The New Louis Vuitton Escale Watch Face Creates a Complex Symphony of Guilloché and Grand Feu Enamel

Earlier this year, Louis Vuitton celebrated the 10th anniversary of its Escale collection with four new models. Now, the brand has introduced a limited-edition timepiece incorporating exclusive Métiers d’Arts. 

The newly launched Louis Vuitton Escale Platinum Guilloché and Grand Feu Enamel Dial timepiece is a tribute to the Maison’s legendary trunks; it also serves as a canvas for the finest grand feu enamel and guilloché crafts. In other words, each reference of the limited series features a dial adorned with guilloché as well as grand feu enamel, achieved with the champleve and flinque techniques. 

The new Escale is a limited edition of just 50 watches in platinum. GMT India takes a closer look at the novelty with a delightfully complex dial. 

Handcrafted Excellence

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The dial of the Escale is precious, given the intricacy of its material and aesthetics. At the core is a solid gold disc with the blank dial, 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 guilloché, a decorative technique hailing from the 18th century. The border between the raised edge and guilloché poses a 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. 

Then, an enameller expertly blends 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 the rich, brilliant hue that characterise the dial. The mixture is then carefully painted onto the guilloché centre of the dial, filling the recessed cell, a technique known as champleve. Not only the decorative front of the dial, but the reverse, which is invisible to anyone except the watchmaker working on the watch, is enamelled as well.

The enamel on the reverse of the dial is known as counter enamel, preventing deformation of the dial during firing. The dial is then fired in an oven at 800°C 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 guilloché through the translucent enamel, a method often known as flinqué enamelling that was notably popular in late 19th and early 20th century Europe. As a finishing touch, the enamel dial is gently lapped with a diamond paste to give it a perfect, mirrored surface. 

Finally, each of the hour indices at the quarters is individually riveted to the enamel dial. This technical feat is practically unheard of in watchmaking because of the near impossibility of drilling holes in enamel to accommodate the rivets. Like glass, enamel is too fragile for drilling. The solution devised by Louis Vuitton’s craftsmen involves a precision laser that faultlessly burns 12 holes through the enamel dial for the hour indices ― three per marker. As a result, the dial gets the riveted hour markers on fired enamel, a rarity in watchmaking, where practically all enamel dials bear only printed markings.

Delicate Details 

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Each of the hour indices at the quarters is meticulously crafted in solid 18 ct white gold, as are the lance-shaped hour and minute hands. The seconds hand 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 in platinum, right down to the signature ‘rivet’ lugs that draw inspiration from the corners of the Maison’s trunks. 

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Wearers can admire LFT023 ― a chronometer calibre, certified by the Geneva Observatory to within -4/+6 seconds a day ― through the sapphire display back. The Manufacture movement was developed by La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton in collaboration with Le Cercle des Horlogers. A discrete rose gold plaque secured to the caseback bears the individual serial number of each watch. 

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