Louis Erard watches are embarking on a new strategic route with a reinterpretation of the brand’s regulator watch in collaboration with the architect and watchmaker Alain Silberstein, available in two limited editions of 178 watches. This is a double first: in its 90 years of existence, Louis Erard has never given carte blanche to a designer, while Alain Silberstein had never before designed a regulator watch.
SPECIFICATIONS
REFERENCE
Limited editions of 178 pieces each
YEAR
2019
SIZE
40 mm
MOVEMENT
Manual winding regulator with power reserve, ETA Peseux 7001 movement with Louis Erard RE9 complication, 10½’’’, Ø23.30 mm (Ø26.00 mm with module), height: 2.5 mm (4.7 mm with module), 17 jewels, 21,600 VpH (3Hz). Around 42 hours of power reserve.
FUNCTIONS
HMS + power reserve. Hour hand on counter at 12 o’clock, central minute hand, seconds hand on counter at 6 o’clock, power reserve hand at 9 o’clock
BRACELET/STRAP
Black calf leather with signature stitching in red or brown calf leather with signature stitching in blue
BUCKLE
Pin buckle in stainless steel or stainless steel + black PVD
WATERPROOFNESS
50 m
PRICE
CHF 2'800 (Steel)/ CHF 2'900 (black PVD)
The watch’s design starts with the mechanics: the brand’s regulator, an exclusive calibre made for Louis Erard. This complication goes back through the history of watchmaking. Traditionally, the principle of the regulator is to separate the indications of the hours, minutes and seconds in order to improve chronometric precision. This is a pillar of Louis Erard’s timepieces, with the regulator at the heart of its collections since the brand’s relaunch in 2003. The regulator remains more than ever at the centre of the brand’s strategy, explains Alain Spinedi, director: “We have always positioned ourselves at the entry point to the market of Swiss mechanical excellence. The regulator is the perfect example of this tradition.”
For Alain Silberstein, the regulator is also a technical, aesthetic and philosophical essential: “All my work is guided by reading the time and my inspiration always come from the movement.” For him, the regulator is the centrepiece, a model for the breaking down of time focused on the central minute hand. However, this complication had escaped him: during his 40 years of creating watches, he had never made a regulator. Therefore, his partnership with Louis Erard was a natural step.
Louis Erard watches are embarking on a new strategic route with a reinterpretation of the brand’s regulator watch in collaboration with the architect and watchmaker Alain Silberstein, available in two limited editions of 178 watches. This is a double first: in its 90 years of existence, Louis Erard has never given carte blanche to a designer, while Alain Silberstein had never before designed a regulator watch.