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Step inside La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton with the brand’s new Escale collection
By Michelle Johnson | 14 August 2024 | Design, Wealth
In part two of our look behind the scenes of Louis Vuitton’s watchmaking revolution, Tempus visits La Fabrique du Temps to discover the brand’s new Escale collection
Ten years after the first Louis Vuitton Escale watch was released, the landscape of the fashion maison’s horology manufacture is near unrecognisable. Today, master watchmaker Michel Navas’s La Fabrique du Temps is a strong contender for the world’s best-looking watch manufactory: clean, serene and stylish thanks to the bright, modern architecture and thoughtful Louis Vuitton décor, exuding sumptuous elegance from the cocoon chairs that hang from the lobby ceiling to the artwork brightening the manufactory walls.
It’s not just the building, located less than an hour from Geneva city centre, that radiates this elevated style, however – as showcased by the manufactory’s new Escale collection. With the appointment of Jean Arnault as Louis Vuitton director of watches development in 2021, the brand’s master watchmakers and engineers have been given carte blanche to push the limits of their enviable ability – and challenge the watch industry itself. 
Previously known for its highly regarded fashion watches, Louis Vuitton Watches’ recent creations have demonstrated the manufactory’s impressive skill with bespoke client creations and animated watches – such as the 2021 GPHG-winning Tambour Carpe Diem. And today’s new releases are making a clear statement.
Focusing on creating the highest quality of Swiss watch manufacture at limited numbers, the maison is able to push the limits of elegance and excellence in its core collections. Last year’s new and improved Tambour release in precious metals was followed earlier this year by the Escale Cabinet of Wonders – three métiers d’arts pieces that showcased the serious skills of the brand’s Métiers d’Art team, led by director Dick Steenman and inspired by Gaston-Louis Vuitton’s collection of samurai artefacts.
Now, Louis Vuitton has released a new take on the core Escale collection that perfectly combines haute horology and the brand’s storied 170-year history of travel cases, with bold colours, tactile surfaces and sophisticated finishes to delight the wearer.
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TRAVEL IN TIME
The latest Escale collection introduces four sophisticated time-only watches, two in rose gold with textured dials and two in platinum with precious stones. Inspired by Louis Vuitton’s origins as a maker of luxury travel bags and trunks – Louis was the first to create rectangular trunks that could be easily stowed away on ships and trains – the watch design is awash with historic references, from colourways and materials inspired by exterior and interior linings to markers shaped like the metal features that reinforce the exterior of each trunk.
“Escale is synonymous with the art of travel, the philosophy that lies at the heart of Louis Vuitton,” the brand said in a statement. “When travel transcends its utilitarian purpose and opens the way to self-discovery, the destination is secondary and the journey itself rises to primacy. An escale is more than just another stopover — it evokes the imagination and the memory of a moment that lingers in the mind; it captures the essence of the art of travel.”
Each timepiece in the impressive collection shares core similarities. The 39mm time-only watches are all powered by Louis Vuitton’s in-house LFT023 – a self-winding mechanical movement that boasts a 50-hour power reserve and is a certified high-precision chronometer by the Geneva Chronometric Observatory. Interestingly, this movement was first introduced in the 2023 Tambour models, and is the first proprietary automatic three- hand movement designed by La Fabrique du Temps in collaboration with movement specialists Le Cercle des Horlogers.
Aesthetically, each references the timeless Louis Vuitton trunks in subtle but deeply satisfying motifs – the octagonal crown is topped with a trunk rivet adorned with the Louis Vuitton monogram, the hour hands are designed as finely tapered needles used in Paris leather ateliers and, most beautiful of all, the quarter hour markers are shaped like the instantly-recognisable bracket lugs that adorn each trunk, holding the central dial in place just as they hold the structure of the iconic courrier lozine. The dial is further decorated with gold studs, which emulate the nails that run along the trunk’s exterior.
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PACKED WITH PERSONALITY
With the structure so perfectly defined, La Fabrique du Temps was able to play with untold materials and fabrics to pay homage to almost two centuries of design. The Louis Vuitton Escale in Rose Gold, Silvery Dial features an 18-carat rose gold case, bezel, lugs, hands and indexes, with a silvery stamped centre dial and satin-finished tilted flange. Its VVT camel calf leather is a sophisticated nod to the brand’s classic colourway with its characteristic yellow stitching.
Similarly, the Escale in Rose Gold, Blue Dial features the same case specifications – including open case-back in white gold and water resistance up to 50m – but with a bold blue stamped centre dial and silvery satin-finished tilted flange. Both dials showcase a new dial texture, inspired by the finely grained surfaces of the Louis Vuitton Monogram canvas. The watchmakers developed custom dial stamps to perfectly reflect the tactile experience of canvas on the metal dial.
In the platinum expressions, the Escale Platinum, Meteorite Dial further showcases La Fabrique du Temps’ exceptional range – and mastery – of material. Indeed, the Métiers d’Art department is full of precious metals, gems and other materials – including a significant fragment of a meteorite that Dick has displayed in pride of place.
With bezel, case and lugs all in platinum, and 18ct white gold hours and indexes, the extraordinary patterns of the Gibeon Meteorite, from Namibia, take centre-stage on the dial. As each is a unique slice of precious stone, each watch is entirely unique. The elevated monochrome effect is finished with a refined black calf leather strap.
Finally, the Escale Platinum set with baguette-cut diamonds see the platinum edition adorned with 189 baguette-cut and brilliant- cut diamonds – 161 on the bezel alone – for a total of 6.41cts. The dial is cast in precious onyx, also from the Métiers d’Art team’s expansive collection, and finished with a black calf leather strap.
Finally, the open case-back allows a glimpse inside to where the calibre’s 147 components, 32 jewels and 22ct rose gold micro-rotor power the watch at 28,800 vibrations every hour – as well as glimpses of the continued artistry of Louis Vuitton watches, in the engravings and decorations that reference some of the brand’s best-known designs in a collection designed to celebrate the art of travel.
After all, as American essayist Robert Waldo Emerson famously said: “It’s not the destination – it’s the journey.”
Images: Louis Vuitton