Watches aren’t usually something people talk about when a maison sends models down a runway at fashion week. But a couple of years back that did happen at Louis Vuitton’s AW25 show. Nestled in necklines on leather or strapped over cuffs, some people (us) noticed a smooth round pebble of a watch. Cue rumours that Louis Vuitton was resurrecting a 1988 design oddity designed by Italian architect Gae Aulenti – the LVII, affectionately known as the Monterey because apparently some Americans can’t pronounce “montre” (French for watch, obvs).
A limited edition yellow-gold 39mm one was announced – think of it as LV re-testing the waters – and now the classic LVII is back in the current collection with two cases in olive green and glossy black ceramic (again, the eagle-eyed might have seen a sneak peak of them at the surfy SS27 show this summer).
“It has a sensuality to it,” says Matthieu Hegi, the Artistic Director of La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton of the design. “You know you have succeeded when people want to reach out and grab something.”
People weren’t exactly reaching out to grab the original. Even in 1988, the Monterey was an unusual timepiece. Aulenti started working with Louis Vuitton after she successfully transformed a former Parisian train station into the Musee d’Orsay. Aulenti started designing pens, and objets before unveiling the LVI and LVII; Louis Vuitton’s first timepiece and one that was only marketed to specialist clients and those in the architectural world.
That design is exactly what Hegi’s team have replicated today. A smooth, pebble-like, lugless case in glossy ceramic with a crown at 12 o’clock, like a minimalist interpretation of a pocket watch. While the LVI was stuffed with complications, including a world timer, alarm and moon phase, the LVII had this simple, elegant aesthetic with rail track minutes. The only concessions to colour in the current iterations come from the hands, which are either in orange or yellow.
It’s still 37mm, because Hegi says, “selfishly I like small watches”, and the main difference is this runs on an in-house automatic movement rather than quartz, though that movement from the 1988 original is nothing to sniff at. It was created for Louis Vuitton by Günter Blümlein – aka a man linked to the greatest names in Swiss/German watchmaking (IWC, A. Lange & Sohne and Jaeger-LeCoultre) – who shaped the Richemont Group as watch folk know it today.
But back to the Monterey and its accessories. There is a leather fob that can be worn on everything from a handbag (think luxury Labubu), or as Hegi demonstrates, dangling from a belt loop in a similar vein to how the AP x Swatch Royal Pop is being worn. Then there is the necklace of sorts, also seen on the runway, that has an attachment resembling a luggage tag in which you can hide the head, rather like a leather sautoir.
It's all in keeping with modern Vuitton under Nicolas Ghesquière, who became artistic director of women’s collections in 2013 and duly injected wit into the traditional French marque. Because what could be more tongue-in-cheek than a fancy watch worn on your waist. Just be sure to take it off before you go to the loo; that ceramic case may be scratch resistant but water resistant it is not.
This article originally appeared on British GQ.
