Jean-Michel Basquiat x Komono Capsule Watch Collection

Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988) was born and raised in Brooklyn, the son of a Haitian-American father and a Puerto Rican mother. At an early age, he showed a precocious talent for drawing, and his mother enrolled him as a Junior Member of the Brooklyn Museum when he was six. Basquiat first gained notoriety as a teenage graffiti poet and musician. By 1981, at the age of twenty, he had turned from spraying graffiti on the walls of buildings in Lower Manhattan to selling paintings in SoHo galleries, rapidly becoming one of the most accomplished artists of his generation. Astute collectors began buying his art, and his gallery shows sold out. Critics noted the originality of his work, its emotional depth, unique iconography, and formal strengths in color, composition, and drawing. By 1985, he was featured on the cover of The New York Times Magazine as the epitome of the hot, young artist in a booming market. Tragically, Basquiat began using heroin and died of a drug overdose when he was just twenty-seven years old.

25 years since his passing Jean-Michel Basquiat's work lives on with KOMONO applying the late artist’s paintings to their watches, making playfully loud and colourful timepieces. Each and every watch in the capsule features a unique printed fabric wristband, each boasting a homage of a Basquiat painting. 

Six styles are featured in the capsule collection, depicting a different detail of a particular Basquiat painting. Ranging from plain silver, black and gold faces to ones with Basquiat’s iconic sketched crown the watches take inspiration from the artists blatant disregard for traditional boundaries between artistic mediums briding the gap between fashion accessories and high art. 

Crown your wrist with the heroic beauty of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Komono available online now.