In a new illustration of Louis Vuitton’s watchmaking expertise, the Tambour Moon Flying Tourbillon ‘Poinçon de Genève’ Sapphire features a case entirely crafted from a block of sapphire. A true technical and artistic feat, this completely transparent creation —the first of its kind in the history of watchmaking to be stamped with the Geneva Seal— launches a new era, displaying in minute detail every part of its skilfully open-worked manufacture movement, powered by a flying tourbillon.
The new Louis Vuitton Tambour Moon Flying Tourbillon ‘Poinçon de Genève’ Sapphire showcases the meticulous care that La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton showers on its mastery of innovations. This new watch reveals every detail of its exceptional, finely open-worked mechanical movement with manual winding,
an 80-hour power reserve and a flying tourbillon whose carriage design reveals that of a delicate Monogram flower.
For every piece, the engineers from La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton have extracted a cylinder —50 mm in diameter and 150 mm long— from a block of synthetic sapphire that can weigh up to 200 kg. This allows them to obtain a case middle, a case back, and a bridge bearing the letters LV, cut from the same block in order to ensure that each section is the same color. It takes 250, 110, and 60 hours respectively of meticulous machining with diamond grinding wheels to produce the three parts.
The hour markers and the ‘12 LOUIS VUITTON’ letters engraved on the exterior of the concave case middle have been filled with colored lacquer. Across the sapphire drum, the screw-down case-back features a transparent joint. This invisible part guarantees water resistance to 30 meters, as is the case for all Louis Vuitton high-watchmaking timepieces.
La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton has opted to retain the crescent moon-shaped case of the Tambour Moon launched in 2017 for its experimentation with a new material: synthetic sapphire. The transparency, hardness, soft feel, and sensation of lightness that this material provides reveal nothing of the technical prowess required to obtain it. The Tambour Moon Flying Tourbillon ‘Poinçon de Genève’ Sapphire is available
in a colorless version with black PVD-treated titanium horns, in blue sapphire with 950 platinum horns, or in a pink sapphire with horns made of 18K pink gold. Thanks to its absolute transparency, the case reveals every detail of the calibre it encloses, from all angles. The case measures 42.5 mm x 9.9 mm. The beating heart inside the Louis Vuitton Tambour Moon Flying Tourbillon 'Poinçon de Genève' Sapphire is the in-house manual wound LV 97 calibre that is developed and assembled at la Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton. This movement with 17 jewels provides a power reserve of 80 hours when fully wound.
The Tambour Moon Flying Tourbillon ‘Poinçon de Genève’ Sapphire is the first sapphire timepiece to be stamped with the Geneva Seal. This certification is considered in the industry to be the greatest guarantee of origin, finish, and precision. To obtain it, every component of the timepiece must have been crafted and hand-finished by the very best craftsmen in the Canton of Geneva. Finally, every timepiece is subject to multiple inspections in order to obtain this most prestigious watchmaking distinction.
At once a work of art and an exceptional instrument of time measurement, it comes with a certificate issued by the Geneva Seal Office, also bearing the owner's name.
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