BY DHANANJAY PATHAK
Louis Vuitton is a brand that is widely recognized for its luxury fashion accessories, especially bags. That said, in the past decade or so, the brand has shown keen interest in the world of horology, producing watches that blend quirky fashion flair with high-quality mechanical internals. For 2021, Louis Vuitton recently expanded its Tambour collection with a tri of new compressor-style Tambour Street Diver watches.
One of the more intriguing details on the new Tambour Street Diver watches is the distinctive case geometry. Measuring 44mm in diameter, the case features a sloped kettle-style shape. When looked at from the top, the case exhibits a more conventional rounded shape. However, it is when viewing the case from the side that one gets to witness a subtle outward taper from the bezel to the mid-case. Another clever and thoughtful design touch is how the brand has engraved its ‘LOUIS VUITTON’ initials on the bezel to indicate the 12 hours. Being a super compressor-inspired design, the case features a twin-crown setup.
The crown at the 2 o’clock position is used to operate the internal dive time bezel, whereas the crown at 3 takes care of setting the time and winding the movement. And while both crowns are threaded, the watch water-resistance offered by the case is limited to just 100 meters, which is not bad but is on the lower side for a dive watch.
Attached to the case are the somewhat horn-style lugs that make these watches stand out from the crowd. The trio comes with three different case variations; the Street Diver Black Blaze (Black PVD case and Pink gold bezel), the Street Diver Neon Black (Black PVD case and bezel with neon accents), and Street Diver Skyline Blue (Navy blue PVD case with polished steel bezel).
Like the case, the dial on the new Street Diver Tambour watches come in three different color combinations; Black and neon yellow, navy and sky blue, and black and rose gold. All dials showcase a three-dimensional layered approach. Starting from the outer periphery, you first get a broad, sloped rotating bezel with bold dive time markings. Moving inwards, sitting a step below are the applied lume filled hour indices which are a combination of circles and rectangles. Finally, at the lowest level on the dial is a nicely recessed subsidiary second’s dial. The colorful highlights have been spread across the dial and can be seen on the hands, the first 15 minutes of the diving scale, and the applied markings.
Powering the new Street Diver watches is an automatic movement that operates at 4 Hz and offers a power reserve of around 42 hours. While the exact name of the movement has not been disclosed, looking at the dial layout and specifications, it seems like a slightly modified variation of the ETA 2895-2. The movement is not heavily decorated but can be viewed through the sapphire case back.
The new Louis Vuitton Tambour Street Diver watches would come attached to black or blue rubber straps with Louis Vuitton branding. The Louis Vuitton Tambour Street Diver Black Blaze will retail for USD 16,910, whereas the remaining two versions would cost USD 7,505.
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