Crafting A New Era Of The Tambour Watch

In 2002, Louis Vuitton premiered the Tambour watch, an immediately recognisable drum-shaped case with a bold and arresting vision of time interpretation. After 21 years, the Tambour has matured, and its next expression comes in a slimmer form, characterised by exceptional finish, casual elegance, and sculptural, fluid lines.

“After twenty years of audacious watchmaking design based on the renowned Tambour shape, and with the same quest for modernity, elegance and functionality that the Maison has been built on for more than 160 years, Louis Vuitton elevates its watch offer with an unprecedented level of sophistication, on each and every element of the new watch”, says Jean Arnault, Watch Director.

Two steel versions distinguish the launch of the new Tambour, reinforcing the designation of this collection for daily wear. A tone-on-tone model with silver-grey dial or one with a contrasting deep blue dial are the options for the introduction of the Maison’s reborn emblematic collection, an enriched Tambour with two additional firsts for Louis Vuitton — an integrated bracelet and an exclusive new and beautifully crafted automatic movement designed by La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton.

“With this launch, we seek to open a new chapter in the history of the Maison’s watchmaking by creating a watch with strong horological credentials while identifiably Louis Vuitton in style”, says Jean Arnault, Watch Director.

Form and Function

What makes a Tambour watch? A round case with curved sides, marked with the 12 letters LOUIS VUITTON, a certain volume, almost architectural in its approach to dimension and proportion. All these, and more, are maintained and amplified through the sophisticated detailing of the Tambour’s latest iteration. Design flows in every line of the new Tambour. This is design in its original sense, which goes beyond the aesthetic, into purpose and intention. To begin, a modern morphology, with a fully unisex 40mm diameter and an 8.3mm thick case that follows the line of any wearer’s arm. The integrated bracelet on the new Tambour, a first for Louis Vuitton, is a blend of robustness and fluidity, its slim, curved links providing a close and comfortable fit on the wrist to rival the softest leather strap.

Everything about the new Louis Vuitton Tambour comes down to the design, which is to say that everything has a meaning and a reason. The exterior of the watch, every surface that contacts the skin, is shaped to accommodate the body. The caseback is not flat, but ascends in an arc towards the case middle, fitting the natural curve of the forearm as it approaches the wrist. In echoing the topography of the human arm, the Tambour appears even slimmer than its 8.3mm. The bracelet links, convex on their upper surfaces and convex on the underside, form a rounded profile that maintains a continuous line of touch with the entire wrist.

The bracelet melds seamlessly into the case, a lug-free construction that makes the new Tambour the only truly round watch with an integrated bracelet. An invisible closure completes the sleek aesthetic of the bracelet, attained with a triple-blade folding buckle whose position can be identified only through subtle cues: the engraved LOUIS VUITTON on the end link, and the absence of the polished central link that separates each brushed link from the next.

Craftsmanship may be visible to the eye, but it truly reveals itself when touched, and the tactility of the new Tambour arises from this principle. Brushed finishes prevail, except in a few instances, such as the polished bracelet chamfers and central links, or the polished crown — drum-shaped like the case, but fluted with distinct yet soft grooves that make winding and setting the watch a sensory indulgence.

A sandblasted bezel with polished rims features the twelve-letter name of the Maison, a Tambour hallmark, but this time the letters are raised and polished, each minutely sculpted letter in line with an hour marker. On the wrist, a sense of balance and cohesion. To the eyes, the new Louis Vuitton Tambour projects clarity and precision.

Light and Lightness

In contrast with the taut curves of the case and bracelet, and the tactile smooth exterior of the new Tambour, everything under the dial-side sapphire crystal (everything that is touched only by the eyes and not the skin) is crisp and sharply delineated. Light is the medium that brings out the play of textures of the Tambour’s display, and it does so with a sense of effortless almost weightless ease.

Despite being just over a millimetre thick, the dial of the new Tambour conveys surprising depth and three-dimensionality. A split-level chapter ring, divided by a polished step, consists of an outer ring for the minuterie and an inner ring for the hours, both with micro-sandblasted main surfaces. The dial markers are designed to complement each other in terms of spatial balance, with the 5-minute markers being recessed, while the hours are indicated with appliques. This difference in the height level of the markers allows for quick reading, since the light interacts variably between them, a variation that our eyes subconsciously register even if we do not actively take notice. The indexes are in gold, diamond polished to amplify their interaction with light, but even in dim conditions, the new Tambour remains fully legible, thanks to the numerals and hands filled with Super-LumiNova.

The evolution of the gold Tambour hands from broad batons into tapered and facetted openworked hands brings an additional sense of space to the display. The slimmer hands allow more of the dial to be seen at any moment, resulting in an overall lightening of the watch, visually and conceptually.

This lightness carries over into the tone of the watch itself. The new Tambour comes with a new statement of identity on its central brushed dial section, LOUIS VUITTON PARIS, a declaration of the Maison’s origins, founded in Paris in 1854. Tucked below the snailed smallseconds counter, FAB. EN SUISSE replaces the more familiar SWISS MADE quality assurance, a small change that alludes to historic finewatchmaking dials of the 1950s and 1960s. In its unabbreviated form, the phrase is “Fabriqué en Suisse” — an allusion to La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton and the elevated levels of craftsmanship present in this timepiece. Parisian flair and Swiss expertise, united in one creation.

Movement and Motion

The new Tambour is made possible by the advanced watchmaking expertise of Louis Vuitton, embodied by La Fabrique du Temps, the watchmaking atelier of the Maison in Geneva. Founded and
led by master watchmakers Enrico Barbasini and Michel Navas, La Fabrique du Temps has brought award-winning horological complications to Louis Vuitton.

The new cal. LFT023 is more than the movement driving the evolved Tambour, it is also the first proprietary automatic three-hand movement designed by Louis Vuitton in conjunction with movement specialists Le Cercle des Horlogers to fully embody the Maison’s visual codes, from the barrel cover with openworking reminiscent of a Monogram Flower to the micro-rotor decorated with a stylised LV in a repeating motif. It is resolutely contemporary, with micro-sandblasted bridges, polished edges and chamfers replicating the aesthetic vocabulary of the rest of the watch. A circular-grained mainplate is a nod to traditional movement decoration, but the colourless transparent jewels in place of the conventional magenta movement rubies maintains the avant-garde visual approach of the cal. LFT023. The micro-rotor is in high-inertia 22k gold, paired with peripheral gearing that provides exceptionally efficient winding to the barrel with 50 hours of power reserve on a 4Hz (28,800vph) escapement.

Chronometer certified to the same performance standards that apply across some of the most prestigious watchmakers in the industry, the cal. LFT023 has a timekeeping accuracy of between -4s and +6s per day. This certification comes from the Geneva Chronometric Observatory under the auspices of the TIMELAB Foundation, ensuring that the cal. LFT023 complies with the rigorous standards of ISO 3159 and its exacting criteria for timekeeping accuracy. Louis Vuitton is the first watchmaking company to certify its pieces through the Geneva Chronometric Observatory, demonstrating the Maison’s ongoing commitment to excellence and quality in modern horology.

Modern, elegant and meticulously crafted, the cal. LFT023 inhabits the first models to bear the codes of the latest Tambour. Three more models join these two launch timepieces in steel, completing the opening steps for the new era of the Tambour.

• Tambour W1ST10
  

Stainless steel case; 40 mm in diameter; 8.3 mm in thickness; grey dial; small seconds counter at 6 o’clock; white gold hands, numerals and indexes, with Super-LumiNova® coating on the hands and numerals; sapphire glass with anti-reflective coating. Mechanical movement with automatic winding, caliber LFT023 ; 30.6mm in diameter; 4.2mm in thickness; visible through the sapphire case back; hours, minutes, small seconds functions; 22K rose gold micro-rotor; 50 hours of power reserve; 31 jewels; 28,800 vph, 4Hz frequency; certified chronometer by the Geneva
Chronometric Observatory. Stainless steel bracelet with invisible 3-blade folding buckle. Water-resistant to 50 metres.

• Tambour W1ST20
  

Stainless steel case; 40 mm in diameter; 8.3 mm in thickness; blue dial; small seconds counter at 6 o’clock; white gold hands, numerals and indexes, with Super-LumiNova® coating on the hands and numerals; sapphire glass with anti-reflective coating. Mechanical movement with automatic winding, caliber LFT023 ; 30.6mm in diameter; 4.2mm in thickness; visible through the sapphire case back; hours, minutes, small seconds functions; 22K rose gold micro-rotor; 50 hours of power reserve; 31 jewels; 28,800 vph, 4Hz frequency; certified chronometer by the Geneva Chronometric Observatory. Stainless steel bracelet with invisible 3-blade folding buckle. Water-resistant to 50 metres.