Louis Vuitton’s watchmaking division has doubled down on its ambitions to sustain rare artisanal handicrafts with the introduction of the Escale Cabinet of Wonders, three upscale métiers d’art watches. They were aesthetically derived from an extensive collection of Japanese tsuba, or sword guards, that were owned by Gaston-Louis Vuitton, the third generation Vuitton, who ran the French company from 1936 until his death in 1970.
The three designs, which were scheduled to debut March 6, are each limited to 20 pieces and priced at $269,000. They showcase an array of artisanal techniques, including enameling, marquetry, miniature painting, engraving and a craft known as damascening, in which a precious metal (in this case, gold wire) is hammered into a background material. One dial, featuring a serpent, was said to have taken 260 hours to complete.
An ensemble of six craftspeople worked on the designs, including Rose Saneuil, whose multi-material marquetry work with Piaget was recognized at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève industry awards last year. And Marie Boutteçon, an independent watch design consultant based in Geneva, was the project’s artistic director. She previously had collaborated with brands such as Parmigiani and Christophe Claret.
“We wanted to pay tribute to Mr. Gaston-Louis Vuitton and the heritage of La Maison Asnières,” said Michel Navas, head of Louis Vuitton’s La Fabrique du Temps specialist watchmaking center in Geneva. He was referring to Louis Vuitton’s longtime headquarters in Asnières-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris; the Escale’s cases and movements are engraved with a 6th century Japanese Seigaiha wave motif that appears on fireplace tiles at the property.
Gaston-Louis was the grandson of the company founder, Louis Vuitton, and was an avid collector of items gathered on his frequent travels. But his legacy had little impact on the house’s contemporary work until it introduced its first men’s fine jewelry line, called Les Gastons Vuitton, earlier this year. “He was a big collector and he loved art, furniture and architecture, and was fond of Japanese art,” Mr. Navas said. “This Escale triptych is inspired by his love of Japanese culture.”
The dials of the 18-karat gold watches feature creatures that appeared on some of Gaston-Louis’s 1,000 tsuba, now kept at Asnières. Tsuba were designed to reflect samurais’ character as well as acting as a counterweight to balance his curved katana sword and to protect his hands during combat.
One dial displays carp in hand-engraved and miniature-painted gold, representing water; another, an engraved and enameled serpent on a backdrop of wood, straw and parchment marquetry, representing earth. And the third displays a mystical dragon inlaid with gold wire and paillonné enamel, which layers translucent enamel over gold or silver, representing fire. Each also is decorated with Gaston-Louis’s graphic GLV monogram, which he is thought to have introduced about 1910.
The Escale Cabinet of Wonders illustrates Louis Vuitton’s tentacled watchmaking operation. The luxury house, headquartered in Paris, bought La Fabrique du Temps in 2011, four years after it had been founded in Geneva by Mr. Navas and his fellow watchmaker Enrico Barbasini.
The new watches were designed, assembled and partially decorated by La Fabrique du Temps; the proprietary ultrathin micro-rotor automatic movement chosen for the collection was manufactured by the Swiss company Le Cercle des Horlogers. A French company, which is not being identified, produced the watches’ calfskin leather straps, which are hand-braided in the style of a katana handle.
But then high-end watchmaking has always relied on a network of producers. And at Louis Vuitton, for example, it has drawn on many skilled artisans for its high-end complications and métiers d’art pieces such as the Tambour Opera Automata and the Voyager Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon. In 2021, it won the Audacity Prize at the Grand Prix industry awards for its Tambour Carpe Diem, a 426-component automaton wristwatch featuring a skull with a snake coiled around it.
Yet Mr. Navas said the Cabinet of Wonders collection, which uses the enlarged 40-millimeter Escale case inspired by Louis Vuitton’s famous trunks, were another steppingstone on the company’s journey toward self-sufficiency: “The vision is to gather all these crafts under one roof. We feel responsible for continuing these métiers d’art.”
According to Mr. Navas, the watches had been in development for 18 months and the first pieces would be delivered in July. “They’re pieces of art,” he said. “And they show how far we can go as watchmakers.”
Robin Swithinbank
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