Louis Vuitton Releases A New Version Of Its ’80s Cult Classic, The Monterey

In 1988, Louis Vuitton launched its first watch, which was simply called LV I. The watch had a pebble shaped 40mm gold case and a quartz movement – a quite complicated one, with moonphase, world time, GMT, and date functions, which echoed the theme of travel around which Louis Vuitton’s identity had been built. That watch was followed by LV II, which had a case in either green or black ceramic, with an alarm function.

The watches were made by IWC, and the design was by Gaetana “Gae” Aulenti, one of the most distinguished designers and architects of the post-World War II era, who’s perhaps most famous for her work on transforming the Gare d’Orsay train station into the Musée d’Orsay museum, which is dedicated to the exhibition of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art. Aulenti was also famous as an industrial designer, and a prolific one, whose work ran the gamut from furniture to lamps to cutlery and more, and she was a proponent of the design philosophy of “neo-liberty” which took as its basic tenet the idea that modernism should incorporate and embrace the past, rather than seek a major break with it. She was an ideal choice for the Musée d’Orsay project, which took a 19th century train station and turned it into a home for paradigm shifting art in the modern world, and on a smaller scale she was also an ideal choice to design a first watch for Louis Vuitton, for which she envisioned a combination of both modern and traditional design codes, combined with modern technology.

The original LV I

The LV I and LV II models were advertised under those names but they ended up being known in the US market under the name “Monterey” which supposedly came about as a result of attempts on the part of American clients to pronounce “montre” (French for “watch;” the story may seem apocryphal unless you’ve heard some of us try to pronounce “Jaeger-LeCoultre” correctly). The name, as nicknames will, stuck, and the new version of Gae Aulenti’s design makes it official.

The new Monterey is in terms of functions, simpler than either of its predecessors, although at 39mm x 12.2mm the size is right in line in both diameter and thickness with the models from 1988. Keeping the size basically the same was a wise move, since Aulenti’s design relies on very exact proportions and departing from the dimensions of the original would very likely mean a visible departure from the designer’s intentions as well.

As with the originals, there’s a very clear relationship to pocket watch design in the new Monterey. Of course, there’s the placement of the crown at 12:00, but the case shape’s very reminiscent of pocket watches as well, which often had a smooth, water-worn pebble-like contour that made them very pleasant to handle (and easier to slip in and out of a pocket as well).

The smooth curves of the case are uninterrupted by lugs, since the strap ends pass under the edge of the case and are attached to recesses in the caseback.

There are two big differences between the original models and the new Monterey: the movement, and the dial.

The new Monterey has a grand feu, fired enamel dial, with the dial markers produced by transfer printing the dial with ground ceramic pigment, and then firing the dial markers in place.

Making the dial is a multistep process that begins with building up a base layer of fired white enamel. There are multiple firings to produce an even, opalescent white before the dial colors are added, and each color is applied separately from the others and fired separately. (There are a number of different ways to make an enamel dial; less expensive fired enamel dials use transfer printed ink on the enamel base, which is not permanent). Overall each dial takes about 20 hours to make; all dials are made at La Fabrique des Cadrans, the dial-making department at La Fabrique du Temps in Geneva.

And, this time around, the Monterey has a mechanical movement.

The movement is LFTMA01.02, and the general configuration of the movement is familiar; this is the same movement architecture which Louis Vuitton uses for the LFTSTxx series of automatic movements in the Tambour Taiko Spin Time collection, and it’s also appeared in the Convergence watches as the LFTMA01.01; the only difference between the LFTMA01.01, and LFTMA01.02 models is the rotor. The finishing is contemporary in style, with recessed, bead-blasted areas on the circular main bridge and balance cock. The movement does have some traditional features as well, however, including the Geneva-style balance spring stud, and the balance is freesprung, with adjustable weights for fine regulation.

The caliber LFTMA01.02 is hidden behind a solid caseback, this time out, which is perhaps a bit of a shame in the abstract for movement enthusiasts, but it was really the only right decision to make if the goal was to maintain fidelity to Aulenti’s original design. LFTMA01.02 and its siblings are the result of an in-house design process, with some components supplied externally, and with final assembly and regulation happening at La Fabrique du Temps Geneva; their wider use seems to indicate that moving ahead, these calibers in all their variants will continue to be staples of watchmaking at Louis Vuitton, as they have proven to be reliable in both the Spin Time and other watches.

I was able to see the watch in New York a couple of weeks ago, and it’s delightful (if you ask me); it’s very gracefully shaped and well proportioned, extremely comfortable to wear and as handsome now as it was in 1988. The originals have become cult watches since then, but the quartz movements are difficult-to-impossible to repair (although what man has made, man can make again; I can’t imagine there is anything technically out of reach in the original movements, but I can imagine that fabricating replacement parts as one-offs would be a pricey undertaking).

This raises the question of why the design wasn’t more popular when the watches first came out, and I think that there were probably several reasons, including the fact that it was very much a niche design from a company not known at the time for fine watchmaking. Aulenti’s design would have landed very differently in 1988 as well; its combination of old-school, even anachronistic, design elements (like the crown at 12:00, which with the case shape almost makes it feel like an early-1900s pocket watch conversion) with modern technology might have made it a challenging watch to understand.

Today, though, with the passage of time, we’re perhaps better able to appreciate how the combination of these disparate design elements actually works very well, and the high quality movement, beautifully shaped and polished case, and fired enamel dial are all apt to appeal more to modern clients. (If you’re a real Louis Vuitton/Gae Aulenti completist, by the way, there was a scarf produced with a picture of LV I, and Aulenti also designed a pen for LV). The Monterey is commemorative, of course, but it’s also contemporary – an expression of how Louis Vuitton would have made the watch if the design were from the present day, and a wonderful miniature expression of Aulenti’s desire to synthesize past and present, in the service of creating something new.

The Louis Vuitton Monterey, ref. W0YG11: Case, 39mm x 12.2mm, yellow gold, sapphire crystal, 50M water resistance; closed caseback with series number engraved. Dial, grand feu enamel on 18k gold plate; 18k white gold hour and minute hands with red lacquer coating; blued steel seconds hand. Movement, automatic caliber LFT MA01.02, 23mm x 5.4mm, 18 pink gold rotor; 45 hour power reserve, running at 28,800 vph in 26 jewels. Limited edition of 188 pieces world wide; price, $59,000. See it at LouisVuitton.com.