Over the course of the past two years, Brian Donnelly, the artist better known as KAWS , became skilled at avoiding public detection. If a photographer approached him at an event, he’d subtly twist his wrist inward. He couldn’t risk giving away the secret project he’s been working on since 2022.
But in early September some Instagram sleuths zoomed in on his wrist to find the telltale KAWS X’s on the face of his Audemars Piguet Royal Oak – the same X’s he regularly paints over the eyes of Bart Simpson, SpongeBob, Elmo, and other famous toons. The news was out: A KAWS Audemars Piguet Royal Oak was on the way. “I was bummed that the watch got out to the public, because I wanted to keep the snow fresh,” Donnelly told me during a video call recently.
However, the actual watch Donnelly made in collaboration with Audemars Piguet, which is to be released on November 19, has little in common with the custom one he was caught wearing. The real thing, called the Royal Oak Concept Tourbillon “Companion,” features an obsessively crafted miniature re-creation of the artist’s Companion figure trapped inside the watch face, palms pressed out against the crystal. Despite having this demented grayscale Mickey Mouse – like figurine inside, the titanium watch is “shockingly light,” Donnelly said, and comes with a brand-new movement with a tourbillon true to AP’s technical prowess.
While Donnelly has returned again and again to iconic cartoon characters for his work,.