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The Hallucination presents itself like a kaleidoscope of diamonds weighing a total of 110 carats. Half of that weight comes from stones of 2 to 3 carats, so finding stones of this size was a task that took over two years. Colored diamonds are rarer and, because of it, more expensive.A team of 30 Graff specialists, including designers, gemologists, and master craftsmen, worked on the piece for another two and a half years. The extended timeline of the project was due to the complicated design that Laurence had created, with the watch featuring several cuts for the stones (round, emerald, marquise, radiant, heart shape, and pear shape), set on a platinum bracelet.There is no apparent symmetry or logic by which the stones are set, which probably earned the Hallucination its name. Online, this became joke fodder for passionate watch enthusiasts, who compared it to unicorn puke gathered in the form of a watch – a crass but rather apt comparison.
What offended purists the most about the Hallucination wasn't the shameless ostentatiousness of it or the waste of resources in putting it together, but the irony in calling it a watch when it's barely legible. Indeed, it would be easy to miss the small quartz watch in the center of that brilliant kaleidoscope, and not just because the bezel and dial are covered in pink diamonds.
That Graff chose to put a simple quartz mechanism on a diamond bracelet was seen as an excuse to call the Hallucination a watch so he could then bring it to Baselworld. It was also seen as a wasted opportunity in the sense that such a rare and exquisite display of diamonds would have warranted an equally dazzling display of haute horology.
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