Escale Minute Repeater

Louis Vuitton Escale Collection

The Louis Vuitton Escale: a journey into the world of high complication.

The Louis Vuitton Escale collection embarks on a new journey. Long associated with the Art of Travel, escale – “stopover” in French - is synonymous with the romance of discovery. Relaunched in 2024 with a refined design language and a time-only configuration, the collection now expands to embrace haute horlogerie complications with four new calibres and five new additions to the permanent collection.

Drawing inspiration from the House’s legendary trunks, the new additions mark a decisive evolution for the Escale. Among them is the return of the emblematic Escale Worldtime, elevated through new savoir-faire and an in-house movement, offered in platinum for the first time. Though each of the five new creations interprets the spirit of travel differently, they are bound by a single thread: the search for coherence between movement, purpose, and design.

“This new chapter for Escale is aligned with the transformation we have been going through over the last four years” says Jean Arnault, Director of Louis Vuitton Watches. “The challenge for us was to elevate historical icons like the Worldtime to our new craftmanship standard and the difference is incredible.

Details around the case, dial, movement finishing… all the details were carefully thought through. An added touch to this new Escale collection is the clever use of the “Twin Zone” complication, which indicates time all around the world, effortlessly. A clever twist by Michel and Enrico on a decade old complication”.

Subtle references to the trunks’ distinctive design elements are woven throughout. The instantly recognisable lugs, inspired by the brass brackets and corners of historical trunks, give the Escale its architectural identity. This connection extends beyond symbolism; each Escale is delivered in a specially designed presentation trunk, a refined homage to the House’s storied travel heritage.

Now, with the introduction of four new in-house movements from La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton, the Escale begins its next chapter. These calibres mark a decisive step forward, rewriting the rules of high complications with effortless functionality.

“The new Escale represents functional watchmaking at its finest,” explain Michel Navas, Master Watchmaker and the co-founder of La Fabrique du Temps. “Each calibre was designed with clarity and precision in mind; complications that truly serve the traveller, finished to the highest standards of haute horlogerie.”

The Escale Minute Repeater: the sound of tradition

The Escale Minute Repeater brings a new emotional register to the Escale universe. While the Worldtime and Twin Zone embody the art of travel through purposeful functionality, the Minute Repeater is a resonant expression of the House’s watchmaking savoir-faire.

Engine-turned elegance

Though defined by the complexity of its in-house calibre, the Escale Minute Repeater’s beauty begins with the dial. The interplay between legibility, geometry, and traditional savoir-faire is deliberate, with subtle references to the House’s iconic trunks. Discreet details reinforce this connection: the minute track echoes the trunks’ signature brackets, complete with nail-like markers at its extremities. Here, traditional guillochage takes centre stage, marrying this centuries-old decorative technique with a contemporary architectural layout.

The centre dial is handmade on a traditional rose engine, adorned with a flammé guilloché pattern that radiates from the centre to catch and reflect the light. Executed through multiple passes of the tool with unwavering delicacy, the motif achieves exceptional regularity in both depth and pressure, creating a luminous surface that subtly draws the eye toward the retrograde minute hand. In total, the guilloché dial requires up to 60 hours of skilful savoir-faire. A subsequent coloring process is then meticulously performed to impart the dial's distinctive grey hue.

The large aperture for the jumping hours is bevelled and polished for a bassiné effect to illuminate the hour disc and enhance legibility. The aperture’s thoughtful positioning at six o’clock ensures that the hour is never obstructed by the position of the retrograde minute hand.

The synchronization of timekeeping functions has been carefully conceived to delight the connoisseur. As the hour jumps forward precisely at the top of each hour, the retrograde minute hand glides back to zero with measured grace, its motion tempered by an integrated damping system.

Crafted to resonate

Inside the signature Escale case is the calibre LFT SO 13.01, a manually wound calibre born from the shared watchmaking heritage of La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton and gérald genta, and developed by Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini, both of whom worked with gérald genta’s in the 1990s.

The combination of a minute repeater and jumping hours is a rare accomplishment in modern watchmaking, given the challenge of synchronizing two independent time-calculation systems — one dedicated to the striking mechanism, the other to the jumping display — in a manner that is both reliable and energy-efficient. Their perfect alignment ensures that sight and sound remain in harmony, underscoring the technical mastery of La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton. Drawing on decades of experience building complications, honed through years of collaboration with the design maestro Mr. Genta, Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini developed solutions to guarantee perfect harmony between the time that is seen and that which is heard.

Every acoustic element of the calibre has been tuned to perfection. The black-polished hammers and gongs are hand-shaped, cut, and adjusted to ensure optimal vibration and amplitude, meticulously tuned by ear to achieve a crystalline chime of remarkable clarity and volume. The sound of the minute repeater can be heard clearly thanks to a nearly silent centrifugal governor, secured by an octagonal bridge that recalls Mr. Genta’s inimitable aesthetic, bridging the legacies of Louis Vuitton and gérald genta in a tangible way.

Beyond the technical virtuosity of the LFT SO 13.01, the movement requires over four weeks to assemble and finish, meeting the highest standards of haute horlogerie. Finishing details include traditional Côtes de Genève, hand-bevelled and polished anglage throughout, and delicate snailing on the base plate, with each surface revealing the artisanal discipline that defines La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton.

“From the outset, we wanted the complication to feel effortless,” says Michel Navas. “The jumping hour display and retrograde minute hand give the repeater a clarity that isn’t often associated with such a complex mechanism. It’s a contemporary way of expressing a very traditional complication.”

At first glance, the Escale Minute Repeater conceals its complicated nature. Close inspection reveals the slide for activating the minute repeater is integrated into the design of the lugs, a subtle but meaningful departure from conventional minute repeater design. This innovative approach presented a significant development challenge, as it required rethinking the mechanism to ensure both functionality and aesthetic harmony. The result is a seamless design that preserves the elegance of the timepiece while maintaining the technical excellence of the complication.

“Hiding the slide within the lug was a deliberate gesture,” explains Matthieu Hegi. “It respects the silhouette of the Escale and makes the activation of the repeater an almost private act; the complication is revealed only to the wearer.”

Returning home

Together, the new additions to the Escale collection chart a course between traditional haute horlogerie and the spirit of travel.

The Worldtime paints a map of memory — a poetic atlas rendered in colour and light. The Twin Zone embodies precision in its purest form, displaying two time zones simultaneously with to-the-minute accuracy and effortless legibility. The Minute Repeater gives this harmony a voice, translating motion into sound.

Each watch expresses the same ideal: coherence between design, function, and feeling. Within La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton, that ideal becomes a singular language — one where excellence in craftsmanship and the spirit of travel move as one.