French luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton is celebrating the 200th birth anniversary of the company’s eponymous founder. To mark the occasion, the world’s most valuable luxury brand has revealed a stunning one-off timepiece that is truly out of this world. Called the Louis Vuitton Tambour Jacquemart Minute Repeater, the horological masterpiece beautifully demonstrates the expertise of its relatively young watchmaking division. The bespoke timepiece offers a remarkable blend of horological complexity and the jaw-dropping enameling skills of Anita Porchet and the engraving mastery of Dick Steenman. It took two years of dedicated work by the brand’s talented engineers and craftsmen to create the celebratory one-off watch, which is finally out in the open for us enthusiasts to appreciate.
The one-off Tambour Jacquemart Minute Repeater that was made from scratch for a customer and the execution of its chiming complication and automaton is a display of the purest form of horological art. The timepiece features a futuristic rendition of the brand’s iconic drum-shaped Tambour case, which is designed to look like an astronaut’s helmet with a view of outer space.
The 46.8mm case is made of microblasted titanium with 18k white gold lugs and bezel, while the crown at 12 o’clock is a nod to chiming pocket watches of the past. The bezel is engraved with the 12 letters of ‘Louis Vuitton’ and filled with blue rubber. Furthermore, the case and the crown are studded with gradient-colored gemstones.
The moving elements on the dial have been hand-sculpted in white gold by Swiss craftsman Dick Steenman, which includes a miniature spaceship, two planets, and LV’s iconic four-petal flower motif. Interestingly, there are no indices or numerals on the dial. Each of the 12 letters on the bezel is aligned with the corresponding hour.
Powering the watch is the caliber LV 200, which can be seen through the sapphire crystal caseback. The manual-winding movement offers a 100-hour power reserve, which is impressive. The watch is paired with a matching blue rubber strap which is embossed with the letters of Louis Vuitton. The one-off watch will be delivered to its owner in a classic Louis Vuitton trunk-style case.
There’s no word on the pricing or the owner who commissioned the watch.
