Introducing Louis Vuitton's All-New Voyager Flying Tourbillon And Escale Timepieces

Over the last 12 years since the official acquisition of La Fabrique du Temps, Louis Vuitton has expanded its watch offerings with a variety of timepieces featuring new case designs and complications. Right from the attention-grabbing hand-painted Escale Worldtime introduced in 2014 to the Tambour Répétition Minutes, Tambour Twin Chrono, and Spin Time Central Flying Tourbillon, the momentum for LV’s high watchmaking division has only intensified in recent years, particularly with the introduction of the new Tambour at Musée d’Orsay in Paris last year.

The brand continues to redefine luxury watchmaking with its skilled artisans at La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton in Switzerland. Inaugurated in 2014, the new workshop was in business soon after its inception, onboarding famous brands such as Speake-Marin, Jacob & Co, and Ralph Lauren. Best known for its gorgeous enamel or hand-engraved dials, the state-of-the-art facility is fully equipped to make its own cases, giving it complete control over every aspect of its in-house watchmaking process.

At the GPHG 2022 awards ceremony, Louis Vuitton's Tambour Street Diver Skyline clinched the esteemed ‘Diver's Watch Prize’, while the Tambour Carpe Diem jacquemart watch, another standout creation from the maison, secured the coveted ‘Audacity Prize’. 

Fast forward to 2024, Louis Vuitton has just unveiled a slew of high watchmaking timepieces, including the Voyager Flying Tourbillon 'Poinçon de Genève' plique-à-jour, and three stunning iterations in the Escale collection. Here’s a first look at the new watches launched in Megève.

The Louis Vuitton Voyager Flying Tourbillon

At the intersection of artistic crafts and high watchmaking, the Louis Vuitton Voyager Flying Tourbillon transforms the dial into a contemporary stained-glass spectacle, allowing the wearer to witness the flawless motion of the flying tourbillon, crafted at La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton and adorned with the esteemed Poinçon de Genève seal. The Voyager Flying Tourbillon brings together the maison’s technical prowess with artistic finesse, through the unique plique-à-jour technique. 

This ancient method delicately deposits enamel into cells without any backing, creating a mesmerizing stained-glass effect on the dial. Each stroke of the paintbrush brings the miniature artwork to life, requiring the enameller's deft touch to ensure a flawless finish.

The dial, crafted from luminous white gold, features a captivating reinterpretation of plique-à-jour enamel, showcasing Louis Vuitton's iconic interlocking Vs. This modern twist accentuates the timepiece's vivid color palette, exemplified by the central dial at 12 o'clock. Here, an opulent gradient of ultramarine, azure, and blue-gray creates a play of light and shadow, elevating the watch's appeal to new heights.

The Voyager Flying Tourbillon overcomes varied challenges to become a masterpiece in its own right, be it obtaining the enamel technique on a larger surface or the hand pipe's placement. Achieving this perfection required precise centring and manual adjustments of the pipe down to the millimeter. This application presents a serene floating effect on the blue dial, showcasing the ample experience of the in-house craftspeople. Each dial requires five to six layers of translucent enamel and kiln firings, totaling around 100 hours of work to achieve the stellar watch face.

When the light passes through the enameled dial, it creates a chiaroscuro effect that raises the bar of the watch face with powerful contrasts between light and dark. A 41mm platinum and white gold case, defined by a circle within a square, houses the Poinçon de Genève hand-wound LV104 skeleton movement. Over 120 hours of work went into assembling all 168 parts of this caliber, which boasts an 80-hour power reserve. Water-resistant up to 50 meters, the case comes paired with a navy blue calf strap, which is equipped with a platinum folding buckle to further add to the rich look of the timepiece.

The Louis Vuitton Escale Cabinet of Wonders

The Louis Vuitton Escale Cabinet of Wonders is a set of three models that further testify to Louis Vuitton's artisanal craft. Each model in this collection is a masterpiece, seamlessly blending a myriad of métiers d'art techniques practiced at the maison. Drawing inspiration from the visionary Gaston-Louis Vuitton, a third-generation member of Louis Vuitton’s founding family whose artistic spirit continues to inspire the maison, these watches pay homage to the brand's heritage while charting a course towards a future of boundless innovation.

The Louis Vuitton Escale Cabinet of Wonders Koi's Garden is a testament to 150 hours of unparalleled craftsmanship. Encased in luminous white gold, this timepiece captures the graceful dance of two carp sculpted out of white gold with each scale, fin, and whisker engraved by hand, while a translucent blue lacquer breathes life into the majestic creatures. With the pebbles set in diamond, their ripples are echoed by layers of blue rock crystal over mother-of-pearl discs engraved with Louis Vuitton Monogram flowers. The lines of the water are hand-engraved too on a white gold plate, with Gaston-Louis Vuitton's personal monogram embellishing the six o'clock position, sculpted from gold in contrasting finishes and set with onyx.

An equally daring timepiece, on the Louis Vuitton Escale Cabinet of Wonders Snake's Jungle, an entwined serpent emerges in vibrant shades of blue and green, its majestic form poised with forked tongue and extended fangs. With unwavering focus, it locks its gaze on the hovering orb of gold and nephrite jade, intricately crafted into the monogram of Gaston-Louis Vuitton. Set amidst a lush bamboo forest, hand-picked elements create the dial's backdrop. A total of 367 individual pieces present this spectacle, incorporating four varieties of wood, three colors of straw, and two types of parchment, each contributing to the captivating tapestry of this timepiece. Continuing the mysticism of life and nature, the final piece in the trilogy shows the mythical reptilian beast, a dragon.

For the Louis Vuitton Escale Cabinet of Wonders Dragon's Cloud, the ancient damascening technique is employed to depict the Asian dragon's traditional habitat. This method involves inlaying contrasting metals to create a layered appearance reminiscent of natural textures. The dial plate undergoes hammering and grooving before receiving yellow-gold or rose-gold wires that are engraved and finished to highlight the dragon's intricate details. The dragon's scales are enameled using the rare paillonné technique, incorporating gold leaf pieces within translucent enamel layers for a luminous effect. Yellow-gold Monogram flower paillons decorate the scales of the dragon, glimmering against a black enamel background, while larger rose-gold Monogram flowers are applied on the dial. The Cabochon-cut ruby eye adds to the mystique, nestled within a yellow-gold eyelid.

Complementing the fabulous design, the timepieces feature calf-leather straps hand-braided to resemble Japanese katana sword hilts, crafted exclusively for this collection. Limited to just 20 pieces each, the Koi's Garden comes with a blue strap pairing seamlessly with the 40mm white gold case, while the Snake's Jungle comes in a 40mm white-gold case with a green strap, whereas the Dragon's Cloud wears a 40mm rose gold body, which has been flanked by a brown strap. The Caliber LFT023 self-winding mechanical movement drives the trio, achieving a power reserve of around 50 hours.

The Louis Vuitton Escale Cabinet of Wonders stands as a heartfelt tribute to Gaston-Louis Vuitton's enduring legacy, seamlessly uniting master artisans from within and beyond the maison.