In 2023, Louis Vuitton announced its desire to reinforce its positioning in the high-end watchmaking market. While the reputation of the French trunk maker is well established in the luggage department, associating its name with luxury watches is far from a given. And this is in spite of its regular presence at an event like Watches & Wonders.
But after partnering with Rexhep Rexhepi, founder of Atelier Akrivia, and then organizing the Louis Vuitton Watch Prize for Independent Creatives to highlight the new talents in watchmaking, the brand goes on the offensive by unveiling its new 2024. And the least we can say is that the first watches presented seem to be horological as well as artistic masterpieces!
Voyager Flying Tourbillon Geneva Seal Plique-à-Jour
If the new Louis Vuitton watches are rich in complications, this is also true for the names of these timepieces. Thus, the Voyager Flying Tourbillon Geneva Seal Plique-à-Jour is situated at the crossroads of art crafts and fine watchmaking.
In its platinum and white gold case of 41 mm in diameter, the dial has been crafted like a contemporary stained glass window. The interlaced and multiplied “V” of Vuitton highlights various shades of blue, which provide a fascinating play of light and transparency. The manufacturer has chosen to use a “plique-à-jour pierced” technique to create this enamel masterpiece, which required several months of research. The enamel is here deposited in bottomless cells, the color being applied with a brush in each part, then spreading by capillarity.
The main difficulty lies in achieving transparency, without a single air bubble and with a subtle gradient. The central dial placed at 12h is the perfect proof, with its 3 shades of blue ranging from ultramarine to bluish gray through azure.
At 6 o’clock, another feat was accomplished, with the presence of a flying whirlwind whose assembly required more than 120 hours of work, and which provides the watch with an 80-hour power reserve. Fully developed within the Louis Vuitton Time Manufacture, this movement also takes care of its look, like its regulator in the shape of a V, which rotates on itself in one minute.
Louis Vuitton Escale Cabinet of Wonders
With its “cabinet of wonders,” Louis Vuitton seems to have little to envy about a house like Vacheron Constantin and its Métiers d’Art or Les Cabinotiers collections.
At the start of this year, the French house unveils a new trilogy of watches inspired by the personal collections of Gaston-Louis Vuitton. Nature and animals are honored, with koi fish and a dragon, but the watch that seems most fascinating to us features a magnificent snake at the heart of a lush bamboo forest. In shades of green and blue, the reptile coils its body and stands on the dial, seeming ready to engulf Gaston-Louis Vuitton’s monogram.
A true puzzle, this dial brings together no less than 367 elements, four varieties of wood, three colors of straw and two types of parchment. The body of the serpent, in white gold, has been sculpted and hollowed out, providing an impressive depth effect. Even the case, also in white gold, has benefited from remarkable craftsmanship, with the engraving of lush vegetation on the bezel and the surround, while the crown is adorned with nephrite jade.
Each watch in this Cabinet of Wonders will only be produced in 20 copies.
Sapphire Moon Drum Flying Tourbillon Geneva Seal Frank Gehry
To become a big name in Haute Horlogerie, Louis Vuitton did not hesitate to call on a big name in…architecture! Frank Gehry, who already the credit for the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris and the Louis Vuitton house in Seoul, accepted the challenge presented by the brand by creating its first watch. Two years of work were necessary to achieve the development of this Tambour Moon Saphir Tourbillon Volant Poinçon de Genève Frank Gehry.
The 43.8 mm case, horns and crown are made of sapphire, taking transparency to its zenith. It mainly serves to enhance the dial on which seems to float a wavy glass structure, whose lines inevitably evoke those of the Louis Vuitton Foundation. The story tells that the Canadian architect printed a large format photo of the Tambour Moon Sapphire watch before crumpling the paper: it was the shape obtained that subsequently guided him for the drawing of this particular dial.
And since this timepiece relies on transparency, the caliber can be admired from all angles. This is specifically the LFT MM05.01 flying tourbillon and manual winding manufacture movement, with an 80h power reserve. Also visible on the back of the case, Frank Gehry’s signature reminds that this watch is a very rare piece of art, limited to only 5 pieces.
