Considering Louis Vuitton only entered the watch industry 18 years ago (before which there’d been a collab with IWC on a pair of world timers) it’s come a long way. The early strategy was to build a business around an unusually barrelled case shape – therefore christened Tambour – which became the vessel for a steadily growing repertoire of complications, initially powered by movements supplied by LVMH-owned watchmakers including Zenith. This all changed in 2011, when LV opted to buy a Geneva-based high-watchmaking “skunk works” with which it had collaborated on its revolutionary Spin Time. Founded by former Patek Philippe and Gerald Genta watchmaker Michel Navas and his business partner, Enrico Barbasini, La Fabrique Du Temps is a small workshop that has pushed LV’s watches into the horological stratosphere and afforded several of its pieces “Geneva Seal” status. The latest of which is the all-new Tambour Curve Flying Tourbillon Poinçon De Genève, which Navas recognises as a milestone: not least because the reworked case has been stretched and elongated and its convex surface encased in a circle using a forged carbon composite exclusive to the house.
Underlining the close relationship between the maison and its haute atelier, the skeletonised flying tourbillon has been moved from its more traditional position at six o’clock to nine, the better to accommodate the open-worked plate and black NAC-treated bridge depicting the house “LV” logo. A flower redolent of its iconic monogram forms the cage of the tourbillon itself. Developed and manufactured “in house” at Le Fabrique Du Temps, the LV calibre 108 hand-wound movement has a running time of 80 hours and features the Geneva Seal, visible at six o’clock. Fitted with a black rubber or blue or black alligator and rubber strap, the Curve is certainly an evolution of the original Tambour shape. But it’s the functionality of the “Carbostratum” used in its construction that excites Navas most: “[The outer case is] forged carbon, but with random layers, which makes each case unique... We are used to working with rose gold, yellow gold, platinum, so it’s interesting to mix new tech and respect the heritage of high watchmaking.”
The case
The familiar Tambour case is given a literal twist with a shape inspired by a Möbius loop – the mathematical notion of a non-orientable, one-sided strip.
The specs
Thanks to its distinctive form, the 12.75mm-thick watch is 46mm diameter at the base and 42mm at the bezel.
The material
“Carbostratum” is produced by layering 100 sheets of carbon at random. “For me, carbon always looks cold, but the way [this is produced] makes it look ‘warm’, like dark wood,” says watchmaker Michel Navas.
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The Link LonkNovember 02, 2020 at 01:02PM
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Is Louis Vuitton's new watch a glimpse of horology's future? - British GQ
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