Louis Vuitton Tambour
*Time Forged in Stone
written AMANDA MORTENSON
Louis Vuitton orchestrates time. The Tambour High End collection—now expanded with two audacious new iterations—embodies the synthesis of engineering and artistry. This is material mastery, savoir-faire expressed through horology.
Two watches. Two philosophies. A 40mm yellow-gold Tambour with a dial sculpted from Brazilian onyx, anchored in a bezel of saffron sapphires. A platinum Tambour, gradient-lit with rubies and sapphires, an explosion of calibrated color that reshapes the idea of the spectrum. Both operate in extreme limitation—only 30 and 50 pieces respectively. Their creation follows a meticulous process that dictates its own rarity.
Louis Vuitton
Tambour High-End Rainbow Session
For the first time, the Tambour embraces hard stone, elevating Brazilian onyx to an object of precision. Twelve individual segments form the dial’s minute ring—each piece drilled, polished, and adjusted under a near-zero margin for error. A slip, a scratch, a miscalculation? Start over. The luminous baguette-cut saffron sapphires carry a coded language, drawn from a 1911 Louis Vuitton trunk in Vuittonite yellow. Timekeeping here manifests as storytelling.
Platinum resists. It refuses to be easily shaped, demanding 30% more machining time than its gold counterpart. The result: a case of extreme density and weight, its brushed and polished surfaces absorbing and refracting light. Encircling it, a spectrum of 59 meticulously sourced corundum gemstones, their color transition seamless—no jarring breaks, no discord. From the high-energy fuchsia rubies of Mozambique to the deep greens and violets of Sri Lanka, this is color as movement, gradient as narrative. Even the caseback whispers exclusivity—a single 1.6mm saffron sapphire, a hidden marker of the watch’s platinum identity.
Within both pieces beats the Calibre LFT023—the first proprietary three-hand movement of La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton. Aan exhibition of savoir-faire: Geneva Chronometric Observatory-certified accuracy (-4/+6 seconds per day), a 22K rose gold micro-rotor carved with the Louis Vuitton monogram, a barrel adorned with the maison’s signature flower motif. 50-hour power reserve. 31 colorless sapphires embedded for reduced friction. Precision and poetry, without compromise.
Louis Vuitton
Tambour High-End YG ONYX Front
Louis Vuitton’s Tambour High End collection manifests as an expression of material truth. Time, sculpted in precious stones and metals, takes on permanence. 30 yellow gold. 50 platinum. The countdown has already begun.