Louis Erard Wow’s With a New Excellence Marqueterie Very Limited Series
With their latest masterpiece, the Excellence Marqueterie, Louis Erard once again proves their commitment to opening métiers d’arts to a wider audience.
Louis Erard is using contemporary techniques to breathe new life into traditional métiers d’art and has set itself the challenge of making exclusive craftsmanship accessible to a broader audience. The latest example of this is the Excellence Marqueterie with a miniature marquetry dial, handmade by an independent artisan named Bastien Chevalier based in Sainte-Croix.
Each dial comprises more than 70 elements and consists of three shades of blue-tinted tulip tree and grey-tinted willow burl; each color is a different type of wood. The dial pattern is a checkerboard design, which is both playful and eye-catching. The series consists of 99 pieces, and the price is less than 4,000 Swiss francs.
The Marqueterie Dial
The dial is an impressive feat of craftsmanship, as the marquetry is so small that it pushes the limits of the discipline. Each facet is cut into the wood by hand with a saw, and each color is in a different type of wood. The cut must be precise to a tenth of a millimeter to assemble the pieces without any gaps. Bastien Chevalier, the artisan who created the dial, admits that taking up such a challenge is madness, as the pattern won’t permit any errors. He has developed his own technique to achieve this remarkable feat, using conscious breathing in the style of yoga masters.
The Excellence Marqueterie
The watch itself is a modern design, with a polished steel case that is 42 millimeters in diameter and has a domed sapphire crystal. It is water-resistant to 50 meters and features a signature fir tree crown. The blue-grained calf leather strap has tone-on-tone attachment points, Louis Erard blue lining, and a pin buckle. The movement is an automatic Sellita SW261-1 with hour and minute functions, visible from the open case back.
Louis Erard’s Commitment
Louis Erard’s goal is to make the delights of high-end watchmaking accessible to more people, both in terms of price and culture. The company has borrowed the checkerboard motif before in a series of watches dedicated to hand guilloché, but this marquetry dial is an even greater challenge. Despite the complexity and time-consuming nature of the process, the Excellence Marqueterie is being sold at a shockingly low price. According to Louis Erard, this is part of the company’s commitment to challenging contemporary watchmaking and bringing rare crafts to the forefront.
Price & Availability
The Louis Erard Excellence Marqueterie is available on the Louis Erard Online Store.
Price: CHF 3’900
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