Transparent architecture: Louis Vuitton presented a unique watch

Renowned architect Frank Gehry, a Pritzker Prize winner, created a transparent watch for the French luxury brand Louis Vuitton. The model is called Tambour Moon Flying Tourbillon Poinçon de Genève Sapphire. Its case is made of fluted sapphire crystal with elements characteristic of Gehry's architecture.

A single 200-kilogram piece of sapphire was used to produce the watch. The cut pattern follows the shape of the glass façade of the Louis Vuitton store in Seoul, as well as the sail-like building of the LV Foundation in Paris. And to create the original wavy surface of the dial, the architect found inspiration in crumpled paper.

“To achieve this powerful yet light texture – a poetic allusion to the sail of a boat – the architect printed a large-scale photograph of the 2022 Tambour Moon Saphir and crumpled the paper to create a new look for the dial,” Louis said. Vuitton. “Drawing a parallel to the building Gehry envisioned for the Louis Vuitton Foundation, he created a mini-structure in the shape of a clock that evokes the same impressions of airiness and depth, but on a miniature scale.”

According to the brand, each of the five limited edition watches required 250 hours of manual labor. “This dial is one of the most complex that La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton has ever made and is a real miniature sculpture, no thicker than a sheet of paper. Craftsmen sculpted sapphire, which is very difficult to work with, by hand, bringing to life the shapes and reliefs created by Frank Gehry to replicate his architectural designs.”

The transparent dial has been designed to allow the user to see the rose gold and rhodium-plated steel movement in full 3D. Gehry's signature is engraved on the inside of the dial.

“An architectural masterpiece with sapphire crystal, every millimeter of the beauty of the gears shines through, including the chamfer and brilliant finish, applied to the smallest component of the watch,” added the Louis Vuitton press service. - The elegantly open back has two tones to highlight contrasts. The solid rose gold plate has a concentric brilliant finish, while the gears and tourbillon are plated with rhodium.”