It’s celebration time at Louis Vuitton, which has completed a decade of watchmaking. For the luxury house, all journeys are rooted in the past and so was its horological one. In 2002, when the marque unveiled the Tambour watch, diehard LV fans were relieved to see that the design (think lustrous brown dial, smooth saddle-stitched strap and engraved Monogram motif) drew deep on the heritage of the house. The tenth anniversary watches look both back and ahead.
Last year, Louis Vuitton bought over La Fabrique du Temps, which specializes in fine watchmaking movements. The new Tambour line has taken advantage of this development and resulted in timepieces that ooze with complications even as they fulfil all the requisite fashion requirements.
The line has something for everyone, from diamond-studded watches to manly automatic numbers to diving chronographs. So if the Tambour Bijou is a bountiful blend of diamonds, mother-of-pearl and rose gold, the Tambour Forever Ceramic comes in a, umm, sturdy ceramic case and has lugs set with rocks. The monogram flower blooms on the watch face, and there are black and white versions available, limited to 200 and 250 pieces respectively. For technology fiends, the brand offers the Tambour Minute Repeater with a 100-hour power reserve and 21,600 oscillations per hour. The watch boasts a chiming movement that gives the wearer his home time while also allowing him to see a second time zone by merely adjusting the crown.
Not to be outdone by the Minute Repeater is the Tambour Spin Time, where the delightfully precise jumping hours are shown through small rotating cubes engraved with the hour and a ‘V’. The Tambour Diving II Blue steel houses an extra large bezel with a dive time indicator and is fitted with a black rubber strap, while LV Cup Automatic Countdown comes in a steel enclosure with extra large buttons and crown moulded rubber, an LV138 movement and a navy blue alligator strap.
Not content with producing the anniversary the watches, the fashion house has also released a series of videos demonstrating the painstaking process that goes into the making of the timepieces.