Louis Vuitton Tambour Moon Tourbillon Volant Poinçon de Genève Watch Review
The new Louis Vuitton Tambour Moon Tourbillon Volant Poinçon de Genève is available in two versions. It embraces modernity with its vividly-hued sapphire case while staying true to the historical and onerous standards of the Geneva Seal. Watch aficionado, Mark McArthur-Christie explores the no-compromise specification of this horological tour de force and points out what makes it an exceptional timepiece.
Image – Louis Vuitton Tambour Moon Tourbillon Volant Poinçon de Genève
David Ramsay
In 1630, or thereabouts, the records are a bit sketchy, a Scottish watchmaker called David Ramsay fitted a verge escapement movement with a gut fusée into an octagonal case carved from rock crystal. The following year he became the first Master of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers. We think of clockmakers as perhaps a little old-fashioned today but in the seventeenth century they were the equivalent of computer scientists, working with the most modern of technologies.
Although Ramsay almost certainly would have had someone else make the case for his movement, the watch, as befitting its sharp-end tech, would have been wincingly expensive; a prestigious piece. No wonder he was proud to have ‘David Ramsay, Scotus me fecit’ engraved on the backplate.
Sapphire Cases
Horology, appropriately, has a habit of coming full circle. You’ll struggle to find a modern rock crystal case, but there are a few makers producing watches with sapphire cases. Like Ramsay’s watch, they’re at the top of the market, comprising makers like Richard Mille, Blancpain, Greubel Forsey, and MB&F. And now, Louis Vuitton.
La Fabrique du Temps
At this point, it’s worth lowering that raised eyebrow. Louis Vuitton the watchmaker is as far removed from a ‘fashion watch’ as it’s possible to be. LV would not countenance the idea of dumping a cheap Far Eastern quartz calibre in a bling case and slapping on a logo. Instead, in 2011, having previously partnered with La Joux Perret to make its first tourbillon movement, the firm bought its own watch company, Geneva-based La Fabrique du Temps.
Poinçon de Genève
Given that background, it’s not too surprising that Louis Vuitton is the first watch company to receive a Poinçon de Genève, the Geneva Seal, for a sapphire-cased watch. It must be getting used to it by now; the firm received its first Poinçon in 2016 for its Voyager Flying Tourbillon and another in 2020 for the Tambour Curve. It looks like the firm is going to need a bigger trophy cabinet in the boardroom soon.
It’s probably easier to get a knighthood than a Poinçon de Genève (literally ‘Geneva punch’). It tells you not just that a watch was made in Geneva, it guarantees that it is precise and delivers top-end quality with commensurate finishing. A seal has never been something for mass market producers. From its foundation in 1887 to 1918, fewer than 500 watches per annum were submitted for assessment. By 1990, Patek Philippe was the only firm to submit its watches. Today, things have hotted up a little, but still only around 2,500 watches receive a stamp each year. Very much a case of quality over quantity.
Image – Louis Vuitton Tambour Moon Tourbillon Volant Poinçon de Genève
Geneva Seal
To get a Geneva seal takes some serious watchmaking ability. For a start, you have to be based in the canton of Geneva. That’s the easy bit. Once you’ve managed that, you need to assemble, adjust and case your movement in Geneva. And then there are the engineering and aesthetic standards you need to meet. These cover the materials you’re allowed to use, the standard of finishing (terrifying) even down to the chamfering on plates, wheels and levers. Leave a tool mark on anything and you’re in the skip.
Geneva is the sort of place where the regulations for hiring a school hall run to a couple of thousand words, demand you prove your identity and even present the local authority with your certificate of fire and flood insurance, therefore it is easy to see how pernickety the laws are behind acquiring something as important as a Poinçon are.
Louis Vuitton Tambour Tourbillon
The Tambour has been an LV staple since 2002 with the Moon emerging in 2017. These two new sapphire-cased watches manage, somehow, to not take themselves too seriously whilst containing some of the most serious watchmaking out there. For a start, Louis Vuitton has steered away from anything as subtle as a smoked sapphire case. The two new watches are winegum green and yellow.
Louis Vuitton Tambour Moon Tourbillon Volant Poinçon de Genève – sapphire crystal case
Making synthetic sapphire like this uses the same process as the industry uses to create synthetic rubies for movement bearings. Sapphire crystal gets a 9 on the Mohs harness scale – only diamond is harder at 10. That gives you some idea of how indestructible these cases will be.
To make one, you’ll need to find yourself some aluminium oxide, then heat it up to around 2,000° C. Once you’ve got the resulting block of sapphire, you’ll need to mill it to shape. In this case, a cylinder 50mm in diameter and 150mm long. That’s a bit of a challenge, given its hardness. You’ll need a computer milling machine, diamond tools and a good share of patience.
To produce a 42.5 mm single case you’re looking at around 100 hours of milling and another 150 hours of polishing just to cut out the glass, middle and bezel. You’ll have earned your tea and buns before you start on the caseback. That’ll be another 50 hours of milling and 60 hours of hand and machine finishing. Then there’s the transparent bridge and its LV logo. Twenty more hours of cutting and 40 hours manual finishing – and it’s only there for decoration. All-in, you’re looking at about 420 hours of work just to have a finished case in your hand. Once it’s finished, you can cut the indices and engrave ‘Louis Vuitton’ on the concave case middle – lacquered white on the green cased watches, black on the yellow sapphire cases.
You’ll need another break before you screw in the PVD titanium lugs that secure the black alligator strap to the case.
You might think, despite all this sapphire-crafting, that the resultant watch would be a bit of a shrinking violet and need vintage Breguet levels of babying. Not so. LV has designed and made a transparent gasket between the case middle and the screw in back that keeps things watertight to 30 metres. Being able to machine sapphire to fractions of a micron makes sure the surfaces are perfectly smooth, so they snug down tightly.
Louis Vuitton Tambour Moon Tourbillon Volant Poinçon de Genève – LV 90 Calibre
Having a sapphire case, of course, lets you look at the LV 90 Calibre inside. You’ll be wanting to do a lot of that. Remember the Poinçon de Genève finishing criteria? You can see it in evidence here, as well as the poinçon itself, engraved just to the right of the centre wheel.
The LV 90 calibre is a hand-wound movement running 21,600 vph (3Hz) with a decent 80 hour power reserve. The mainspring responsible sits inside a skeletonised barrel sporting the Louis Vuitton name and features chamfered edges. The keyless works is a thing of beauty with graining, polishing and engine-turning. And even the escape wheel teeth are skeletonised – just imagine how long the finishing took? It’s also practical, reducing the weight of the wheel.
The Tambour Moon is a great chance to see proper Genevan finishing at its zenith. Every screw head is polished, every edge has been chamfered, but, at the same time, there’s nothing flash or showy about it. Everything has a function rather than being merely decorative. Even the flying tourbillon is unfussy. Well, unfussy in the way an Aston DB4S is unfussy.
Every bearing – all 17 of them – is jewelled, and the whole thing is made and assembled from 160 components by Geneva-based La Fabrique du Temps, so there shouldn’t be any longevity (or any other) issues with your LV 90.
Louis Vuitton Tambour Moon Tourbillon – closing thoughts
Despite the Tambour Moon being a nailed-on Haute Horlogerie watch, it’s utterly practical. OK, it’s hardly the sort of thing that’s going to pass unnoticed under a shirt cuff, but you really could wear it every day without worrying. It’s water-resistant, shockproof in any normal use, pretty much impervious to everyday scratches unless you happen to be a diamond merchant and as easy to read as a Swiss station clock. Pulling off a feat of watchmaking like that takes some doing. And, if you’re more used to LV the fashion brand, it may come as a surprise.
As you’d imagine, this is not a cheap watch. Louis Vuitton is only making 20 of each and you’ll be looking down the barrel of around €400,000 to snag one.
A pal of mine was lucky enough to get a tour around the Rolls-Royce works at Goodwood. He learned how each Ghost and Phantom is finished with matching veneers from the same burr walnut log – with the remainder kept in careful storage in case of later accident damage. They told him how only 15 cars a day are hand-crafted and assembled. He began the tour thinking £240,000 for a car was quite a lot of money. He ended it wondering how on earth it was such good value. The parallels are clear to see.
Further reading
Technical specifications
- Model: Louis Vuitton Tambour Moon Tourbillon Volant Poinçon de Genève
- References: Q8DB2Y (green) / Q8DB1Y (yellow)
- Case: sapphire case, diameter 42.5 mm, height 9.90 mm, water resistance 3 ATM (30 m), sapphire crystal to the front and exhibition case back.
- Functions: hours, minutes, flying tourbillon
- Movement: LV 90 Calibre, hand-wound movement; frequency 21,600 vph (3Hz); 17 jewels; power reserve 80 hours; components=160
- Strap: black alligator strap made paired with a titanium ardillon buckle, featuring black sand-blasted PVD treatment
- Price: €400,000 excluding taxes (RRP as of 7.4.2023)