SJX Watches
Louis Vuitton Returns to the Escale Wristwatch
Louis Vuitton is steadily rebuilding its watch collecting, reorienting the offerings towards more designs with thoughtful details and decoration. Having already redesigned the Tambour, the brand now debuts the Escale Time-Only Automatic. Returning to a case design that’s been in the Louis Vuitton catalogue for well over the decade, the new Escale is a no-frills three-hander with discreet references to the brand’s trunks incorporated into the aesthetic. Initial thoughts I’ve long been a fan of the Escale case – we covered the Escale Worldtime over a decade ago – because it is simple, distinctive, and wears well. The signature Escale models in the past, however, were world time models with extravagantly multicoloured dials. The aesthetic was typical, over-the-top Louis Vuitton. I liked them, a lot in fact, but they were not for everyone, and certainly not easily legible. The new Escale, on the other hand, is a practical watch that is legible but thoughtfully designed with discreet details that evoke Louis Vuitton’s trunks. It retains the same case but with a discreet, three-hand dial. Extravagant it is not, but it has wider appeal. Inside is the same LFT023 found in the Tambour, so movement-wise it has the same strengths and weaknesses. The movement is thin and attractively styled, but could do with more refined details, like the regulator index for instance. Though not perfect (or entirely in-house), the LFT023 compares well against the ETA 2892 found in the ori...
