LOUIS VUITTON - A Minute Repeater for the World Traveler

This mechanical masterpiece incorporates the highly complex minute repeater function together with a useful mode for contemporary globetrotters.

IW Magazine - 9 December 2011


Megan Samoskevich

© iW Magazine

Louis Vuitton continues to develop its iconic “Tambour” design as it this year adds a new horological complication in its Tambour Minute Repeater. The first independently designed and developed high complication model from this brand, in part thanks to new partner La Fabrique du Temps, this mechanical masterpiece incorporates the highly complex minute repeater function together with a useful mode for contemporary globetrotters.

Visible through both the smoked sapphire glass dial and the transparent caseback is the manual-wind LV 178 caliber, which chimes the wearer’s home time and features a 100-hour power reserve. The dial displays the time of the place where the traveler finds him or herself, along with that of the wearer’s home time in the window at the center.

Tambour Minute Repeater. © Louis Vuitton

How it works

When setting the watch for the first time, pulling the crown out to the second position allows you to set the time of reference. The home time will chime wherever you are around the world. When you adjust the hour and minute hands they glide smoothly, as does the day-night indicator and the central disc. The main and central dials indicate the same time, working in harmony with the repeater chimes.

When you travel, pulling the crown out to the first position allows you to set the hour hand on the main dial to indicate the second time zone—local time. The hand jumps from one hour to the next—forward or backwards—as you adjust it, ensuring supreme ease of use. When you return home and want to set the main dial to show the Home Time again, simply pull the crown out to the first position.

© Louis Vuitton

Available in white, rose or yellow gold, the 44 mm case of the Tambour Minute Repeater is water-resistant to thirty meters. Like many offerings from Louis Vuitton, the watch can be customized on request, with the option to personalize it with your initials, crest or an element in relief, replacing the number 4 under the glass dial. The timepiece is presented on a black alligator strap. CEO Hamdi Chatti says collectors can expect several all-new movements in 2012.