Hublot Taps Artist Soldier for 50-Piece Limited Edition at £22,900

Hublot has released 50 limited-edition timepieces designed by Soldier, the Nigerian-born, London-based visual artist, with prices starting at £22,900 ($30,303). The artist, born Leonard Iheagwam, unveiled the collaboration at Hublot's store on New Bond Street in London.

The watches are made in black ceramic and black-plated titanium, adorned with small toy sliders and a cross — recurring motifs in Soldier's work. He first debuted them in 2024 with Angelica Mara Jopling of Incubator. The 42 mm chronograph places more toy soldiers inside the dial and bezel. The partnership took two years to develop.

How did the Hublot deal come about?

The origins were casual. Soldier attended the preview of Hublot's Daniel Arsham collaboration in 2024 and asked to show some paintings. Hublot agreed.

"The collaboration came together really organically. I was invited to the Daniel Arsham collaboration preview in 2024 and at the time I had made a few paintings that needed a space to preview, Hublot let me do it in their London store, which led to them asking me to do create a London watch," Soldier told ARTnews.

What does the artist say about designing a watch?

Soldier compared the design process to painting, invoking Marcel Duchamp's Fountain (1917). Both, he argued, are ready-mades.

"A watch is already an object, which has thought behind it, and so the process is quite simple," said Soldier. He visited the brand's Swiss headquarters to observe the watchmaking process firsthand. "Art and watches are not mass-produced items, there are actual engineers who work on creating such a piece," he said.

He never wore a watch growing up. He now wears a Hublot engraved with the phrase "artist proof."

Why toy soldiers and a cross?

The motifs are autobiographical. The toy soldiers refer to his upbringing in Nigeria; the cross links to his father, a reverend.

"We didn't really come from a lot of money, and growing up, I used to skateboard wearing camouflage clothing, so I had a lot of run-ins with the police and army because civilians weren't allowed to wear camouflage because of the civil war," Soldier said.

He moved to England in 2019. His work draws on his adolescence. His solo exhibition at Jopling, "When The Saints Go Marching," showed paintings inspired by memories of the war alongside more nostalgic material: religious iconography and portraits of his family.

What comes next?

Soldier teased a "big" show planned for 2028, declining to name the institution. He called the exhibition "very important" for the Nigerian creative scene, arguing that visual art there has not taken off to the same degree as fashion, citing Lagos Fashion Week.

"I didn't grow up thinking I could be a painter, neither could my parents. I've only been showing work for the past three years," said Soldier, who now counts art world figures such as Charlie Gosling, Lorenzo Amos and Robert Nava among his friends.

Three years into his exhibiting career, the artist now moves between painting, a Swiss manufacture and an unnamed institution for 2028 — a trajectory that makes the Hublot edition an early marker of where his market may head.