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New: Louis Erard Excellence Guilloché Main - artisanal hand guilloché
Presenting the Louis Erard Excellence Guilloché Main. Limited edition, checkerboard hand guilloché dial at a modest price. Press Release with commentary.
Results for Louis Erard
185 articles · 8 videos found · page 7 of 7
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SJX Watches
Louis Erard Makes Traditional, Hand-Executed Guilloche Affordable
Although best known for its collaborations with independent watchmakers, Louis Erard is adept at introducing elements of high-end watchmaking in its accessibly-priced watches. The recent Excellence Email Grand Feu offered a grand feu enamel dial for less than 4,000 Swiss francs. Now Louis Erard is moving on to traditional engine turning with the Excellence Guilloché Main. Limited to 99 pieces, the watch features a chequer guilloché dial with an M.C Escher vibe, and an eminently affordable 3,900 Swiss franc price tag. Initial thoughts Consistently offering affordable timepieces that punch way above their price point, Louis Erard is fast becoming one of my favourite watchmakers. The Excellence Guilloché Main affirms my thoughts about the brand. It is an honest representation of a traditional decorative technique, but different. I find the chequer pattern to be even more striking than the standard guilloché patterns like hobnail or barleycorn. Executed to give it perspective, the pattern has a three-dimensional quality that endows the watch with a sense of depth uncommon on dials as wide and flat as this. And, the heat-blued hands add a welcome pop of colour to the otherwise monochrome palette. The simple functions of just hours and minutes allow the chequer guilloché to be admired in its full glory. I particularly like how Louis Erard prints its brand name on the underside crystal instead of the dial, which further enhances the perceived depth of the watch. That...
SJX Watches
Alain Silberstein Reveals a Quirky, Bauhaus Clock
An architect turned watch designer, Alain Silberstein was a star of the 1990s, being perhaps the most avant-garde watch brand of the decade. The Frenchman’s quirky and geometrical designs were the diametrical opposite of the classical style that was then the industry norm. Though his eponymous brand shut down a few years ago, Mr Silberstein is still active as a designer, most recently collaborating with Louis Erard on an affordable, regulator-style watch. Now he is making a comeback in a big way – literally. With the help from French clockmaker Utinam, Mr Silberstein has taken the cover off the Kontwaz Bauhaus 2, KB2 for short. A monumental skeleton clock, the KB2 is available in two versions: a 2 m high standing timekeeper, or in a compact, wall-mounted form. The KB2 wall clock Alain Silberstein Initial thoughts The KB2 is not Mr Silberstein’s first foray into clocks. He designed several other versions of the Kontwaz Bauhaus in the 1990s, which were produced by a French clockmaker and occasionally pop up on the secondary market today. That makes the new KB2 is a pleasant surprise that harks back to his earlier career. As with most Silberstein creations, the appeal of the KB2 lies in the design, which is complex and distinctive, yet composed of simple shapes. The geometrical forms and colours are lightly arranged in harmonious whole – an impressive feat, for a lesser designer would have just created a mishmash of elements. The standing KB2 The key for winding ...
SJX Watches
Louis Erard Unveils an Affordable ‘Grand Feu’ Enamel Time-Only
Best known recently for its collaborations with independent watchmakers – the Le Régulateur Vianney Halter sold out in a matter of hours – Louis Erard has been gaining recognition for making the style of high-end watchmaking affordable. Continuing with that focus, the brand has just announced the Excellence Email Grand Feu, a time-only wristwatch with a traditional enamel dial in a striking ivory hue. The grand feu, or fired-in-an-oven, enamel dial is fairly difficult to manufacture, resulting in a rejection rate that’s often over half. As a result, such dials are usually only found in high-end watches. It’s Louis Erard’s first use of a fired enamel dial, but true to form, the brand has retained its usual pricing positioning with a retail price of under 4,000 Swiss francs. Initial thoughts Given the frequent enthusiast gripe that watch prices (or values) border on the absurd, it would seem that true value propositions are hard to come by. There are a few exceptions – Tudor, Longines, and a few independents for instance – with Louis Erard increasingly being one of them. The brand offers an honest product, often with one or two elements historically found only in haute horlogerie, for not so much money. The Excellence Email Grand Feu is exactly that. And the dial is particularly appealing in ivory, instead of the usual bright white that is the favoured colour for fired enamel. Notably, the dial is made by Donzé Cadrans, the well-known enamel dial maker ...
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New release: Le Régulateur Louis Erard x Vianney Halter with Editorial Commentary (critical)
Louis Erard continues to partner with watchmaking creators, and builds another bridge with high-end watchmaking by working alongside Vianney Halter, an artist whose every creation is a collector’s dream item. Here, the latest novelty is the Louis Erard x Vianney Halter – a 178 piece limited edition, automatic regulator, priced at CHF 3,500. Press releaseRead More
SJX Watches
Louis Erard Introduces the Le Régulateur Vianney Halter
Almost exactly a year after the inaugural limited edition designed by Alain Silberstein, Louis Erard has just unveiled its second collaboration, this time with Vianney Halter, the watchmaker best known for a unique, steampunk-inspired aesthetic. Designed by Mr Halter and made by Louis Erard, the Le Régulateur Louis Erard x Vianney Halter is based on the Excellence Régulateur, but dressed up with many of the independent watchmaker’s signature design elements on the dial. Initial thoughts The dial is executed with the distinctive aesthetic found on Mr Halter’s best-known watches, namely the Antiqua and Classic – which were penned by American designer Jeff Barnes. Although the case and dial layout are identical to Louis Erard’s stock regulator model, the typography and hands of Mr Halter are unique enough to make it instantly recognisable. As it is based on the standard model, the Régulateur Vianney Halter has the same strengths and weaknesses. Most obviously, it is affordable and good value, but the case is thick at a little over 12 mm high, meaning it feels slightly chunky. Conceptually, this collaboration functioned exactly like the earlier one with Alain Silberstein, but it feels less complete because of the background of the collaborator. While Mr Silberstein was always a watch designer, Mr Halter is well established as a watchmaker and known as a skilled prototypist. As a result, while the new watch possesses a recognisable Vianney Halter style – and it ...
SJX Watches
Louis Erard Introduces the Excellence Triptych
Having pivoted to take a more interesting direction – exemplified by its recent collaboration with watch designer Alain Silberstein – Louis Erard is now working on facelifting its more classical watches to give them a more contemporary appearance. The result is the Excellence Triptych, a trio of watches that are simple yet smartly detailed. Made up of a time-only, regulator, and mono-pusher chronograph, the line up is named after a three-panelled painting, perhaps reflecting the artistic interests of Manuel Emch, the former chief executive of Jaquet Droz who is now a consultant to Louis Erard and responsible for the brand’s renewal. The Excellence Triptych (from left): Petite Second, Régulateur, Chronographe Monopoussoir Initial thoughts The Triptych is fundamentally appealing because of its reasonable and affordable pricing, starting from about US$1,600 for the time-only and rising to a still-modest US$3,800 for the mono-pusher chronograph. The intrinsic value is especially strong for the regulator, as the complication is rarely seen in this price segment (though Louis Erard has made it something of a speciality). The Régulateur And the facelift is subtle but significantly, boosting their visual appeal over the earlier generation of watches. Amongst the more obvious tweaks was replacing the Roman numerals with applied Arabics and batons, while also sharpening the lance-shaped hands, giving the watch a more modern look. While the dials are in a muted silver, ...
Quill & Pad
Cartier, Hublot, And Louis Erard: When Time Takes A Backseat To Art
What happens when form dominates function nearly completely and the watch itself becomes a canvas for art? What if artistic freedom can be enjoyed without time being the primary purpose? Martin Green highlights three great examples here.
SJX Watches
Louis Erard Introduces the Excellence Regulator with Smoked Dials
Regulators are all about their characteristic dial where the hour, minute and seconds hands are each located on separate axes – with the minute hand being the largest and longest – a layout originally designed for maximum legibility on clock faces in the mid-18th century. The Louis Erard Excellence Regulator revisits this classical design, but now with a fashionable smoked dial – and an eminently affordable price tag. Initial thoughts Regulator watches are simple, but are not common at this price point – the Excellence Regulator costs just 2490 Swiss francs, or about US$2600. Louis Erard, however, has made something of a specialty of affordable regulator watches, most notably with the whimsical Alain Silberstein Regulator launched last year that was styled by the eponymous watch designer for Louis Erard. The value proposition is good, though the dials are definitely reminiscent the fumé dials of H. Moser & Cie, which didn’t invent such graduated-colour dials, but have made them almost synonymous with the brand. Based on the photos, the graduated finish of the Excellence Regulator dials are not quite as not as complex or refined as that on Moser’s watches – understandable and acceptable given the substantively lower price. Smoked dials While the regulator layout is unusual, the smoked dials are the highlight. Offered in vibrant and saturated hues of grey, blue or green, the colour gradually tapers off in intensity, turning almost black towards the edges...
Time+Tide
INTRODUCING: The Louis Erard x Alain Silberstein Regulator
If you’ve been around watches for more than a few years there’s a decent chance you’re familiar with the watch designs of Alain Silberstein. They’re bold, bright and very much of their time - crazy shapes and primary colours that go to show that Bauhaus design is far from boring. It’s minimalism, but in the most … ContinuedThe post INTRODUCING: The Louis Erard x Alain Silberstein Regulator appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Revolution
Introducing the Louis Erard x Alain Silberstein Excellence Regulator
Alain Silberstein adds his signature splash of life into the Louis Erard Excellence Regulator as the Jura based watchmaker looks to kick off a refreshed watchmaking effort.
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New release with live pics: Louis Erard x Alain Silberstein Regulator
Louis Erard collaborates with the architect and watchmaker Alain Silberstein to create a new regulator watches in SS and Black PVD. Details within.
SJX Watches
Louis Erard Introduces the Regulator by Alain Silberstein (With Live Photos)
Louis Erard has been around for some 90 years, but for much of that time the brand produced watches for other labels. A decade ago, shortly after new owners took over, Louis Erard began to move slightly upmarket with mechanical watches featuring proprietary modules. But most of its designs were plain or derivative. And so Louis Erard could have been just another brand making mostly anonymous looking watches. But recently Louis Erard recruited the talented Manuel Emch – best known for reviving Jaquet Droz and then running RJ-Romain Jerome until 2017 – as an advisor and suddenly things have brightened up – literally. Louis Erard has just announced the Alain Silberstein Regulator, a surprisingly affordable wristwatch created by the watch designer famed for his whimsical, Bauhaus-inspired style – captured here in photos taken by a Swiss collector for SJX (scroll to the bottom to read my thoughts on the watch after seeing them shortly after this was published). Since Mr Silberstein’s eponymous company went bust in 2012, he has created watches for MB&F; and RJ-Romain Jerome. Despite the diversity of the brands he has worked with, Mr Silberstein versatile yet distinctive style manages to ease into each brand’s house style. Illustrating the magic of Mr Silberstein’s creativity, the new watch is based on one of Louis Erard’s signature models, the Excellence Regulator, which is ordinarily available with a grained or guilloche silver dial featuring Roman numera...