- Louis Vuitton has released the Monterey, a limited-edition revival of its debut watch from 1988, designed by Italian architect Gae Aulenti
- The new Louis Vuitton Monterey remains true to the original, with its lugless 39mm pebble-shaped case crafted from yellow gold and featuring the atypical crown placement at 12 o’clock
- While the original Louis Vuitton LV 1 was a quartz timepiece, the new Monterey is powered by the automatic calibre LFTMA01.02
- The Louis Vuitton Monterey is limited to 188 examples and priced at $92,500AUD
During a time when the watch industry was categorised by rigid constraints—the traditional technicality and aesthetic sedateness of Swiss mechanical watches; the continued dominance of Japanese quartz watches; and the quickly dismissed ‘fashion watches’ released by maisons like Dior, Chanel, and Gucci—Louis Vuitton’s freshman timepiece managed to bridge the gap between fashion and function. A timepiece produced by a luxury fashion house, sure, but with a surprising degree of functionality — in an ode to the maison’s origins in travel, it was equipped with moonphase, world time, GMT, and date functions. And yes, powered by a quartz movement.
Rather than opting to collaborate with an established watchmaker or have a fashion designer design the watch, Louis Vuitton called upon Italian architect and industrial designer Gae Aulenti, best known for transforming Paris’s Gare d’Orsay train station into the Musée d’Orsay. The resultant timepiece—simply called the LV 1—combined contemporary and traditional design codes, with a lugless pebble-shaped gold case devoid of sharp edges and with the crown positioned in the atypical spot of 12 o’clock.
Reminiscent of pocket watches, the cases were produced by IWC. Interestingly, IWC has its own pebble-shaped timepiece inspired by a pocket watch—the limited-edition Tribute To Pallweber jumping hour watch, which pays homage to the seminal pocket watch of the same name—although the proportions of the LV 1 were even more exaggerated in their roundness and, dare we say… pebblier?
But, back to the present. The new Louis Vuitton Monterey—the LV I and subsequent ceramic LV II were nicknamed ‘Monterey’, ostensibly as a play on American clients’ attempts to pronounce the French montre (watch)—remains faithful to the 1988 debut, with a 39mm case (down a millimetre from the original 40mm) case crafted from yellow gold. While the timepiece pares back the functions, displaying just the hours and minutes, it retains the same thickness (12.2mm), keeping it in line with Aulenti’s pebbley proportions. Like its predecessor, the Louis Vuitton Monterey is a lugless design, with the strap passing under the case and affixed to recessed sections in the caseback, further contributing to its pocket watch aesthetic.
Inside the case, the newcomer diverges from the original. The Monterey elevates the material palette with a white grand feu enamel dial, with Arabic numerals and the red and blue minute tracks transfer printed onto the dial with ceramic pigments before being fired into place. Circumnavigating the dial are hour and minutes hands crafted from white gold and coated with red lacquer.
Beneath the pretty face is the in-house calibre LFT MA01.02, an automatic movement produced by La Fabrique du Temps, and an evolution of the calibre LFT MA01.01 powering the Tambour Convergence released at LVMH Watch Week earlier this year. The movement has a 45-hour power reserve and is concealed by a reassuringly hefty solid caseback.
As watchmakers race to see who can be the thinnest of them all, Louis Vuitton’s pebble-shaped curiosity is a welcome curvilinear addition (or readdition, as the case may be) to the space, making it just as—if not more—revolutionary than its forebear was in 1988.
The Louis Vuitton Monterey is priced at $92,500AUD and limited to 188 pieces.
Price: $92,500AUD
Availability: 188 examples each
Model: Monterey (ref. W0YG11)
Case size: 39mm
Movement: LFTMA01.02 (automatic)
Water resistance: 5ATM
Functions: hours, minutes
Power reserve: 45 hours
Words by John Deckard
