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to-wear fashion in the 1990s under Marc Jacobs’s creative di- rection, however, the brand set its sights on becoming a player in luxury watches too. In 2002, Louis Vuitton introduced its first-ever timepiece: the Tambour. Boasting a unique drum- shaped case with the 12 letters of the Louis Vuitton name (one for each hour of the day) engraved along its edge, it marked the first step on the brand’s journey to becoming as pre- eminent in watchmaking as it is in fashion.
“Everyone knows Louis Vuitton for trunks, leather goods, and ready-to-wear, but the brand is very young in the watch- making field,” admits Navas, who first collaborated with the brand on the Tambour Spin Time watch, which was intro- duced in 2009. Featuring a dial set with 12 rotating blocks, the Tambour Spin Time’s unique mode of telling time was inspired by the split-flap departures displays found in train stations. Its concept, design, and execution balanced tradition and inno- vation, with a whimsical nod to the golden era of travel. “How daring to offer another way of displaying the time, with cubes rotating every hour,” says Navas of the unique design. “Only LV dared to do it.”
Following the success of the Tambour Spin Time, Louis Vuitton purchased La Fabrique du Temps in 2011, effectively turning
it into their in-house watch division with Navas at the helm. “The big advantage is that LV is the most famous luxury brand
in the world, [and] everyone knows their requirements in terms of quality and design,” Navas says of his role, which came with a new state-of-the-art workshop in Geneva. “For us, as artisan watchmakers, there is no disadvantage.”
In the years since joining Louis Vuitton, Navas and his small team have been busy working on new ways to establish the brand among the world’s very best watchmakers. The results have been a succession of spectacular designs, including minute repeater chimes, stunning hand-painted dials, and watch faces made out of meteorite. But none reveal the am- bition of Navas’s Time Factory better than last year’s release
LOUIS VUITTON
TAMBOUR CURVE FLYING TOURBILLON POINÇON DE GENÈVE, $361,550
of the Tambour Curve Flying Tourbillon Poinçon de Genève. “Everything is new: the shape, the movement, and the mate- rials,” says Navas of his latest creation. “Nothing is missing in this achievement.”
Watchmakers are famous for getting excited about things that wouldn’t register to your average watch-wearer. But
the latest Tambour marks a milestone for Louis Vuitton’s watchmaking, so Navas’s enthusiasm is justified. Developed exclusively for Louis Vuitton, the case is made of titanium and CarboStratum, a unique material made from layers of carbon fused together at high temperatures. Its gently curving shape is inspired by a Möbius strip, and houses an open-worked dial with a bridge in the shape of the brand’s iconic LV monogram, as well as a skeletonized flying tourbillon with a carriage in the shape of a monogram flower. The most impressive feature of the watch’s hand-wound LV 108 Calibre movement — which was developed, assembled, and finished in-house at La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton — might be its subtlest: the small Geneva seal at six o’clock. Known as the Poinçon de Genève, this has been a hallmark of top-tier watchmakers since it was created in the 19th century, and Louis Vuitton is one of just five brands in the world to attain it. “The Geneva Seal
is the highest watchmaking distinction in the world, [and] the selection is very hard,” Navas says of the seal’s famously rigor- ous standards of craftsmanship, accuracy, and reliability.
In an industry where 200-year-old brands aren’t uncommon, the fact that Louis Vuitton earned its Geneva Seal in less than 20 years is a testament to both Navas’s creative vision and the skill of the watchmakers at La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton. Despite this accolade, however, like the Tambour and the Spin Time before it, this watch’s main strength is the fact that no one other than Louis Vuitton could have made it. “We need
to respect the watchmaking heritage passed down from our ancestors, but we need to look ahead and be interested in new technologies and new materials,” he says. “This is what we do.”
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