Le Régulateur Tourbillon Louis Erard x Alain Silberstein Black unveils a new collaboration between the watch brand and the designer, who have been working together since 2019. The tourbillon, the pinnacle of the art of watchmaking, the pinnacle of Alain Silberstein’s thinking, has never before been offered as a single piece – only in a triptych. Nor on a black background, that colour which is not one, but on which all the others are revealed. A syncretic, mythical piece. Limited edition to 78 pieces.
Black is not a colour. It’s better. It’s a revealer. The background on which colours unfold all their expressive potential. Black is the expressway to reach the essential, the reading of time, of times. There are infinite ways to play with these elements. Alain Silberstein has his own. Throughout his career of over 35 years, he has explored all possibilities, even to the point of creating his own colour ranges. But his roots are in the essential, the basic spectrum, blue, red, yellow, on a black background. The brand image of Alain Silberstein, for a long time, since his early Bauhaus-inspired creations in the 1990s.
The tourbillon, the gravity hunter that Breguet has given to the watchmaking heritage, is not just an ingenious mechanism. The tourbillon is life. It’s the mechanism that expresses time that never stands still. Time that escapes convention. Time that is neither social nor technical, that escapes and flows. Time that is not shared, but that is lived. Obviously, all this is a bit conceptual and philosophical. You need to take a step back and look at it from a height to be able to appreciate it. But once you’ve taken that approach, the watch takes on a whole new dimension. Time gains in-depth, as does the timepiece, opened at six o’clock, to let the tourbillon breathe and appreciate the mechanics beneath the bodywork. Alain Silberstein. His dada has always been to make watches that express this complexity, that reveal time in all its dimensions.
Alain Silberstein had not had the opportunity to create a timepiece equipped with a tourbillon for over a decade. His friendship with Manuel Emch, CEO and Artistic Director of Louis Erard, made this return possible. With the complicity of a third inspiration: The renowned watchmaker Olivier Mory, a figure of contemporary mechanical creativity. A few years ago, he revolutionized the art of the tourbillon by creating a customizable, affordable, yet totally Swiss-made movement, made entirely within a few kilometres of his workshop in La Chaux-de-Fonds, in the heart of Swiss watchmaking country.
Manuel Emch acted as curator and orchestrated these talents. With the same objective: to do what Louis Erard has always done best, to make fine Swiss watchmaking accessible. As we now know, accessible fine watchmaking is not just a question of price, it’s an art in itself. The art of bringing together technique, aesthetics and watchmaking culture and to concentrate all these forces in an exclusive product. The Louis Erard x Alain Silberstein Régulateur Tourbillon Black houses a Swiss made tourbillon and is available in a limited edition of 78 pieces at an unbeatable price – even if it’s not a fight with any of the competition, besides, how can you fight when you’re alone in your category?
Just a few more words. The manufacturer of the tourbillon, Olivier Mory, is a discreet but unique personality on the Swiss watchmaking scene. He trained at Sellita, before moving on to haute horlogerie at ValFleurier, where he bridged the gap between the two worlds, making the unattainable accessible. The movement he developed for Louis Erard bears witness to his talent. The tourbillon is not traditionally coupled to the regulator – Louis Erard‘s signature since its creation in 1929 – even though both complications have the same origin: chronometry. All that was missing was a vision to bring the two worlds together, that of Manuel Emch, and a stage direction, left to Alain Silberstein. They have already cemented their complicity through numerous collaborations.
Once again, Louis Erard’s motto comes true: Together we’re always stronger.
More collaborations will follow.
Le Régulateur Tourbillon Louis Erard x Alain Silberstein Black Technical Specifications
Ref. 89356TT02.BTT82 – Limited edition of 78 pieces, Price excl. tax: CHF 15’900
Functions
- Tourbillon HMS
- Hour hand in a counter at 12 o’clock, central minute hand, seconds hand in a counter at 6 o’clock
Movement
- Tourbillon régulateur mechanical hand-wound,
- BCP T02 calibre,
- Ø31.80 mm, height: 6.50 mm,
- 19 jewels, 21,600 VpH (3Hz),
- circular decoration on the movement,
- approx. 100 hours of power reserve,
- tourbillon cage makes a complete rotation every 60 seconds
Case
- Microblasted grade 2 titanium & polished grade 5 titanium,
- Ø40 mm, lug width: 22 mm, lug to lug: 47 mm, thickness: 11.80 mm,
- 2 pieces,
- sapphire crystal with anti-reflective treatment on both sides,
- movement visible through the transparent caseback,
- water resistant up to a pressure of 10 bars (100 m/330 ft),
- Alain Silberstein red lacquered signature crown with Louis Erard symbol,
- caseback engraved with “Louis Erard x AS 1 of 78”
Dial
- Matt black with silvered counter at 12 o’clock,
- white transfers,
- cut out at 6 o’clock to see the tourbillon,
- black flange with white transfers featuring yellow and red indexes
Hands
- Alain Silberstein signature hands: red lacquered hour hand,
- blue lacquered minute hand and yellow lacquered second hand
Strap
- Black nylon and microblasted grade 2 titanium, hook-and-loop fastener system for quick adjustment, functional catch spring bars allowing the strap to be changed quickly
- Dimensions: 22.70 mm width, 225 mm length, suitable for a wrist circumference of 140 to 200 mm
ABOUT ALAIN SILBERSTEIN
“Real happiness is being passionate about one’s work.”
Alain Silberstein was born in 1950. He has had a rather unusual career, beginning as an interior architect and designer in Paris before becoming a watchmaker in Besançon, France, at the end of the 1980s, when he set up his own company. At a time when the disappearance of mechanical watchmaking seemed almost inevitable, he joined the narrow circle of Swiss watchmakers behind a renaissance in mechanical watches with innovative features.
His work pays tribute to the Bauhaus art movement, which traces its roots to Germany in 1919, and to major artists such as Gropius, Itten, Moholy-Nagy, Kandinsky, Klee, Albers, Bayer and Mies van der Rohe, all of whose works continue to influence graphic design, architecture and design in general.
Alain Silberstein has developed a unique style where the geometrical rigour of shapes and mechanical movements play mischievously with a rainbow of evocative colours and innovative materials. It is an artistic and playful approach to high-end watchmaking which sometimes surprises and often beguiles. It is the original approach of a watchmaker and artist who creates singular watches, taking on the challenge of offering a poetic approach to the passing of time and the emotions found in personal and shared times.
Every year for twenty-five years, Alain Silberstein designed and created around a thousand exceptional watches, all made in limited series and numbered, in his workshop at the heart of French-Swiss watchmaking country. Since the closure of his company in 2012, he has turned his talent to working with other watchmaking brands such as MB&F, Romain Jerome and now Louis Erard.
Alain Silberstein continues to explore a watchmaking universe which is somewhere between art and craft, where strict shapes, innovative materials and evocative colours harmoniously come together.
ABOUT LOUIS ERARD
Based in the Jura mountains, the birthplace of watchmaking, Louis Erard embodies the values of Swiss mechanics, the tradition that keeps its promises. Combining luxury, timelessness and elegance, this independent brand is renowned for its mechanical watches and, in particular, its iconic regulators. A collection on which the brand, founded by Mr. Louis Erard in 1929, built its reputation.
Today, continuing the work of its founder and honouring watchmaking tradition, the Maison is reinterpreting the codes in a contemporary language. Louis Erard continues to set itself apart from mass-market brands. Inspired by high-end watchmaking, the brand draws on its values to enhance its mechanical timepieces.