When the redesigned Louis Vuitton Tambourg was introduced in mid-2023, it marked a change in the direction of the watch division of Paris’ luxury companies.
Time-only steel sports watches started at $18,900, which costs roughly three times the previous entry point of the collection. At the time, Jean Arneau, the company’s watch director, confirmed that the new design focused on high-end finishes was “gambling.”
Eighteen months later, Arnaud said the bets hadn’t been rewarded yet, but he had been playing a long game. “Commercially, it’s working very well,” he said. “But the collector I was in contact with was pleased to see Louis Vuitton moving in that direction, but was skeptical about buying it.
“It will take about three years for the design to settle down. 2025 will be that year.”
And last month he added a new series of 11 Tambour models at an even higher price than 2023.
One of these, Tambour Convergence, what Watchmaker calls the Montregite, or Aperture Watch, with windows read on two rotating discs on the dial. The 37mm watch, which Arnaud said, is purposely unisex and comes in a platinum set in pink gold ($33,500) or 795 diamonds ($60,500).
“All future watches will be unisex as long as competition is allowed,” he said.
The Tambour Taiko Spin Collection is characterized by complications from the existing Louis Vuitton. Rotating blocks at 12-hour marker points indicate time. The 6 model collection includes a World Time version called Air Antipode ($99,500), which will be top-out on the Air Flying Tourbillon. This is a design that displays Tourbillon. This is a device that counters the effects of gravity on timekeeping ($172,000).
Louis Vuitton has also introduced four new in-house automatic movements to its Tambourg collection.
“I like collectors to understand that Vuitton is not in the watchmaking business to create volume,” said Arnaugh, 26. “We’re here to please our collectors. We’re not trying to triple the volume. We represent artisan watchmaking.”
As a result, some designs may have intentionally short shelf life. “I’m a conservative guy and I want to make sure I have as little collection as possible,” he said. “As soon as I introduce something new, I remove something else. Does Convergence become part of our core collection? I don’t know.”
Under Mr. Arnaud’s direction, Louis Vuitton integrated skills and craftsmen into the Lovelique du Teme Watchmaking Factory in Geneva. The division, called La Fabrique des Arts, opened in 2023 and added enamels, sculptors and gem setters. He said the factory’s staffing numbers have increased from 60 to about 200, with more than 80 percent of Louis Vuitton Watches currently being produced in the factory.
Arnaud refused to provide sales, but said he had thousands of people in his watch sector annual production and wanted production to grow by 2-3% per year.
Is there a market for Louis Vuitton watches beyond collectors? “It’s too early to say,” Arnaud said. “But a lot of the feedback from top collectors is that they love Vuitton watches because they don’t see them on other people’s wrists. I want to keep that up.
“It’s kind of anti-business, but it’s better to position yourself in that community than to keep an eye on everyone’s wrists.”
