Unveiled today during California’s Monterey Car week, the two Louis Vuitton X Singer Vehicle Design cars are fitted with bespoke, demountable timepieces based on the Tambour wrist watch, a project that necessitated a complete year-long re-design of the entire instrument panel.
“This unique and remarkable adventure began with a request for a dashboard clock for a car reimagined by Singer,” says LV’s watch director Jean Arnault.
“In addition to the design and production of the clock by La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton’s workshops in Switzerland, it quickly became apparent that this collaboration with Singer could extend to the personalisation of every functional element of the vehicle, enhancing them through our expertise in leather craftsmanship and watchmaking.”
That might sound like a tall order to anyone familiar with Singer Vehicle Design, California’s world-renowned Porsche 911 ‘restomod’ restoration business set-up in 2009 by Rob Dickinson, a former musician with British rock band Catherine Wheel.
© Louis Vuitton x Singer
His lifelong love of the 911 led him to establish the firm after his own, modified car prompted numerous enquiries from other Porsche enthusiasts – but he never imagined that the business born from a hobby would today employ 600 people worldwide having completed more than 500 restorations for customers across 30 countries.
Key to Singer Vehicle Design’s success has been its mantra – ‘a relentless pursuit of excellence’ – which has led to virtually every component of each restored car being improved, re-modelled or re-developed to create the ultimate air-cooled 911.
Such excellence doesn’t come cheap, though: at the outset 17 years ago, a ‘Porsche 911 Re-imagined by Singer’ (as the cars must legally be called) would set you back around $250,000.
But as engineering techniques have evolved and demand has exploded, so prices have increased to the point that the most extreme creation from Singer Vehicle Design – the DLS-Turbo – starts at USD2.7m/GBP2.2m. Add bespoke additions, and the average cost rises to around USD3.1m/GBP2.5m.
Although the prices of the Louis Vuitton X Singer restorations have not been officially revealed, they are rumoured to be ‘the most expensive cars it has produced to date’ – hence that $3m-plus estimate.
The first is based on a Singer’s ‘Classic Study’ programme, a run of 450 cars that are the purest of the five variations it offers and which combine luxury and high performance with everyday usability.
At the heart of the unique build is the aforementioned Tambour mechanical dash clock which can be demounted from the car and used as a desk piece.
It provided the ‘codes’ for Louis Vuitton’s designer’s to re-configure the Singer’s instruments, using Tambour-type hands and indexes and colouring the gauges in the LV’s signature hues of cobalt blue and bright orange.
The saffron-coloured packaging synonymous with Louis Vuitton was replicated in the Classic’s paintwork, which is complemented by cobalt blue tyres (yes, really) and an air intake grille decorated with a geometric ‘LV’ motif.
Back inside, the dashboard top and door cappings are in cobalt blue, with the leather upholstery being finished with the diamond pattern leather found inside LV trunks and the ventilation outlets, sun visors and headrests with monogrammed hide.
Switches, locks and air vents are hewn from rhodium-plated and anodised metal using techniques Singer applies to many of its engine components, and the fuel and oil caps are engraved with the Tambour typeface.
Naturally the Classic also gets a bespoke luggage set comprising versions of the ‘Biston’ suitcase created in 1892 and the ‘Keepall’ (1930), while the up-front boot (or ‘trunk’) features a pair of fitted bags.
The buyer will also get a specially designed roof rack, a hand-crafted surfboard decorated with LV monogram marquetry, a pair of skis made from wood, Titanal and steel and a ‘capsule’ wardrobe comprising a monogrammed leather race jacket, jeans made from LV’s cotton and silk denim, a pair of initialled ‘rally shoes’ and a pair of ‘Derby’ hiking shoes.
Rounding the collection off is a carbon and glass fibre driving helmet trimmed in calf leather, a ‘Louis Vuitton X Singer’ branded holder for the car’s bespoke key, a ‘pochette’ in which to carry its documents and a pair of driving gloves.
The second car, based on a convertible version of the Singer Classic Turbo, was largely designed by Nicolas Ghesquière, Louis Vuitton’s artistic director of women’s collections.
He selected an external paint colour called ‘Calcaire Lutetien’ inspired by the white limestone of LV’s Paris HQ, highlighting it with touches of brown.
Ghesquière also introduced a nautical theme, incorporating wood into the specially engineered luggage compartment behind the seats, the engine bay and boot, all of which are lined with varnished panelling in the style of a classic motor launch.
Four pieces of luggage fit behind the seats, with a three-piece set slotting together to form a trunk up front – while rally-style leather fastening straps secure the boot lid and the rear engine cover, beside which the Louis Vuitton signature is incorporated into the tail lights.
The signature also appears on the car’s dashboard, which is fitted with ‘golden’ gauges and dominated by a central Tambour clock that's paired with a Tambour wrist watch in ceramic and yellow gold.
To mark their importance as the starting point from which the two cars developed, both timepieces are supplied with hand-stitched ‘coffrets tresor’ or ‘treasure boxes’ in which to keep them when not in use.
The car’s gear lever, meanwhile, is trimmed in leather with a drawstring design based on a Louis Vuitton Noe bag, with the capsule collection that accompanies the Classic Turbo comprising a made-to-measure bespoke driving suit, driving gloves, a pair of LV ‘Sneakarinas’, some gold-framed sunglasses and a driving helmet. And it all began when someone was inspired by a wrist watch……
