The Louis Vuitton Tambour Marches to Its Own Drum

Every era of watch design has its own benchmarks — the touchstones and paragons of innovation to which the world’s most celebrated manufacturers aspire. In the 20th century, for instance, watchmakers went to great lengths to outdo one another and become the best names in ultra-thin dress watches, professional-grade dive watches, high-tech quartz watches, and obscure classical complications. But in the 21st century, this game of horological brinksmanship has found a new focus: steel luxury sports watches. And the new Tambour from Louis Vuitton (a timepiece more than two decades in the making) is the French Maison’s chosen challenger.

The story of the Tambour officially began in the early 2000s, when Louis Vuitton launched the first wristwatch to go by the name. The brand had been dabbling in timepiece design since the late 1980s (the 1988 Monterey is now considered an underrated classic of the era) but, in the new millennium, the famed Parisian luggage maker took a different tack. The Tambour, which was launched in 2002, featured a round case with curved sides, engraved with the 12 letters of Louis Vuitton (one for each hour of the clock). The distinctive case shape gave the watch its name, tambour, which is French for “drum.” Over the next 21 years, the Tambour would lead Louis Vuitton’s watchmaking journey, lending itself to a wide range of styles, from award-winning dive watches and the famed Spin Time GMT to smartwatches and high complications worthy of the exalted Geneva Seal. The newest Tambour, however, takes the original design to new heights.

“After twenty years of audacious watchmaking design based on the renowned Tambour shape,” says Jean Arnault, Louis Vuitton’s watch director, “and with the same quest for modernity, elegance and functionality that the Maison has been built on for more than 160 years, Louis Vuitton elevates its watch offering with an unprecedented level of sophistication on each and every element of the new watch. With this launch, we seek to open a new chapter in the history of the Maison’s watchmaking by creating a watch with strong horological credentials, while still identifiably Louis Vuitton in style.”

Where previous editions of the Tambour have been equipped with halo complications like tourbillons and automata (carved mechanical features that move about the dial in unexpected and whimsical ways), the new Tambour is an exercise in elevated simplicity. The dial features just five large sans-serif numerals, a sub-seconds counter at six o’clock, and no date display. The closer you look, however, the more details appear: the chapter ring, divided by a polished step, consists of an outer ring for the minutes and an inner ring for the hours, both micro-sandblasted to deliver enhanced depth. The five-minute markers are recessed, and the hours are indicated by golden, diamond-polished applied markers.

As with previous Tambour models, this new version also features the 12 letters of Louis Vuitton around its case. But, rather than being engraved this time, they’re raised and polished — each one a tactile tribute to the watch’s origins. The new Tambour case is 40 mm in diameter and just 8.3 mm thick, giving it a sleek, unisex appeal. A concave case back is designed to fit the natural curve of the wrist and, like all the greatest examples of luxury steel sports watches, the Tambour features an integrated bracelet with a lug-free form that makes it an integral part of the case. The bracelet’s links, like the case, slightly arch to create a more comfortable fit.

On the dial, the phrase “Fab. En Suisse” offers a subtle nod to the Tambour’s birthplace at La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton, the brand’s state-of-the-art Geneva atelier. Founded and operated by master watchmakers Enrico Barbasini and Michel Navas, La Fabrique du Temps has been a crucial part of the brand’s watchmaking ascent in recent decades, developing bleeding-edge mechanisms including the Tambour’s new LFT023 micro-rotor movement.

Designed by the brand in conjunction with movement specialists Le Cercle des Horlogers, the movement’s elite level of finishing puts it on par with some of the best in the world, from its micro-sandblasted bridges to its 22k gold micro-rotor, decorated with a stylized “LV” motif.

At launch, the new Tambour is available in just two versions. One has a tone-on-tone grey dial, with the other a deep shade of blue. Together, they form a sort of bridge between the past and present, integrating Louis Vuitton’s 19th century Parisian traditions with its current status as a world-leading luxury Maison. But they also look to the future — ahead to a time when watch enthusiasts will look back and undoubtedly count the Tambour as one of the finest luxury sports watches of its era.

The post The Louis Vuitton Tambour Marches to Its Own Drum appeared first on Sharp Magazine.