In-Depth: Marc Newson Opens Up About Ikepod, The Pathbreaking ’90s Watch Brand That’s Cool All Over Again
Perhaps owing to the involvement of the art collector Lindemann, Gen 2 Ikepod also tried another new strategy: the collaboration. While today we’re inundated with new watch collabs every day, that wasn’t the case a decade ago, so Ikepod brought an idea that was already gaining popularity in other disciplines, like fashion and art, into watches. Ikepod’s most high-profile collabs were with artists KAWS and Jeff Koons – today, these are the Ikepod models that might achieve results upwards of $40,000 or $50,000, depending on the mood of the day. Released in 2012, the KAWS x Ikepod Hemipode originally cost $14,000. Ikepod released the KAWS model in four different colors, with the hour hands uniquely arranged to form an “X” in the signature style of KAWS. Last year, the modern Ikepod, along with Highsnobiety, dropped a NOS set of the four original KAWS watches, listed at $153,000.