It's no secret that the view industry has experienced somewhat of a renaissance over the last few years, and with sales surging ever upwards, many brands are clamoring to get their proverbial 'piece from the pie.' Among them are some with the best known fashion labels within the world, Chanel, Dior, Gucci, just to name a few. The success of each has varied as has the level of watches they've created. Every now and then however a stand-out performer emerges from the crowd and really makes us sit up and take notice. Earlier this year, that brand was Louis Vuitton, with their striking (literally) Tambour Minute Repeater.
Louis Vuitton has been producing the Tambour line for many years now and in my personal opinion many in the pieces, whilst certainly attractive from an aesthetic point of view, are simply overpriced and lacking in any real level of sophistication. This is not a criticism of LV per se as I think this is actually a challenge faced by many from the large fashion house, i.e. how to create credibility for your products in a very short period of time whilst trying to compete against traditional watch-makers who happen to be doing a single thing and one thing only for more than a century. Chanel found success by going super high-end and super-complicated with their J12 Retrograde Mysterieuse as did Montblanc when they were looking to establish themselves as more than just an exceptional pen-maker.
Will the same strategy work for Louis Vuitton? The answer is I'm not sure. What I do know is that the brand certainly outdid itself when it unveiled its initial ever Minute Repeater in early 2011. Presented in a Tambour situation in your choice of precious metals the in-house, manually wound Caliber 178 was reportedly developed in conjunction with an unnamed independent watch-maker (I'll leave it to you to speculate on who that might be) and in-line with all the Tambour's "traveler" theme offers dual-time zone functionality. When activated the Minute Repeater chimes either the home time or alternatively the time the second time zone is set at.
Smoked sapphire crystal displays on the front and rear with the piece ensure uninterrupted views of your beautifully crafted movement with all elements working together to create what is actually a very unique looking timepiece. The dial is quite alluring without being overpowering and the uncluttered design means it is not only easy to read but also easy to appreciate the Minute Repeater mechanism in action as it puts on its own little mechanical show.
As you would expect from one particular with the world's best known fashion houses the attention to detail on the finishing from the timepiece is impeccable, together with the reverse side with the watch just as attractive as the dial side.
Whilst I wouldn't go as far as to say that the addition of this new piece from Louis Vuitton, as impressive as it is, has catapulted the brand automatically into the league of elite, high-end watch-makers, it certainly has gone a way to giving the brand some much needed credibility in this field. And with LV's deep pockets and competitive spirit, who knows what the future may hold?
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