Takashi Murakami, I AM WATCH: colour and pattern in Swiss horology
The artist who synthesised Japanese visual culture with contemporary art now turns his hand to Swiss watchmaking, treating each timepiece as a canvas for colour and pattern. He debuts the collection at a dedicated gathering in Singapore this November.
AI-assisted voice playback. Starts only when you choose Play.
Takashi Murakami spent three decades collapsing the boundary between high art and popular culture, treating Japanese woodblock prints and anime as equal visual languages. His Superflat theory, articulated in the late 1990s, declared that post war Japanese culture had erased distinction between fine art and craft. Now, at 58, he has turned that vocabulary towards something that measures time: I AM WATCH, his own horological venture, built from the ground up with Swiss watchmaking expertise rather than licensed to an existing house.
The collection treats the watch dial as a canvas. Rather than the restraint that defines much modern watchmaking, the pieces carry Murakami’s signature motifs—his hand painted flowers, smiling skulls, abstracted natural forms—rendered in the jewel toned and neon saturated colours that have defined his practice since the early 2000s. What distinguishes this from other artist collaborations is ownership: this is Murakami’s own brand, not a partnership within an existing framework. He holds complete authority over design language, manufacturing standards and the brand’s philosophical direction.
The venture grows from Kaikai Kiki, Murakami’s art production and management company founded in 2004, which has enabled collaborations across fashion, animation, music and design. Each project has been treated with the same conceptual rigour as his gallery works. I AM WATCH represents the first time he has created his own branded product house, a logical step for a practice built on dissolving boundaries between East and West, craft and fine art, gallery and street.
For those drawn to Murakami’s work over the past thirty years, the move into watchmaking feels inevitable. His practice has always been about breaking down hierarchies: between East and West, between craft and fine art, between the gallery and the street. A watch is one of the few objects that manages to be simultaneously functional, personal and deeply symbolic, marking time passing on the wrist. In Murakami’s hands, it becomes a small, wearable universe where his visual philosophy lives and breathes. The details of the collection, including reference numbers, movements and pricing, will be revealed at the Singapore gathering and on the brand’s website.
Takashi Murakami founded Kaikai Kiki, his art production and management company, in 2004, establishing the infrastructure through which he moves between fine art, commercial design and experimentation with new forms. The company has enabled collaborations across fashion, animation, music and design, each project treated with the same conceptual rigour as his gallery works. I AM WATCH represents the first time Murakami has created his own branded product house rather than collaborating within an existing framework, giving him complete authority over design language, manufacturing standards and the philosophical direction of the brand.
The watches themselves combine Japanese aesthetic principles with Swiss mechanical engineering, a pairing that mirrors Murakami’s broader artistic methodology. The dials feature his hand painted flowers, his characteristic smiling skulls and abstracted natural forms rendered in the jewel toned and neon saturated colours that have defined his practice since the early 2000s. Rather than treating the dial as secondary to the movement, Murakami positions it as the primary artistic statement, with each reference in the collection assigned its own narrative and visual identity, transforming what might otherwise be functional specifications into conceptual markers.
The Singapore EDITION event functions as both product launch and artistic gathering, a format consistent with how Murakami has always presented his work: accessible, immersive and designed to dissolve the boundary between viewer and artwork. The three day public opening from 13 to 15 November 2026 will allow potential collectors to examine the watches, meet Murakami directly and understand the manufacturing philosophy behind each piece. Further details including specific references, movement specifications, dial dimensions and retail prices will be unveiled during the Singapore gathering and subsequently on iamwatch.com.
Imagery courtesy of I AM WATCH (@takashipom).
