Over the course of the previous two years, Brian Donnelly, the artist higher often known as KAWS, turned expert at avoiding public detection. If a photographer approached him at an occasion, he’d subtly twist his wrist inward. He couldn’t threat giving freely the key mission he’s been engaged on since 2022. However in early September some Instagram sleuths zoomed in on his wrist to search out the telltale KAWS X’s on the face of his Audemars Piguet Royal Oak—the identical X’s he frequently paints over the eyes of Bart Simpson, SpongeBob, Elmo, and different well-known toons. The information was out: A KAWS Royal Oak was on the best way. “I used to be bummed that the watch obtained out to the general public, as a result of I wished to maintain the snow recent,” Donnelly informed me throughout a video name lately.
Nonetheless, the precise watch Donnelly made in collaboration with Audemars Piguet, which is to be launched on November 19, has little in frequent with the customized one he was caught sporting. The true factor, known as the Royal Oak Idea Tourbillon “Companion,” options an obsessively crafted miniature re-creation of the artist’s Companion determine trapped contained in the watch face, palms pressed out towards the crystal. Regardless of having this demented grayscale Mickey Mouse–like figurine inside, the titanium watch is “shockingly gentle,” Donnelly mentioned, and comes with a brand-new motion with a tourbillon true to AP’s technical prowess.
Whereas Donnelly has returned repeatedly to iconic cartoon characters for his work, the roots of this new Royal Oak Idea return to a different fictional universe: Marvel comics. Over the previous few years, the watchmaker launched a collection of timepieces with Black Panther and Spider-Man figures on the heart. These superhero designs confirmed KAWS that Audemars Piguet may make actual his imaginative and prescient. “I believed, If I’m going to do a watch with them, I need to do one thing that’s actually in step with the sculptures I do and have it reside in a watch area,” Donnelly defined. “Seeing the Marvel [watches], instantly I knew there was no query we may go in that path.”
The sculpture contained in the case is a shrunken model of the large-scale Companions that Donnelly reveals in galleries and museums around the globe. “I’m used to working with these large scales of 20 meters, so to work on one thing that’s sitting [inside a watch that’s] simply 43 millimeters is absolutely fascinating,” he mentioned. However whether or not he’s constructing a three-story-tall sculpture or one match for a wrist, he’s in search of the most effective materi-als and companions. “I’m fascinated by watches,” Donnelly mentioned. “There’s a lot that goes on this small, little object; it’s just a little jewel field.” AP isn’t enlisting Donnelly just for the wrist-size work—the artist can also be putting in a big, inflatable Companion on the roof of the producer’s headquarters in Le Brassus, Switzerland.
This KAWS collaboration is the pure results of watch fascination transcending the area of interest world of die-hard fans. Donnelly sees an analogous factor occurring within the artwork world. “I really feel just like the watch world has gone by means of an analogous development [to art] the place it might need existed on this connoisseur area of interest,” he mentioned, “and now it’s opened as much as much more folks.” As a consequence, the watch trade has been evolving to welcome new purchasers. Few do that higher than Audemars Piguet, which has collaborated throughout the popular culture spectrum from Marvel to Travis Scott to the style designer Matthew Williams.
Watch fans usually argue that there isn’t a luxurious higher than a timepiece, as a result of you may take it all over the place. The Ferrari will get left within the storage, and the ski home in Vail sits empty for months at a time. You possibly can purchase considered one of Donnelly’s work for just a few million {dollars}, however will probably be caught in your wall once you depart for dinner. The KAWS AP, nonetheless, will probably be your companion wherever you go.
Cam Wolf is GQ’s Watch Editor.
A model of this story initially appeared within the 2024 GQ Males of the Yr problem with the title “A Companion for Your Wrist”
