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 openworked manufacture movement, powered by a flying tourbillon.
Revealing the concealed
The 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.
Today the workshop is exploring synthetic corundum, a pure sapphire obtained through the transformation of aluminium oxide at very high temperatures (over 2000°C). Used for over half a century for timepiece crystals, and first used to produce a watch case in 1996, this entirely bio-compatible product remains very rarely utilised despite its countless advantages. Due to its hard consistency (9 out of 10 on the Mohs scale), it remains difficult to craft from a solid block. The gemstone, however possesses all the qualities needed to reveal the details and craftsmanship of the movement without distorting them, thanks to its optical-quality transparency.
Bound to appeal to enthusiasts, this new high-watchmaking timepiece reveals every detail of its exceptional, finely openworked 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 colour. 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 coloured lacquer. Across the sapphire drum, the screw-down case-back features a transparent joint. This invisible part guarantees waterresistance to 3ATM, as is the case for all Louis Vuitton high-watchmaking timepieces.
This new creation from La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton as part of the Tambour Moon collection represents the most outstanding demonstration of expertise from the workshop’s artisans in terms of aesthetics and mechanical balance.
The circle of time
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 colourless version with black PVD-treated titanium horns, in blue sapphire with 950 platinum horns, or in a pink sapphire with horns made of 18-carat pink gold. Thanks to its absolute transparency, the case reveals every detail of the calibre it encloses, from all angles.
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 of watchmaking distinctions.
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.
