Louis Vuitton Escale au Pont-Neuf Celebrates Paris

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After a debut journey through the rich, lush landscapes of the Amazon, Louis Vuitton now returns home to Paris – and where the House’s story first began – with the incredible new Escale au Pont-Neuf pocket watch

The second extraordinary creation in the new Escales Autour du Monde pocket watch collection, the Escale au Pont-Neuf sees the House now celebrate its home in Paris – and the Louis Vuitton headquarters situated on the right bank of Pont-Neuf, the city’s oldest bridge. The new pocket watch is a breathtaking, one-of-a-kind tribute to the House’s rich history of craftsmanship, creativity and the story of trunk-making excellence that is at the heart of the House.

Featuring a virtuoso Automata and minute repeater with incredible Métiers d’Art, the Escale au Pont-Neuf pocket watch also personifies the next chapter of extraordinary creations at La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton. The timepiece is crafted with a multitude of Haute Horlogerie expertise that today sit under one roof in the integrated Manufacture in Geneva: La Fabrique des Boîtiers (case making), La Fabrique des Mouvements (movement components making) and La Fabrique des Arts (dial making and Métiers d’Art).

Symbolic location

An ode to exploring new horizons in style, the Louis Vuitton Escales Autour du Monde collection is a celebration of Louis Vuitton’s trunkmaking heritage and savoir-faire. For over 170 years, the Louis Vuitton trunk has come to symbolize not only freedom and adventure, but also embodies the evolution and innovation of transportation throughout history. Whether engineered for rail or automobile travel, to transforming into a bed for exploring Africa or turning into a float attached to a hot-air balloon, the Louis Vuitton trunk has had a front row seat to the most iconic expeditions and travel destinations.

The House’s trunk-making heritage also has roots in Paris too. This is where Louis Vuitton established itself on the right bank of Pont-Neuf – a symbolic as much as strategic location. Overlooking the river Seine, the House’s headquarters faced the Samaritaine, a symbol of French luxury since 1870, and which positioned the House at the heart of culture, luxury and lifestyle.

These key historical elements are paid tribute in the new Escale au Pont-Neuf pocket watch, which depicts a breathtaking autumn day on the dial. The Louis Vuitton headquarters and Samaritaine can be seen in the distance alongside the historic bridge and city of Paris, as a barge carrying the trunks on the Seine is in the foreground. It also reminds the importance of the river to Louis Vuitton: it was the ideal location for transporting the wood used to craft its famous trunks.

This scene then comes to sparkling life thanks to seven animations, which is activated by a slider piece at six o’clock, and which reveals a spectacle featuring 13 moving elements.

The Escale au Pont-Neuf pays tribute to the guiding spirit of the “Escales Autour du Monde” collection. A gold compass at 12 o’clock spins clockwise and sits prominently in a blue sky subtly accented by LV Monograms. Meanwhile the barge moves from right to left, and which carries a selection of Louis Vuitton trunks that slowly open to reveal golden LV Monogram flowers. The French flag floats on the boat’s bow, while a vibrant orange banner marks the location of the Louis Vuitton headquarters in the distance. Above, a pair of sparrows perch on branches adorned with autumn leaves, overlooking the scene.

The pocket watch features a beautifully engraved case, in volume with different motifs, framed by a gem-set bezel of 60 baguette-cut colored stones totaling 3.85 carats. Like the case, which was crafted in-house at La Fabrique des Boîtiers case-making facility, the gem-setting was also executed in house, and continues the story depicted on the dial. A host of precious gemstones echo the rich, vibrant tones found on the dial scene, courtesy of colored sapphires, topazes, tsavorites, tourmalines and diamonds.

A double perspective

Bringing to life the mesmerising scene of seven animations and 13 moving elements on the dial is the manual winding LFT AU14.03 calibre. This movement has been entirely developed in-house and is the most complex mechanical movement ever created by La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton to date. Engraved with the LFT hallmark, the movement also incorporates a minute repeater that chimes the hours, quarters and minutes. There are also several nods to historic pocket watches. Meanwhile, two hands have been placed on the caseback, rather than the face, which allows the dial’s miniature theatre to truly shine in all its glory.

Comprising a total of 561 components and with an automata module that powers each moving element on the dial, the Escale au Pont-Neuf’s LFT AU14.03 calibre is crafted with the most exceptional artisanal workmanship, echoing the dial’s beauty. Here, a single watchmaker has worked on the movement’s assembly from start to end. Many of these components are notably hidden away and not even visible, yet the beauty of the movement remains paramount. Take for example the incredible beveling work: with more than 630 angles, beveling highlights the edges of components and bridges – even the teeth on the wheels – presenting a wonderful play of light and reflection, and which underscores the watchmaker’s talent and patience.

Truly no element of the movement is overlooked, whether the snailing on the barrel, the hand engraving on the bridges, or the painstaking hand finishing to bring forth a mirror polish on numerous components including all the screws, the monobloc gongs, the tourbillon cage, and the ratchet, the latter of which was sculpted into a concave shape and which took three weeks alone to finish. Preciousness was also a consideration, and for the first time the chatons for the jewels settings are in yellow gold, while the wheels connecting the tourbillon are in solid gold. Elsewhere, the movement’s upper section, where the bridges are visible, feature the celebrated Côtes de Genève finish, while the hands are blued using the traditional flame technique. In all, 500 hours in total were required to assemble and hand finish this historic, groundbreaking movement, presenting the most beautiful finishes ever explored at Louis Vuitton.

Together these two exceptional artisanal features – a mesmerizing landscape on the dial rendered in incredible detail, coupled with the mechanical vision on the caseback, again sculpted with painstaking artistry – presents a double perspective that magnificently celebrates the work of the hand, not unlike a painting.

Pushing the boundaries of Métiers d’Art

Continuing the artistry and unparalleled handcraftsmanship is the incredible Métiers d’Art used to create the dial, and which is a true tableau of meticulous detail that highlights the mastery and expertise at La Fabrique des Arts. An immense level of complexity and skill are needed for each of the dial’s moving elements, from the sparrows, the barge and its treasures, to the rose compass and Louis Vuitton flag. All elements are carved in very thin layers of gold using the bas relief engraving technique where the subject is sculpted directly on the surface. As key parts of the dial’s theatre, each element must also be ultra-light, to create a sense of natural motion.

No detail is too small or overlooked. The leaves burst with life and realism thanks to a host of tiny intricate lines that have been carved on the surface. The birds too are full of life and character, their miniature forms meticulously hand engraved to the last millimeter. Elsewhere, parts of the bridge are first sculpted in gold and then enameled to add further depth and dimension. The white gold barge is detailed not only with the tiniest windows and portholes, but also topped with the gold LV Monogram trunks, the smallest ever rendered and sculpted by the House.

Each moving element required tens of hours of work, for a total of 140 hours or more than three weeks in all. The side of the case has also been painstakingly engraved by a single artisan, featuring Art Nouveau accents that echo the Parisian motifs and beautiful arabesques that adorn the Samaritaine’s interior. A total of 90 hours of engraving were needed for the case alone.

Exceptional enameling mastery

Complementing the spectacular engraving work is the miniature and champlevé enamel techniques used across the creation.

What immediately strikes one about the dial’s scene is the extraordinary precision and execution. This can be attributed to the commitment of the La Fabrique des Arts’s in-house master enameller, who aimed to create as realistic a scene as possible. Based at La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton, the artisan studied various maps of Pont-Neuf, its surrounding buildings and key features of Parisian architecture, capturing every element including the hundreds of mascarons that line the bridge, rendering each gargoyle’s tiny face – eyes, mouth and all – in full detail. Elsewhere the glass façade of the Samaritaine building has been beautifully miniaturized and recreated, even down to the exact number of windows and trees as in real life.

The dial’s backdrop was another feat of art and imagination. The first task was selecting the range of hues that best captured the Parisian landscape. A total of 30 colors were ultimately chosen, in varying shades of green, blue, brown and white. This was complemented by three types of champlevé enamel – translucent, opaque and opaline – that feature unique properties for light transmission, and which produce a wonderful play of light, brilliance and depth. Finally, no less than 30 firings were required to achieve the dial’s exact, rich tones, with the risk of breakage or damage ever-present with each firing. Overhead, the sky shifts in a delicate graduation from deep blue to pristine white, a serene contrast to the intensity of the dial’s creation.

To bring each of the moving elements to life – the waving flag, the twitching sparrows, the travelling barge, among them – required 10 to 15 layers and firings. Twelve different colors in a mix of miniature enamel and enamel – both translucent and opaque – were applied to achieve the final, lifelike effects.

In total, enameling the dial and its moving elements took a total of 300 hours of work, or two months, to complete.

An exclusive leather accompaniment

The story of the Escale au Pont-Neuf culminates in one-of-a-kind leather goods that pair exclusively with the watch – and which channel Louis Vuitton’s spirit of travel. In addition to the pocket watch’s handcrafted gold chain, the timepiece also comes with a bespoke trunk that was crafted in Asnières, the historic workshop of the House. This is complemented by an exceptional and truly unique doctor’s-style bag, which was inspired by a circa 1906 Motor’s bag from Louis Vuitton’s archive. Initially created to meet the rage for automobile travel, the bag has been especially designed to hold a pocket watch at its center. Both leather goods are crafted in the Louis Vuitton signature Saffron.

The House’s most complicated and complex movement created to date, the Escale au Pont-Neuf required a total of 1,000 hours of work by a symphony of expert watchmakers, engravers and enamellers, representing 2.5 years of work in total. A truly exceptional canvas for creativity and avant-garde, horological expression, this spectacular and extraordinary timepiece beautifully embodies the past and future of Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton – and its most exciting chapter yet.

Louis Vuitton Escale au Pont-Neuf Pocket Watch Technical Specifications

Unique piece

Movement

LFT AU14.03 caliber: mechanical movement with manual winding developed and assembled by La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton
Functions: Jacquemart mechanism with 7 animations, minute repeater, tourbillon, hours and minutes
561 components
8 days of power reserve
21 600 vibrations per hour (3Hz)
68 jewels

Case

18K white gold case, engraved on the side with motifs echoing the story of the dial
18K white gold bezel set with diamonds and colored stones
18K white gold crown and suspension ring
50.0 mm diameter
18.8 mm thickness
Domed anti-reflection sapphire crystal
Water-resistant to 30 m

Dial