Manuel Emch, head of Louis Erard, aims to democratize watchmaking.
By inviting watchmakers, designers, and artists to collaborate on various projects and offering traditional métiers d’art dials to a wider audience at accessible prices, Louis Erard fills a significant gap in the watch industry.
Once again, the versatile Regulator watches, created by the Swiss architecture and design studio Atelier oï, showcase a mesmerizing dial engraved with golden asymmetric rays.
Beautiful and captivating, the Regulator watches recall their original 18th-century function of separating minutes, hours, and seconds, but without numbers and indices, they transcend the simple functional aspect of timekeeping and become a modern art piece.
The new Regulator watches mark the second collaboration between Atelier oï and Louis Erard, identical to the first but in a different color scheme. Founded by three partners in 1991, this award-winning multidisciplinary design studio works in architecture, scenography, and product design.
As the original chronometric functions of regulator watches have been overshadowed by ultra-precise digital technologies, Atelier oï believes that today watches have a "different meaning," open to various interpretations.
One of the most abstract interpretations of the Louis Erard Régulateur model, aside from the nearly enigmatic and minimalist black dial created by artist Olivier Mosset earlier this year, is the watch design by atelier oï, intended to resemble the shape of sundials, one of the earliest time-measuring devices invented by humans. To recreate the sundial markings, a series of asymmetric rays are engraved on the 2N gold dial.
Three blue stick-shaped hands, corresponding to the regulator, are positioned on the central vertical axis: a small hand for hours at noon, a longer hand for the important minutes at the center, and a small hand for seconds at the "6 o'clock" position. Sixty engraved lines or rays emanate from beneath the hour and small second hands, creating a fantastic two-dimensional kinetic spectacle.
Thanks to the matte surface and brightly polished facets, the golden rays capture sunlight, creating reflections and casting shadows. The blue grained calf leather strap with tone-on-tone stitching and polished steel clasp echoes the color of the hands.
While it may take some time to get used to the layout and decipher the time, there is a method to this madness: sixty segments on the periphery form the minute track, and every five minutes there is a pronounced line for precise time consultation.
Like other Regulator models, the 50-meter water-resistant polished stainless steel case has a diameter of 42 mm and a thickness of 12.25 mm. The movement is an automatic Sellita SW266-1 élaboré-grade with a modest 38-hour power reserve and a frequency of 28,800 vibrations per hour.
Availability and Price
A limited edition of 18 pieces, the new gold Le Régulateur Louis Erard x atelier oï will retail for 3,750 Swiss francs. More information can be found at louiserard.com.