Getting Stoned with Two New Louis Vuitton Escale Timepieces at Dubai Watch Week

As many people, both associated with the watch industry and not, would likely agree, the watch brands under the LVMH Group umbrella are pretty popular.

TAG Heuer has given the world iconic models, such as the Monaco and the Carrera, as well as brand ambassadors like Ryan Gosling and Patrick Dempsey. Hublot is probably best known for its Big Bang collection and its clocks at the FIFA World Cup. Rolex had to rely on Zenith’s El Primero movement when the Daytona 16520 was first introduced. Then, there is, of course, Bulgari, which, since the Octo Finissimo collection first saw the light of day, has ten (yes, TEN) world records.

However, while these four brands are glorified in the press, on watch forums, and at collector and enthusiast events and fairs, the LVMH watch manufacture that isn’t spoken of nearly as often as it should be is, ironically, Louis Vuitton (hello, I mean, they are the “LV” in LVMH, duh).

Today, with the introduction of two new Louis Vuitton Escale timepieces, we’re going to change that.

Louis Vuitton is not often associated with the word subtlety. When the brand plans something – anything – it turns out to be an event that makes its mark on fashion and, without even trying, draws in everyone from the naysayers to the elitists, to the generation that claims they don’t give a f**k about labels.

A perfect example of this is how the house broke the internet when they announced that Pharrell Williams would succeed the beloved Virgil Abloh as the men’s creative director following his passing.

The Louis Vuitton Escale collection welcomes two stunning new models, available in natural turquoise and malachite—exquisite creations that live up to every expectation.
 

As a writer with a background in gemstones and jewelry, I am excited to see more and more watch manufacturers incorporating gems aside from the traditional white diamonds we so often see. The cleverness of using stones such as malachite or turquoise, other than their beautiful color, is that each watch made with them is going to look different from the next.

Malachite’s striped, green color changes in hue from one stripe (known in the gem and geology community as “bands”) to the next; a process that occurs because malachite develops in layers, and the crystal grains will differ, causing various shades of green to appear.
 

Similarly, turquoise – which is a hydrous phosphate of copper and aluminum – will, in the higher quality rough I would expect Louis Vuitton to use, exhibit specks or thin, web-like lines of a black color. Those web-like lines are called a “matrix,” and they exist because of the surrounding host rock (such as pyrite) in which the turquoise is formed over time.

Like malachite (as well as other gems such as opal, tiger eye, and lapis), a turquoise dial is practically going to make any watch look like a piece unique. This is part of the reason Artistic Director of La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton, Matthieu Hegi, was drawn to these materials.
 

“The intrinsic harmony of this collection lies in the choice of stone. Each one is unique; in the veining, in the reflections, the whole internal structure that truly creates beauty. What gives each piece its value is how it represents a one-of-a-kind work by nature,” explained Hegi in a press release for the new pieces.

But the new Escale watches aren’t just pretty faces, by any means. No, sir, these watches have substance.
 

The lugs, bezel, caseback, and crown are crafted in platinum. The malachite and turquoise stones are not only on the dials but are the depth and the heart of the case as a whole.

That’s right, the gems had to be selected, approved, and cut to very specific proportions in order to fit into the circular shape of the case. And then, there is the fact that the lugs, themselves, are attached to, you guessed it, the gemstones. And that the crown had to be fitted as well. And these aren’t exactly gems that rank highly on the Mohs scale, which makes them extra finicky to work with.
 

Turquoise is between a 5 and 6, and malachite is between a 3.5 and a 4 on the Mohs scale, so you can bet your paycheck that LV’s gemstone cutters and millers were losing sleep at night working on these creations. (For those not aware, the Mohs scale ranks the hardness of a gem, ranging from 1 to 10, with talc rating a 1, diamond scoring a perfect 10, and my ex likely ranking around a 2.5.)