Wind Vintage x Marc Newson Green Titanium Nanoball HG Timepieces

If you had told me a few years ago that I would be collaborating with Marc Newson, I would have told you that you were joking. Marc Newson is a legend, and I would argue the greatest living industrial designer. From chairs to cars to watches to clocks to knives to pens to jackets to his famous hourglasses, everything Marc touches is special.

It is with the greatest excitement that I can announce my collaboration with Marc and the HG Timepieces company that he founded. I remember when the HG Timepiece hourglass was first introduced in 2010, followed by a highly successful collaboration with HODINKEE and a unique piece for Only Watch. The HG Timepieces are in a sense a very simple and ancient object, but they are also sculptures that serve as a memento mori of our limited time on this Earth. Eventually our own grains of sand – or titanium nanoballs in this case – run out.

The original HG Timepieces, made under the Ikepod name, had steel nanoballs. More recently, HG Timepiece innovated the use of larger titanium nanoballs that provide both a more visceral experience through a larger look and louder noise but also offer the ability to turn the nanoballs into a wider range of colors through an innovative heating process.

I purchased one of the original hourglasses – an hour size with the copper-colored steel nanoballs - back in 2020 to celebrate the sale of an important watch. That HG Timepiece has been an object of fascination to my children and clients for the past six years.

Green is my favorite color, and I wondered about making HG Timepieces with green nanoballs since the HG Timepiece company had pivoted to using titanium nanoballs. A good friend who is also a Marc Newson collector and I approached Nicole Viot of the HG Timepiece company with the idea. Marc and Nicole were excited at the prospect of this endeavor, but little did we anticipate it would take over two years of hard work and numerous failed attempts to develop the uniform green color we see in this final HG Timepieces. The color is, in a word, magnificent.

These sculptures are not inexpensive or for the faint of wallet: the 5-minute HGTi 05 « Green » is CHF 21’000, the 10-minute HGTi 10 « Green » is CHF 32’400, and the 30-minute HGTi 30 « Green » is CHF 78’900. If you are familiar with the steel nanoball sizing, please note that our 30-minute sizing is exactly equivalent to the previous steel nanoball 60-minute size. It is also important to note that HG Timepieces now have an improved glass that is much clearer than on the previous models.

I can only say that I am a proud owner of all three green Wind Vintage HG Timepieces and am excited to pass them on to my children one day. Marc Newson loves the final result so much that he has ordered a 30-minute example for his own collection. That is truly a "pinch me" moment for me.

We are excited to offer a limited number of these for sale to the general public. Please contact us if you would like to submit an order: info@windvintage.com