A tribute to the Maison’s legendary trunks, the Louis Vuitton Escale now becomes a stage for the finest exponents of grand feu enamel and guilloche to showcase their time-honoured crafts on the hand-made dial – Louis Vuitton Escale Platinum Guilloché Blue Grand Feu Enamel Dial.
Bestowed upon each example of this limited series is a dial decorated with guilloché as well as grand feu enamel in two techniques, champleve and flinque.
Four artisans, each a master of a different artisanal craft, were called upon to create each dial. The complexity of the dial dictates the Escale is a limited edition of just 50 watches in platinum.
Delicate and by hand
The dial of the Escale is precious in both material and adornment. Beginning as a solid gold disc, the dial blank is first milled to create a tiny, raised lip all along its edge that serves as a barrier to contain the enamel at its centre. The recessed centre is then engraved on a hand-operated rose engine to create the hypnotic radial guilloche, a decorative technique essentially unchanged since the 18th century.
The border between the raised edge and guilloche poses a particular challenge as the engine turning must go right up to the raised lip, a task that can only be perfectly executed by an experienced guillocheur.
An enameller then expertly mixes enamel pigments – essentially coloured glass ground to a fine powder – with water and oil. This mixing is a particularly delicate task as the combination of pigments must be just right in order to achieve the lustrous translucency and rich, brilliant hue that characterises the dial.
The mixture is then carefully painted onto the guilloche centre of the dial, filling the recessed cell, a technique known as champleve. But it is not only the decorative front of the dial that is enamelled, but also the reverse that is invisible to anyone except the watchmaker working on the watch.
Known as counter enamel, the enamel on the reverse of the dial prevents deformation of the dial during firing. The counter enamel is executed in a pale shade that reveals the engraving on the reverse of the dial, “Guilloché Main, Émail Grand Feu” – a message from the enamel artisans to the watchmaker who will service the watch in the future.
The dial is then fired in an oven at 800℃ or more, melting the enamel and fusing it to the solid gold dial base on both sides. This process of painting and firing is then repeated until the desired dial finish is achieved.
The resulting dial reveals the guilloche through the translucent enamel, a method often known as flinqué enamel that was particularly popular in late 19th and early 20th century Europe.
Gently lapped with a diamond paste to give it a perfect, mirrored surface, the enamel dial is nearly complete. The final step, paradoxically, requires a high-tech touch.
Each of the hour indices at the quarters are individually rivetted to the enamel dial, an accomplishment practically unheard of in watchmaking because of the near impossibility of drilling holes in enamel to accommodate the rivets. Akin to glass, enamel is simply too fragile for drilling.
The solution devised by Louis Vuitton’s craftsmen is a precision laser that faultlessly burns 12 holes through the enamel dial for the hour indices – three per marker. As a result, the dial gains the distinction of rivetted hour markers on fired enamel, a rarity in watchmaking where practically all enamel dials bear only printed markings.
Precious details
Each of the hour indices at the quarters are as precious as the dial: each baton index is solid 18k white gold, as are the lance-shaped hour and minute hands. The seconds hand, however, is in lightweight titanium – a technical necessity given the continuous and comparatively rapid motion of the seconds hand that demands more energy from the mainspring.
The case, on the other hand, is platinum, right down to the signature “rivet” lugs inspired by the corners of the maison’s trunks.
Through its sapphire display back one can admire the LFT023, a chronometer calibre certified by the Geneva Observatory to within -4/+6 seconds a day. The manufacture movement developed by La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton in collaboration with Le Cercle des Horlogers.
A discreet rose gold plaque secured to the case back bears the individual serial number of each watch.
Louis Vuitton Escale Platinum Guilloché Blue Grand Feu Enamel Dial Technical Specifications
Ref. W3PT21 – 50 pieces Limited Edition
Case
• Platinum, polished bezel, polished and satin-finished lugs, satin-finished case-sides
• 39 mm diameter
• 8.97 mm thickness without glass, 10.34 mm with domed glass
• Open case-back, “1 of 50” engraved on a rose gold plate
• Sapphire crystal, anti-reflective coating
• Water-resistant to 50 meters
Dial
• Grand feu enamel on hand-guilloché white gold plate center and silvery satin-finished tilted flange
• 18-carat white gold hours and minutes hands, PVD coated titanium seconds hand
• 18-carat white gold indexes
Movement
• Caliber LFT023: self-winding mechanical movement
• Functions: Hours, minutes and seconds
• 22-carat rose gold micro-rotor
• 147 components
• 50-hour power reserve
• 28,800 vibrations/hour
• 32 jewels
• Certified chronometer by the Geneva Chronometric Observatory
Bracelet
• Blue calf leather with black calf leather lining
Buckle
• Platinum pin buckle with LOUIS VUITTON engraved signature
