The Louis Vuitton Tambour was first released in 2002, and has since continually evolved, reflecting the maison’s growth in the sphere of watchmaking. Its latest iteration, made of ceramic and rose gold, follows on the heels of its 2023 release, in which an integrated bracelet was introduced. The profile of the timepiece was also pared down, yielding a drum-shaped case that is 40mm in diameter and just 8.3mm thick. This made it better suited for more formal occasions, despite it being marketed as a sports watch. It featured two hands with a small seconds dial at six o’clock adding visual elegance. Of course, it still looked perfectly at home with shirt and jeans. The combination of design and size put the watch at a true middle ground, making it an easy selection as an everyday watch.
Today, the Louis Vuitton Tambour Ceramic is reimagined in ceramic and gold — an interesting mix of utilitarianism and luxury, light and heavy, matte and shiny. Ceramic is a hard material to work with, but it also provides much higher scratch- and corrosion-resistance, a desirable trait for timepieces, especially ones at this level. Specifically, a precious metal watch that also boasts the maison’s engineering prowess. A watch you would like to flaunt and protect at the same time.
An added point of note here is the colour. It is easier to finish ceramics in white or black, but making it brown added an extra layer of challenge, especially seeing how half of the time spent on the finishing is done by hand. Why this particular shade of brown? Because it defers to the maison’s signature trunk.
This is where the skills of the experts in La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton are put on display. Not only is the collective responsible for the design, it is also the source of the technical mastery that goes behind each watch, and it is no different for this ceramic Tambour.
Nestled within the case is the automatic calibre LFT023 movement — the same one that powers the other Louis Vuitton Tambour watches. Only in this model, it is encased by a gold container. To get the technical specs out of the way, the movement has 50 hours of power reserve and runs at 28,800 vibrations per hour.
The performance is nothing to shout about at first, until you realise that it is chronometer certified under the Timelab Foundation, which puts it on par with the ISO chronometer standards adopted by other measuring bodies. That puts the watch’s accuracy between -4 to +6 seconds a day. Now that is nothing to scoff at. Plus, the movement is nice to look at, too.
Louis Vuitton is known for many things in the world of luxury. But with each new release, the maison is showing its true capabilities, and that is the attention to detail and care for everything it ever creates.
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