Translated by Bethszabee Garner
True to its spirit of avant-garde innovation, Louis Vuitton has created Escale en Amazonie, a spectacular timepiece, a sumptuous pocket watch that promises mechanical and artistic prowess. Developed at La Fabrique du Temps in Geneva, this piece combines the virtuosity of a minute repeater automaton, a tourbillon movement and a miniature spectacle of rare finesse. Escale en Amazonie invites you to explore the Amazon and its artisanal heritage up close. A masterpiece crafted over more than 1,000 hours, it is the result of a fusion of watchmaking technique and the Métiers d'Art.
Watchmaking as an inner journey
Inspired by the wild Amazon, the watch displays a poetic scene on its dial featuring its iconic trunks, parrots, a snake, a monkey, and a canoe, which come to life one by one thanks to a mechanism activated by a slide. In total, seven automata and fifteen moving parts animate this tableau, evolving at their own pace in a meticulously orchestrated choreography.
At the heart of this creation, the LFT AU14.03 caliber is the most complex hand-wound movement ever designed by La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton. Featuring a minute repeater, automaton and tourbillon, it comprises 555 components and reveals dazzling craftsmanship: 646 chamfered re-entrant angles, hand-engraving, mirror-polished screws and solid gold wheels.
In a nod to the first pocket watches, the hands have been moved to the back to give the dial all the space it needs for this scene. This double view, with a tableau dial and a mechanical case back, ensures total immersion in the rarest skills of contemporary watchmaking.
A pinnacle of Métiers d'Art craftsmanship in the service of emotion
The rich narrative of Escale en Amazonie is echoed in the exceptional work of the Métiers d'Art, namely bas-relief engraving, ultra-detailed chasing, and above all, mastery of speckled enamel and miniature enamel. No fewer than 30 successive firings were required to achieve the brilliance and depth of the 31 shades of color evoking the Amazon.
The sapphire ice itself is enhanced with miniature enamel, a world first for Louis Vuitton! This adds a unique dimension of relief to the overall design. Finally, true to its heritage as a trunk maker, Louis Vuitton accompanies this creation with two exclusive cases, a custom-made trunk and a Motor's Bag revisited in green leather.
