Bradley Cooper is the kind of person who, when asked by a stranger oblivious to his stardom to take a photo of them, will happily oblige. I know because this week I witnessed such a thing at Paris’s Musée d’Orsay. When summoned, Cooper took a perfectly-framed picture in front of a perfectly-framed Claude Monet painting.
Bradley Cooper wasn’t just in Paris to take lovely photos of strangers though. Alongside a host of other starry actors like Michael Fassbender, Cooper was in town to celebrate the launch of Louis Vuitton’s new Tambour 2.0 watch.
Though not its official name, a major reset is very much the mood of this new collection in a move that is as surprising as it is exciting – and as chief LV watch ambassador, it’s something Cooper is going to be very happy to brag about to his famous mates.
Why is this launch so significant?
“Starting today, we will remove 80 percent of our existing collection in the entry-level to make way for a new product we're going to launch,” Louis Vuitton’s Watch Director, Jean Arnault says when announcing the new direction for the Tambour. “This is going to be the first step for us in repositioning Louis Vuitton as a super high-end brand in the watch segment overall. We're opening a new page in Louis Vuitton watch history, taking the essence of what has been done in the past, and we're going to bring something completely new,” he adds.
The new Tambour collection, (two steel with a grey dial and a blue dial, one yellow gold and one rose gold, harks back to the original design, while putting an infinitely new modern take on it. The biggest change is LV has changed its icon Tambour into an integrated steel sports watch. As Arnault jokes, “it’s not the first integrated steel sports watch in the market, and it won’t be the last integrated steel sports watch on the market. But it is Louis Vuitton’s first integrated steel sports watch – which is a big deal.”
The new Tambour’s deets
The Tambour has always been a big, heavy, bold watch on the wrist – the kind that is genuinely visible from across the room. So going from a thickness of 13mm for last year’s Tambour Twenty, down to 8mm here is, well, 5mm’s worth of difference. By doing so, it enables the watch case – 40mm in diameter – to seamlessly flow into the bracelet – it’s lugless, making it feel particularly tight to your wrist – whether you’re a man or woman.
Inside, the movement is also big-deal territory, and very much explains the moderately high-price point of circa €19,000. The LFT023 calibre might not be the catchiest of names but when you are certified by the Geneva Chronometric Observatory, have a micro-rotor in mega 22k gold, a 50-hour power reserve, and are the first of its kind (an automatic three-hand movement designed by Louis Vuitton in conjunction with major movement players Le Cercle des Horlogers), who cares?
A brief history of the Tambour
“When you look at all the icons of the watch industry, LV’s Tambour is probably the only icon that was created in the 21st century, most of the watchmaking icons were made 50, 60, 70 years ago,” says Arnault. He’s right. For the past 20 years or so, thanks to the team at LV’s own watchmaking facility, La Fabrique du Temps, Louis Vuitton (led by Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasisni) has steadily but surely been climbing up the horological ladder, and the Tambour has represented the pillar of stability in which to rest its chops in the watch world. The model has won LV GPHG awards (the watch equivalent to one of Bradley Cooper's Oscars), and has helped Louis Vuitton build its watchmaking credentials, to the point where LV watches are respected by watch lovers, and not just viewed as an fashion brand dabbling with wristwear. And now, such is LV's stature in the watch industry, Arnault et al are confident it's time to bring in a new era for Louis Vuitton watches – one that is bound to attract more attention than ever from the horological fraternity.
“La Fabrique du Temps is good at making small series and unique pieces, but it is not good at making tens of thousands of pieces a year and general mass production and things like that. We've built our expertise in high-watchmaking through small series and unique pieces, and we keep building on that savoir-faire over time to ensure that we get the right credential and the right level of craftsmanship through our artisans,” Arnault adds. Cue the new Tambour, in all its integrated sports watch glory – a move we didn't know we needed, but now it's here, we're here for it.
Oh, and did I mention it comes in a classic LV-patterned trunk? Worth getting one just for that.
