Worn & Wound
Louis Erard and The Horophile Collaborate on a Sleek Art Deco Inspired Limited Edition
If you had told me a few weeks ago that Louis Erard’s new collaboration with Amr Sindi, AKA, The Horophile, would be an Art Deco inspired watch with a quite literal approximation of the Empire State Building within the handset, I probably would have let out an audible groan. Not because I don’t have faith in Louis Erard (their run of limited editions over the past few years is basically a parade of nonstop hits) or The Horophile (whose Instagram feed reveals his exceptional taste), but because it just all seems so on-the-nose. Art Deco inspired designs are a pretty niche interest in 2023, but calling out the Empire State Building, perhaps the single most well known symbol of the design and architecture movement as a major point of reference, seems to me like a recipe for something that you’d find in the building’s gift shop. Well, I should have known better. Because the new watch from Louis Erard is beautifully subtle, and surprisingly modern in its sensibility. The Petite Seconde Metropolis incorporates a number of Art Deco hallmarks into a clean design that takes advantage of a Louis Erard platform that we’re starting to see used more frequently. As you might expect given the Art Deco themes, there was a large focus on the typeface used for the hours around the dial’s perimeter. Each numeral is very subtly “openworked,” and they’re presented in an uncommon circular fashion, which mimics the circular motif at the dial’s center. Importantly, these hou...
