What does the world’s biggest luxury group have to do with independent watchmaking? If a surprising new collaborative timepiece from Louis Vuitton is any indication, quite a bit, actually.
The flagship brand of the Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH) luxury goods group has teamed with the Kosovo-born, Geneva-based watchmaker Rexhep Rexhepi—whose Atelier Akrivia has been at the vanguard of independent watchmaking since its founding in 2012—to create the new LVRR-01 Chronographe à Sonnerie, a limited edition wristwatch that unites Rexhepi’s technical talent with Louis Vuitton’s aesthetic signatures. The model comes in a 39.5mm platinum Tambour case, whose roots go back to 2002 when Louis Vuitton first announced its ambitions in the watch category. Limited to 10 pieces, each priced at CHF 450,000, the model is a double-faced chronograph with a chiming complication.
The wristwatch is powered by a new tourbillon movement developed from scratch by Atelier Akrivia, whose signature avant-garde style—evident on the tinted sapphire dial on the front—sits in sharp contrast with the more traditional look and feel associated with Rexhepi’s eponymous collection (as seen on the white grand feu enamel dial on the back).
The collaboration is so central to the watch that Louis Vuitton did something unprecedented: The brand incorporated its signature “LV” logo into the Akrivia name, the first time it has combined its logo with that of another brand in any product category. In addition to the watch’s impressive technical CV—it’s a precision chronometer equipped with a 5-minute tourbillon regulator, a chronograph function to measure elapsed time as well as a sonnerie mechanism to mark time passing—is the unique packaging that accompanies it.
Delivered in a handpainted trunk made specifically for each example of the LVRR-01, the box features the signatures of Rexhep Rexhepi, Akrivia casemaker Jean-Pierre Hagmann, and Nicolas Doublel, the master enamellist at La Fabrique du Temps, Louis Vuitton’s watch manufacture in Geneva.
