Future Classic

Matthieu Hegi, the artistic director of La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton, delves into the creative journey behind the maison’s latest Escale watches

- Annabel Tan

A decade ago, Louis Vuitton launched the first Escale Worldtime, a travel watch with a colourful world time display on the dial, decorated with hand‑painted flags that separate the abbreviated names of cities. Since then, the Escale has lent itself to age‑old métiers d’art techniques such as enamelling, marquetry, engraving and gem‑setting that bring to life elaborate Asian motifs—think bamboo, koi and dragons. Over the last decade, the Escale collection has come to embody the highest echelons of haute horlogerie, showcasing in‑house complications and savoir faire.

This year, on its 10th anniversary, the Escale returns with a pared‑down, classic time‑only model that underscores the maison’s dedication to craftsmanship, precision and timeless design. A time‑only watch simply displays the time, with no additional complications. “To explain the decision to create a time‑only watch, we have to go back to 2013,” says Matthieu Hegi, the artistic director of La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton, the maison’s watchmaking manufacture, in an interview with Tatler Singapore.

“I was looking at my first sketches from back then—it’s been a really long time since I looked at them—and was mesmerised to realise that they looked very much like the latest Escale designs. Everyone who saw the watch at the time felt that it was an obvious watch to have in our collection and it is still the case today. It’s a watch that really is timeless, elegant, proportionate, and it’ll become a pillar in our collection. And for all these reasons, we decided to introduce it as a time‑only piece,” he explains.