First we saw the glorious return of the Tambour and now the Louis Vuitton Escale is back, bringing with it a modern vision of fine watchmaking as defined by the maison. Its recent reinvention through the eyes of Louis Vuitton Watch Director Jean Arnault has shed new light on this timepiece, and opened up a world of possibilities. Louis Vuitton’s watchmaking journey officially began in the 21st century when it introduced the sports-chic Tambour in 2002. Of course, its eminent history as a luxury fashion house goes back much further, specifically 170 years ago to 1854 in Paris.

Throughout this time, the Maison has established some of the strongest visual codes in the luxury industry, rising from a humble trunk-making specialist to a luxury juggernaut recognized unequivocally as the number one fashion maison in the world, valued at approximately USD 26.3 billion as of 2023.

While it represents just a fraction of this overall figure today, the timepiece division of Louis Vuitton is on the cusp of a major paradigm shift, which began with the complete refurbishment of the Tambour, its house icon, in 2023. Next, the maison demonstrated its profound savoir faire in haute horlogerie and métiers d’art — all mastered in-house at the manufacture La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton — with the Louis Vuitton Escale Cabinet of Wonders, a ravishing trio of handcrafted timepieces paying tribute to Gaston-Louis Vuitton’s love for Japanese art.

Richly adorned by the hands of some of the best craftsmen and women in the business, these watches also heralded the glorious return of the Louis Vuitton Escale, arriving just in time to celebrate its 10th anniversary.

Origin of the Louis Vuitton Escale

The Louis Vuitton Escale plays a key role in enriching the horological journey of the maison. Bringing a dapper and distinguished flair, this watch is deeply intertwined with Louis Vuitton’s eternal love for travel — and traveling in style. As such, the first model released in 2014 was already designed for the artistic itinerant. The Escale Worldtime was a worldtimer like no other. It features a colorful dial, hand painted with emblems inspired by the monograms used on vintage Louis Vuitton trunks and the names of 24 cities of the world.

Uniquely, this watch has no hands at all, and it indicates the hours and minutes with rotating disks, for both local and home time, with the help of a sapphire crystal with special embossing on the underside.

A discreet nod to the maison’s long heritage in trunk making, the 2014 Escale Worldtime, and later the Escale Worldtime Minute Repeater released in 2015, offered a glimpse of Louis Vuitton’s vision of haute horlogerie, which is to always combine artisanal craftsmanship with immaculate design and, of course, watchmaking excellence. This was readily evident in such horologically accomplished creations as the Escale Spin Time Tourbillon, which marries Louis Vuitton’s proprietary Spin Time concept with a central tourbillon featuring a V-shaped carriage that was resolutely modern and absolutely breathtaking.

Consistently present across all of these fine examples of high watchmaking are in-house calibers conceived and produced by La Fabrique du Temps, a movement specialist manufacture which has been the horological beating heart of Louis Vuitton High Watchmaking timepieces since 2011. And even though with the Escale Spin Time series there is no longer a world time display, the spirit of travel remains perfectly intact albeit this time metaphorically rather than functionally, as it offers a momentary escape from the rigors and monotony of everyday life.

Indeed, the Louis Vuitton Escale does not always depend on a world time complication to express its immense love for travel, as the 2024 iterations prove. It has been said that perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. In the case of the new Escale Time-Only Automatic, truer words have never been spoken.

From the outset, the Escale has pursued a much different path than the majority of luxury watches, which typically began as time-only models. After spending a full decade sojourning through some of watchmaking’s most beloved complications, it has now arrived at a most fascinating milestone, one that begets the arrival of its first time-only model. It’s almost bizarre if you think about it, but at the same time, Louis Vuitton has never been more ready to contemplate and to imagine the purest, most essential version of the Escale ever.

Louis Vuitton has never been more ready to contemplate and to imagine the purest, most essential version of the Escale ever.

Modernizing the classics

Over the past two years, the maison swiftly and effectively reevaluated its positioning in high watchmaking, establishing the need to distinguish itself as a modern haute horlogerie maison. In this short span of time, Louis Vuitton has also become associated with some of the greatest names in independent watchmaking, and by founding the Louis Vuitton Watch Prize for Independent Creatives, strategically positioned itself as a patron of independent watchmaking.

Most importantly, these decisive moves came about not simply for the sake of gaining market dominance. Rather, they stemmed from a point of genuine passion for horology and a desire to create modern luxury timepieces with all the flair and finesse, sophistication and timelessness often found in the watches of yesteryears.

So it is with this lofty ambition that Louis Vuitton set out to define the new time-only Escale. Escale means “stopover” in French and this brings us back to the notion of travel and indeed the journey of the maison beginning as a trunk maker in 1854. Suitably, the Escale holds firm to Louis Vuitton’s historic and unparalleled savoir faire in trunk making, echoing the signature design features of these magnificent trunks and traveling cabinets. Hugging the refined 39mm round case are four elegant lugs crafted to resemble the angled form and riveted exteriors of the brass brackets and corners that reinforce the Louis Vuitton trunks.

These components also add further definition to the dial at each of the four quarters, standing in bold juxtaposition to the faceted hour markers. Unlike the brass reinforcements of the trunks, however, these fine fittings here are all crafted in precious gold or platinum.

Additionally, the dial offers a melange of beautiful textures rich in detail and complexity. In the rose gold models, occupying the expanse around the center is a lovely grainé finish which directly references the finely grained surface of the Louis Vuitton Monogram canvas. To achieve the perfect likeness of canvas, an inherently soft material, on hard metallic gold, Louis Vuitton had to specially develop custom designed dial stamps, refining them over several material trials before arriving at the ideal solution. In other words, this dial is far from ordinary.

Even the slender groove dividing the central dial and the minuterie had been thoughtfully rendered to perfectly reflect the light, demarcating the variation in textures and finishes. The minuterie encircles the dial around its perimeter, featuring brushed finishing and set at a subtle concave camber for exceptional visual texture and optimal readability.

Running along the minuterie are 60 gold studs evoking the nails of the lozine, or leather trim, that runs along the borders of a Louis Vuitton trunk. And aligning itself to each of these gold studs with utmost precision is the seconds hand which is shaped to follow the exact curve of the dial, so as to minimize parallax error in time readings.

Moreover, in the interest of energy efficiency and chronometric precision, the seconds hand is crafted in titanium instead of gold, titanium being a material favored for its lightweight properties. Special tools were developed to overcome the high elasticity of titanium without marking its surface, resulting in a seconds hand that is not only expertly curved, but thereafter PVD-treated to perfectly match the gold hour and minute hands, which incidentally, are no ordinary hands either.

The Escale’s unique origin story also meant it never told the time in the conventional way. Until now, time has been displayed through rotating disks or rotating blocks. With the Escale Time-Only Automatic, the maison had obviously thought long and hard about every minute detail, and these hands are, in fact, a sort of clin d’œil to the core universe of Louis Vuitton: handcraftsmanship in couture and fine leather goods.

Shaped like finely tapered needles, they serve as a subtle nod to the intricate nature of the different traditional métiers well mastered within the many specialized ateliers of the Parisian maison, their precise lines and sharply polished facets reflecting the rigor and discipline required of the master artisans.

Discovering the new Escale

Heralding a fresh new chapter for the Escale, four exquisite references reveal a modern vision of Louis Vuitton watchmaking constructed in a choice of rose gold or platinum. The rose gold Escale offers a classic aesthetic when paired with a silvery dial and worn on light brown calf leather — undoubtedly an exemplar of Louis Vuitton’s immense craftsmanship in leather goods. When paired with a vibrant blue dial, it instantly vamps up as the blue on rose gold aesthetic, tempered with a bit of silver around the minuterie, immediately distinguishes this watch as an object of contemporary style.

Meanwhile, the platinum references bring lapidary work and gem-setting into the conversation, stealing our collective hearts with the otherworldly beauty of meteorite and the near-fluid shine of black onyx. For these watches, Louis Vuitton carefully selected specimens of meteorite that showcase contrasting textures and natural mineral tones, as well as black onyx of the darkest, inkiest depths. Bringing added flourish to the platinum with black onyx model, Louis Vuitton set the bezel with baguette-cut diamonds, creating a monochromatic symphony of light and shade, sparkle and shimmer.

Through each and every one of these new references, the Louis Vuitton Escale shows how richly infused it is with horological details and how well the maison has mastered the art of haute horlogerie. And not just in the big things but the small ones as well, such as its perfectly sized case of 39mm which reflects the deep understanding of Louis Vuitton of the watch market today. Such as the curve of the domed sapphire crystal which blends seamlessly into the polished bezel, revealing none of itself when viewed from the front, yet aiding to provide complete legibility from all angles.

Such as the octagonal crown emblazoned with the Louis Vuitton Monogram which is not just a design feature. It is fluted on alternating sides to facilitate winding and setting. Indeed, the entire watch is hand finished with alternating satin-brushed and hand-polished surfaces, as one would expect of a luxury timepiece of the highest quality. Inside, the chronometer-certified caliber LFT023 beats with utter precision, wound by a 22K rose gold micro-rotor.

For all these reasons and more, the Louis Vuitton Escale truly befits the Fab. en Suisse label on the dial (abbreviated from traditional Fabriqué en Suisse), which is not merely an indication of where this watch was made, but a promise of ever more exceptional craftsmanship certain to come from Louis Vuitton.