Louis Vuitton Escale Minute Repeater

Inspired by the House’s iconic trunks, the Escale Minute Repeater watch brings the art of fine watchmaking to life through sound.

The LFT SO 13.01 caliber is the result of a collaboration between gérald genta and Louis Vuitton, developed at the La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton, the Maison’s House’s watchmaking manufacture in Geneva, under the direction of Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini. This hand-wound movement achieves a feat rarely accomplished in contemporary watchmaking: combining a minute repeater with a jumping hour within a single mechanism. Bringing these two independent systems into harmony, one governing the chime, the other the display, demands a perfect balance between what is seen and what is heard. Composed of 432 parts and requiring four weeks to assemble, the movement is finished by hand using the traditional techniques that define high watchmaking.

Every acoustic element of the caliber is subject to extremely precise adjustment. The polished black hammers and gongs are individually shaped, cut and fitted by hand to ensure optimal vibration and amplitude, then painstakingly adjusted by ear until the chime rings out with crystalline clarity and projection. The slide used to activate the striking mechanism is discreetly tucked into one of the lugs of the Escale case, a design that draws inspiration from the House’s iconic trunks.

The center of the dial is distinguished by a hand-executed guilloche requiring over 60 hours of work, revealing a flammé pattern that plays with light in the most captivating way.