BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
Despite my initial thoughts that the Year of the Snake wouldn’t be as profitable for watch companies as last year’s Year of the Dragon celebrations, it seems that lots of luxury watchmakers are already debuting new limited edition watches to mark the new year in the Chinese calendar. Perrelet just unveiled one, although I’m not sure we’ll cover it, but even if we don’t, we have a new entrant from Louis Vuitton, which has been stepping up its watch game in recent years.
It feels like only yesterday that we covered a new watch from Louis Vuitton, and yet here we are with their new Escale ‘Snakes Jungle’ Cabinet of Wonders watch. I think the name could be a little better, but it’s the product itself I’m interested in.
For most watchmakers, the goal is to start off with a few key models and then branch out into complicated ones perhaps, or just keep developing new model lines so your customers have a range of choices. These development cycles seem to take around a decade to complete and showcase the growth in knowledge of the artisans behind the watch. Of course, when you’re Louis Vuitton and you have access to some of the best artisans around, and access to the other watch brands owned by the LVMH Group (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessey), this development cycle can be shortened a bit.
That doesn’t mean at all that this new watch was rushed. One look at that 40mm 18k white gold case with its Japanese wave engraving indicates that this is most definitely an haute horlogerie timepiece. As well as white gold, there’s a jade crown complimenting the engraving on the case’s sides which extends upwards to the bezel too. The watch is 50m water resistant.
It’s the dial, however, which really catches your attention. In keeping with the Year of the Snake theme we see a colourful serpent slithering its way through the undergrowth. The basis of said undergrowth is a mix of wood, straw and parchment designed to give a sense of depth to the dial. This working technique is called marquetry and is typically found in high-end furniture and cars like Bentleys and Rolls-Royces. Atop that base sit the white gold snake and leaves which are hand-engraved and then given a champlevé enamel coating on top to provide colour. Interestingly, Louis Vuitton provided the names of the artisans doing this work, so, a special mention to Rose Saneuil for the marquetry, Eddy Jacquet for the white gold outlines and engraving, and Vanessa Lecci for the enamel work. All of them brought the snake to life in dramatic fashion.
Powering the two hands is the calibre LFT023 which has been engraved with more Japanese waves to match the case. This movement beats at 4Hz, as one would expect, and has a 50-hour power reserve powered by a 22k gold micro-rotor which also has the wave motif on it. Only 120 pieces make up this movement, and they’re put together for Louis Vuitton by Les Cercle des Horlogers which is a small group of watchmakers building nearly-bespoke movements. Their work in the past has included the movements in the likes of the ALTO Art-01 introduced last year and Hermès’ Arceau Duc Attelé watch. In fact, the C200.CHSA movement which Louis Vuitton’s LFT023 is also used by Speake Marin in their Ripples watches, as well as being in Louis Vuitton’s Tambour watches and the Escale Platinum WP3T21 watch we looked at recently.
All of this goes to show that Louis Vuitton has mastered plenty of different techniques in its watchmaking department. I’m still excited to see them at Watches & Wonders someday, but for now, I’ll have to stick with the pictures. If you fancy one of these, know that they’re only making 20 of them and their cost? Well, I have no idea, so we’ll just say that these are price on request.
