The Louis Vuitton Tambour Moon Tourbillon Volant Poinçon De Genève watch — you’d assume a reputation that lengthy would come with all that it’s essential find out about its bearer, and but, that’s not the case. Sure, it’s one other proof of Louis Vuitton gearing up its watchmaking division, and sure, it options the Tambour Moon case design that debuted in 2017, and certainly it’s a flying tourbillon (that’s what Tourbillon Volant means) and it sports activities the Poinçon De Genève hallmark to certify its all-encompassing consideration to particulars.
What’s lacking is the truth that this the Louis Vuitton Tambour Moon Tourbillon Volant Poinçon De Genève is fitted with a sapphire case in inexperienced or yellow, and that’s an enormous deal as a result of, for one, it’s among the many most spectacular case supplies in trendy watchmaking and, second, as a result of these are the first-ever sapphire crystal-cased watches to realize the Geneva Seal — or Poinçon De Genève, in fancy haute horlogerie converse.
Arms-on pictures by Ariel Adams.
Louis Vuitton goes as far as to say, “There’s nice potential in utilizing instances minimize from a block of coloured artificial sapphire” — which there very properly needs to be given the trouble every of those translucent capsules takes to make. To acquire a case center, a caseback, and a bridge bearing the LV brand in a “strictly similar coloration” for every watch, a 50mm-wide and 150mm-long cylinder needed to be extracted from the middle of a block of mass-tinted sapphire from Japan weighing almost 200kg. Every element is minimize from this sapphire crystal bar utilizing diamond instruments to acquire the ultimate dimensions.
The sapphire piece that outcomes from these procedures is opaque, so all the weather have to be delicately polished to disclose their transparency and saturation. The model claims that the total artificial sapphire case of every watch requires 420 hours of complicated operations on digitally managed machines working with diamond instruments. The 10mm-thick monobloc half that makes up the case center, bezel, and glass, requires 100 hours of milling and 150 hours of sprucing. The caseback wants 50 hours of machining and 60 hours of hand- and machine-finishing to turn out to be totally clear and prepared for meeting. Lastly, the clear bridge bearing the LV brand takes 20 hours of reducing and 40 hours of guide ending to let the sunshine cross by way of flawlessly. In different phrases, that tiny LV brand has taken over per week’s work of a educated polisher.
The 42.5mm-wide and simply 9.9mm-thick case has 12 letters engraved into its concave outer facet to kind the LOUIS VUITTON script. Identical to the indexes on the bezel flange, these are lacquered in white for the inexperienced sapphire model, and black for the yellow sapphire mannequin. The lug constructions are in black PVD-treated titanium and are connected by screws. The 30-meter water resistance ranking of the case is achieved utilizing a clear gasket positioned between the case center and the screw-down caseback so there are not any unpleasant black rubber rings wherever within the building to spoil the see-through enjoyable of this translucent Louis Vuitton watch.
Such a spectacular case needed to have a motion to match, and so the model known as upon its in-house watch motion skunkworks, Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton. The Caliber LV90 is a hand-wound motion of an apparently simple design with a flying tourbillon at one finish and a mainspring barrel — delivering 80 hours of autonomy — on the different. Though the just lately up to date Poinçon De Genève certification has notably added a requirement for distinctive case ending — which is why this being the primary sapphire-cased watch to realize the Hallmark is a powerful feat — uncompromised consideration continues to be given to the standard of execution on each motion element.
The 160-part LV90 caliber tackles this with a finely openworked “monogram flower” tourbillon cage, mirror-polished screw heads, and beveled and polished spokes on each relevant wheel and… Properly, that’s about it, as all the larger plates and bridges are in matt black, ditching conventional and arguably extra spectacular rhodium- or nickel-plated search for this stealthy and trendy different. It’s true that should you spotlight the whole lot, you’ve highlighted nothing — and with the radiant colours of the case, the openworked construction of the motion, and a ceaselessly rotating flying tourbillon, it is sensible to have just a few resting factors within the design.
On the wrist, the look-at-this yellow stands out extra but it surely isn’t as if the comparably subdued inexperienced model may very well be simply missed. Leaving the rubber strap sport for LVMH-owned Hublot, the Louis Vuitton Tambour Moon Tourbillon Volant Poinçon De Genève watch comes on a black alligator strap, an surprising and but acceptable match to this loud bundle that, once more, helps tone issues down a bit. We must always not shut with out giving reward to the Tambour Moon case, which is intriguing and entertaining with its spherical entrance and distinctly concave profile. It takes time to find its nuanced particulars, and that’s all of the extra true when there’s a colourful sapphire case and an openworked motion to distract from all of them.
The Louis Vuitton Tambour Moon Tourbillon Volant Poinçon De Genève watch is priced at $405,000. You can learn more at the brand’s website.
