The London-based creative has worked with the Swiss watchmaker on an exclusive all black Big Bang, joining a growing list of collaborators from the world of art and design.
London-based artist Leonard Iheagwam, or “Soldier”, the name he goes by deriving from the strong military presence during his upbringing in Nigeria, moves between mediums spanning painting to sculpture with his work. But his latest project isn’t destined for the white walls of a spacious central London gallery. Soldier is now setting sights on the wrist. He has designed his own watch with Hublot: the Big Bang Soldier All Black. “It’s been two years of going to Geneva, speaking with the team, showing them artworks, and here we are,” says Iheagwam.
He joins a list of artistic collaborators who’ve worked with the watchmaker, including Samuel Ross and Daniel Arsham, and ties his experience as a skateboarder to his affection for the Maison. “When you look at skateboarding as a culture, it's an amalgamation of a bunch of things. There's music, there's fashion, there's sports, and when you think of the history of watches, it's music, fashion, and sports,” he says. “So I think it's a crazy throughline.”
The artist’s journey into watches didn’t follow the usual collecting bug to grail trajectory. He used to see watches through friends like fellow artist and watch head Slawn, who he co-founded Nigerian skate collective Motherlan with in 2018. “I didn’t even buy my own watch, I went from looking at one to making one, which is very rare,” says Iheagwam.
That rarity looks like a 50-piece limited Big Bang Chronograph. It deploys a 42mm microblasted and polished ceramic case and sapphire crystal dial for your wrist-wearing pleasure. And it’s powered by Hublot’s HUB1280 Unico manufacture movement. Plus, if you fancy amping things up, there are red and green interchangeable straps, too. It’s lean and mean enough to wear frequently, but packed with a limited-edition, high-horology collector appeal.
Upon first glance, the watch appears to be a stealthy, all black ticker that flies below the radar. But get a little closer, and that’s where things get interesting. Iheagwam decked out the bezel with his toy soldier moniker, which featured in his 2024 exhibition Your Cross to Bear, drawing on military motifs such as camouflage. The pattern is a regular theme in the artist’s work, informed by Soldier’s experiences of the military in Nigeria, where civilians are banned from wearing the print.
The incorporation of Iheagwam’s work on the canvas into the watch is part of a relationship with the brand that goes beyond watchmaking alone. He first started working with Hublot back in 2024 when the brand hosted his Champions exhibition in its London boutique. That led to Hublot asking Soldier to collaborate on a London watch which blossomed into a signature watch for the artist. Partnering with the Maison opened the doors to working with new materials, and allowed the artist to build on his collaborative ethos.
Courtesy of Hublot
“When we went to Geneva, it was like being a kid in a candy store. There were so many engineers who were showing us the microblasting and ceramics, and showing us how they put the diamonds into the bezel or the watch itself for some pieces. Being able to see the whole process, I fell in love because art is all about material,” says Iheagwam. “When you're making artworks, apart from painting, it's about working with different materials and transforming that into an artifact. So I think it's not too far from watchmaking. You create an object. There's material technicalities, and then eventually there's an object that holds a particular type of value and captures a particular essence. So for me, it's all the same in this weird way.”
Not a small feat, that is for sure. But what does it all feel like? For Iheagwam, the answer is simple. It’s “a dream come true,” he says.
