There’s a long-observed pattern in luxury and pop culture which track that in times of economic anxiety, people don’t retreat to the safe and sensible—they reach for the bold.
Watchmaking is no different, and the decidedly cautious offerings from year’s Watches & Wonders was unapologetically interrupted by a couple of timepieces that packed a punch in the direction of eye-candy.
Though Louis Vuitton wasn’t in attendance, it’s latest horological offering is one that indisputably would have had chins wagging in Geneva—or more aptly in the case of the Taiko Arty Automata, lips moving.
This new 42mm white gold watch combines a flying tourbillon, seven animated dial elements, champlevé enamel work in 23 colours and over 250 hours of hand decoration. A fancy-free departure from the maison’s recent, comparatively minimal Monterey II relaunch, or the chic and functional Escale Worldtime, it’s one of the most visually ambitious watches to come from LV in recent years.