New Vuitton Watches Showcase Artisanal Expertise
Louis Vuitton’s watchmaking division has doubled down on its ambitions to maintain uncommon artisanal handicrafts with the introduction of the Escale Cupboard of Wonders, three upscale métiers d’artwork watches. They have been aesthetically derived from an in depth assortment of Japanese tsuba, or sword guards, that have been owned by Gaston-Louis Vuitton, the third technology Vuitton, who ran the French firm from 1936 till his dying in 1970.
The three designs, which have been scheduled to debut March 6, are every restricted to twenty items and priced at $269,000. They showcase an array of artisanal strategies, together with enameling, marquetry, miniature portray, engraving and a craft often known as damascening, by which a valuable metallic (on this case, gold wire) is hammered right into a background materials. One dial, that includes a serpent, was mentioned to have taken 260 hours to finish.
An ensemble of six craftspeople labored on the designs, together with Rose Saneuil, whose multi-material marquetry work with Piaget was acknowledged on the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève trade awards final 12 months. And Marie Boutteçon, an unbiased watch design marketing consultant based mostly in Geneva, was the venture’s inventive director. She beforehand had collaborated with manufacturers equivalent to Parmigiani and Christophe Claret.
“We needed to pay tribute to Mr. Gaston-Louis Vuitton and the heritage of La Maison Asnières,” mentioned Michel Navas, head of Louis Vuitton’s La Fabrique du Temps specialist watchmaking middle in Geneva. He was referring to Louis Vuitton’s longtime headquarters in Asnières-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris; the Escale’s instances and actions are engraved with a sixth century Japanese Seigaiha wave motif that seems on fire tiles on the property.
Gaston-Louis was the grandson of the corporate founder, Louis Vuitton, and was an avid collector of things gathered on his frequent travels. However his legacy had little influence on the home’s up to date work till it launched its first males’s positive jewellery line, referred to as Les Gastons Vuitton, earlier this 12 months. “He was a giant collector and he liked artwork, furnishings and structure, and was keen on Japanese artwork,” Mr. Navas mentioned. “This Escale triptych is impressed by his love of Japanese tradition.”
The dials of the 18-karat gold watches characteristic creatures that appeared on a few of Gaston-Louis’s 1,000 tsuba, now stored at Asnières. Tsuba have been designed to mirror samurais’ character in addition to appearing as a counterweight to steadiness his curved katana sword and to guard his fingers throughout fight.
One dial shows carp in hand-engraved and miniature-painted gold, representing water; one other, an engraved and enameled serpent on a backdrop of wooden, straw and parchment marquetry, representing earth. And the third shows a mystical dragon inlaid with gold wire and paillonné enamel, which layers translucent enamel over gold or silver, representing fireplace. Every is also embellished with Gaston-Louis’s graphic GLV monogram, which he’s thought to have launched about 1910.
The Escale Cupboard of Wonders illustrates Louis Vuitton’s tentacled watchmaking operation. The luxurious home, headquartered in Paris, purchased La Fabrique du Temps in 2011, 4 years after it had been based in Geneva by Mr. Navas and his fellow watchmaker Enrico Barbasini.
The brand new watches have been designed, assembled and partially embellished by La Fabrique du Temps; the proprietary ultrathin micro-rotor automated motion chosen for the gathering was manufactured by the Swiss firm Le Cercle des Horlogers. A French firm, which isn’t being recognized, produced the watches’ calfskin leather-based straps, that are hand-braided within the fashion of a katana deal with.
However then high-end watchmaking has at all times relied on a community of producers. And at Louis Vuitton, for instance, it has drawn on many expert artisans for its high-end problems and métiers d’artwork items such because the Tambour Opera Automata and the Voyager Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon. In 2021, it gained the Audacity Prize on the Grand Prix trade awards for its Tambour Carpe Diem, a 426-component automaton wristwatch that includes a cranium with a snake coiled round it.
But Mr. Navas mentioned the Cupboard of Wonders assortment, which makes use of the enlarged 40-millimeter Escale case impressed by Louis Vuitton’s well-known trunks, have been one other steppingstone on the corporate’s journey towards self-sufficiency: “The imaginative and prescient is to collect all these crafts below one roof. We really feel chargeable for persevering with these métiers d’artwork.”
In line with Mr. Navas, the watches had been in growth for 18 months and the primary items could be delivered in July. “They’re items of artwork,” he mentioned. “And so they present how far we are able to go as watchmakers.”
