Louis Vuitton has unveiled the Monterey Ceramic ‘Charm’ watch during their Paris Fashion Week show.
During the show, LV debuted the watch as charm tags hanging off trousers and serves as a great reinvention of the historic brand’s first ever wirstwatch.
The new collection comes in two variables, both made out of ceramic. One is deep green while the other is a shiny black and both pieces feature a pebble shaped case and feature the LFTMA01.02 automatic movement, which is made in-house. The dials’s are also placed on leather tags, seemingly in reference to the company’s storied history of trunk making.
The Monterey was originally premiered back in 1988 when Louis Vuitton got into the wristwatch business for the first time.
The Louis Vuitton Monterey Ceramic collection will be available to customers from September 26.
It has been a big year for the pocket watch with Audemars Piguet and Swatch joining forces to create the Royal Pop, leading to the biggest watch-related phenomenon in recent memory.
Released back in May, the Royal Pop led to pandemonium outside of Swatch stores around the globe. From the day the watch was announced, some fans began camping outside Swatch stores all over the world. It’s a watch that is not yet available online so those queues began forming and many slept for several nights in the street to give themselves the best chance of obtaining a Royal Pop on the day of release.
Such was the fever, Swatch were forced to close several shops early with crowds causing mass disruption across high streets with many retailers forced to call the police.
In the UK, police were called to stores in virtually every major city. One man in Cardiff was arrested and police dogs were used to control crowds in Battersea and Westfield. In Birmingham, a full dispersal order was issued. Full on fist fights ignited at Manchester’s Trafford Centre.
France didn’t fair much better with teargas used in Paris in an attempt to control a several hundred strong crowd that had damaged Swatch’s shop.
Things also got physical in New York with one man who stood in line comparing the atmosphere to a mosh pit.
Much of the clamour was because fans and collectors did and do not expect the Royal Pop to be available on shelves for a prolonged period of time.
Swatch have already confirmed that the watch will not be manufactured in similar numbers to the MoonSwatch which has sold several million units and despite the general impracticality of a pocket watch, it was a launch weekend unlike anything the high street had seen before.
As well as Louis Vuttion and the Audemars Piguet x Swatch link up, the pocket watch has also been re-embraced by Patek Philippe and Christopher Ward so far this year.
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