Mathieu Hegi, Artistic Director of Louis Vuitton’s Fabrique du Temps, said of the new Monterey model: “Reinterpreting a creation means respecting its design and spirit. We kept the same graphic code, but went for a more modern and sophisticated sensation.” The source of inspiration was none other than the Maison’s first watch, imagined in 1988 by the brilliant mind of Gae Aulenti, a Friulian from the Palazzolo della Stella, born in 1927, one of the most important architects of his generation, with a unique talent for architectural design and restoration (in 1986 he completed the renovation of the Orsay Museum, inside the former Paris station). These are the LV I and LV II, with the crown at 12: the first is world time, with a 40 mm case in white or yellow gold, without lugs and featuring a retrograde peripheral analogue date display with central hour hands, central moon phase and skeletonized syringe hands, all in shades of red and blue; the second, however, 37 mm, in black ceramic, in addition to a circular peripheral analogue date display, adds an alarm function. These models are called the Montre 1 and Montre 2 and were seen again during Louis Vuitton’s Fall-Winter 2025 Paris fashion show. The name Monterey comes from the American pronunciation of the name montre (watch, in French), as mentioned, the definition of the two 1988 models and maintains the structural character and graphic code of the dial, but still simplifies their expression, in an original inspired by Gae Aulenti with a spirit of travel, typical of the Maison. Yellow gold was chosen to decorate the domed, round (12.2 mm thick) 40 mm yellow gold case, water-resistant to a depth of 50 meters, with a closed caseback engraved with the progressive serial number of a limited edition of 188 pieces and fitted with a quick-release black calfskin strap, with pin buckle: crafted and polished at Fabrique des Boîtiers Louis Vuitton The crown in 12 turns out to be a match, slightly lower and wider than the original, with a Clous de Paris finish. Inside, the factory caliber LFT MA01.02 beats automatically, operating at 28,800 vibrations/hour (inertia-controlled balance wheel) and running on 26 jewels, whose autonomy is 45 hours: the rotor is made of 18 carat rose gold, with the peripheral band characterized by a V-shaped engraving inspired by Louis Vuitton’s monogram, while the semicircular bridge is made with a micro-blast finish. So we come to the white dial in Grand Feu enamel, protected by anti-reflective sapphire glass: the enamel powder is applied by hand on a white gold base and fired sequentially to obtain the right opacity; then, this uniform surface is treated with abrasive paper and vitrified by ten firings at 720°, to achieve the opaline effect. The pure function of time alone is defined as bearing, using mixtures, again in enamel, in blue, red and black, to reproduce, in accordance with Gae Aulenti’s concept, the chemin de fer scale and hour markers: eight applications are required for each color, four at 460°C and the same number at 600°C. The hands are always syringe-shaped and skeletonized, lacquered in red, while the seconds in the center are made of blued steel.
Contemporary image of aesthetic intuition
