The result of an exceptional collaboration between La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton and Frank Gehry, a leading figure in contemporary architecture, the Tambour Moon Tourbillon Volant is an extraordinary creation inspired by the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris and the Louis Vuitton Maison Seoul, two of Gehry's most majestic projects.
The magnificent composition of this entirely transparent timepiece offers an uninterrupted view of the flying tourbillon caliber, manufactured and assembled by La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton and bearing the "Poinçon de Genève" certification.
After designing the Fondation Louis Vuitton, built in Paris in 2014, and the Louis Vuitton Maison Seoul in 2019, Frank Gehry took up a new challenge: to create the first Haute Horlogerie timepiece of his career. It took two years of intense dialogue between Louis Vuitton and the renowned architect for the Tambour Moon Flying Tourbillon Poinçon de Genève Sapphire Frank Gehry to be realized.
Elevating transparency to the maximum, while still retaining the revolutionary spirit of the distinguished Canadian designer, on a mechanical object only 48.3 millimeters in diameter, proved an incredibly complex undertaking. To design the flying tourbillon watch, Gehry was inspired by what he had done in Seoul for the Louis Vuitton Maison: a curved glass structure that seems to float on the roof of the weightless building.
To instill this imposing yet evanescent character, a poetic allusion to the propulsive thrust of sails, the architect printed a large-format photograph of the Tambour Moon Saphir 2022 and then crumpled the paper to create the dial of the new model.
Reminiscent of the glass ship he designed for the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Gehry executed a clock-shaped miniature structure that gives the impression of lightness and at the same time depth, but in miniature: "I was inspired by the sea, by fish, by boats, by the nautical world, because they embody the concept of motion, oscillation and speed," the architect said on the opening day of Louis Vuitton Maison Seoul. " I like to give voice to movement, to infuse static materials with energy and dynamism ."
To transpose the architectural distinctiveness into a Haute Horlogerie timepiece, forming the case and dial, the choice fell on sapphire, a transparent material that allows for a curved relief, giving rise to the light effects and structure so beloved of Frank Gehry.
Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton carved the totally transparent crystalline front of the Tambour Moon from a single 200-pound block of sapphire. The case, dial, crown, lugs and hands were carved from this gemstone, the hardest in the world after diamond.
It took 250 hours just to make the dial, one of the most difficult ever built by La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton, which is a veritable mini sculpture the thickness of a sheet of paper. To hark back to Frank Gehry's architectural designs, creating shapes and reliefs designed by him, master craftsmen carved sapphire that is very difficult to work with by hand.
Reproducing the asymmetrical shapes and curvilinear swirls that define the architect's style required the use of medical instrumentation. The unparalleled savoir-faire and incredible precision leap to the eye especially in the satin and matte finishes of the dial
Inside the Tambour Moon, the first watch with a sapphire dial and case adorned with the "Poinçon de Genève" seal, beats an LFT MM05.01 manufacture flying tourbillon movement, which was entirely created, developed and assembled by the master watchmakers of La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton in Geneva.
The sapphire crystal architectural masterpiece lets all the beauty of the gears sparkle, including the bevel and satin finish, applied to even the smallest component of the watch. The finely openworked caliber is two-tone to emphasize its contrasts. The solid rose gold plate features a concentric satin finish, while the gears and flying tourbillon are rhodium-plated.
With a power reserve of 80 hours, the hand-wound mechanical movement sports a Monogram flower in the tourbillon cage that makes one full rotation in one minute.
