Only Watch website for tour dates and details. 
In this post we highlight The MP-15 Takashi Murakami Tourbillon Only Watch (pictured above) by Hublot and the artist, another exceptional piece in the auction this year. Like many in this year’s auction, it glows with bright color and requires a high technical level of workmanship. 
This sapphire-cased watch showcases a unique central tourbillon especially conceived for this watch. In addition to showing Hublot’s technical acumen, the idea here is to show that the tourbillon represents the heart of the person who buys it at the auction.
Murakami explicitly requested the inclusion of a central tourbillon, which is now Hublot’s very first central tourbillon.
In this design, the cannon pinion and the hour wheel had to be pivoted around the tourbillon support by creating a co-axial construction. This was made possible thanks to the central flying tourbillon that is seemingly suspended in mid-air with two hands passing under its cage to indicate the hours and minutes. 
These hands gravitate towards twelve luminescent indices that echo the colors of the 2023 edition of the Only Watch. And with two barrels, the manual movement offers an incredible 150-hour power reserve. Mounted in series but on a single plane, these barrels can be admired through the sapphire case back.
Estimate: CHF 350,000 – CHF 400,000.
The colors chosen for the third limited edition are those of sunset, recalling the heightened danger faced by rhinos as night falls. Here, the sun is a symbol of hope, of a new dawn.
“Our actions on the ground (surveillance teams and equipment to prevent poaching, rhino sanctuaries and refuges) are vital. However, in order to act, we first need to raise public awareness, increase publicity and make this a visible cause,” adds Pietersen.
