Louis Vuitton’s watch division is known for its high-concept, often outlandish designs, with wild colours and energetic automatons. It is therefore surprising, and refreshing to see the Escale collection refreshed as a time-only dress watch that is right on trend.
Louis Vuitton Escale in rose gold.
Louis Vuitton
The classic dress watch is a booming genre in high watchmaking, with brands competing to make the simplest-looking watches with state-of-the-art movements and the most classic design statements.
Usually there is some kind of contemporary twist involved, and Louis Vuitton delivers that in the new Escale by including a platinum model with a meteorite dial and another with an onyx dial and baguette diamonds. Two rose gold models have textured dials in either silver or blue.
Decorative “trunk” brackets join the case and lugs of the Louis Vuitton Escale.
Louis Vuitton
There are also plenty of maison identifiers. Fashion brands like Louis Vuitton, Hermès and particularly Chanel like to liberally weave logos and brand motifs into their watches, no matter how high-end, but Louis Vuitton does it discreetly in the new Escale. The lugs and the case are joined by tone-on-tone decorative brackets that resemble the brass brackets on LV’s famous trunks.
Louis Vuitton Escale with rose gold case and blue textured dial.
Louis Vuitton
The motif is repeated on the quarter-hour markers, which also serve a purpose: they join the central dial to the outer minute track.
The gold studs that serve as minute counters are meant to evoke the nails of the lozine logo that runs along the exterior of a Louis Vuitton trunk.
Each model has an engraved serial number on a slim cartouche on the caseback, a reference to the engraved serial number plates on Louis Vuitton trunks.
Louis Vuitton Escale with platinum case and meteorite dial.
Louis Vuitton
The current popularity of the time-only dress watch dovetails with a renewed appreciation for retro luxuries, including mid-century vintage watch designs, with smaller cases, minimalist dials and precious metals.
The case on the new Escale is accordingly sized at 39mm wide x 8.97mm thick (40.5 x 9.30mm for the onyx dial version with diamonds), which makes it ideal for men or women – a substantial look for women, and under-the-cuff elegant for men.
The pink gold models are priced at $26,500. The platinum with meteorite dial version is $35,500, and the platinum with onyx dial and diamonds is $168,000.
Louis Vuitton Escale with platinum case, onyx dial and diamond bezel.
Louis Vuitton
