Louis Vuitton has introduced two new versions of its Monterey watch, featuring glossy black and green ceramic cases. These models revive the pebble-shaped, lugless design conceived by Gae Aulenti in the 1980s, now powered by an in-house automatic movement.
- Price: €23,000 / US$22,300 / £19,800
- 37mm case
- 11mm thickness
- Automatic LFT MA01.02 movement
- 45-hour power reserve
- 30 meters water resistance
The Monterey's design originates from Gae Aulenti's Montre LV I and LV II from 1988, characterized by a sculptural, pebble-shaped, lugless case with a crown at 12 o'clock.
The original LV II models featured innovative black or green ceramic cases, a rarity in the 1980s, made possible by an alliance with IWC for quartz movements and ceramic technology.
The new 37mm Monterey has an 11mm profile, a 2mm increase from the original, to accommodate the automatic LFT MA01.02 movement developed by La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton.
The LFT MA01.02 movement features an 18K rose gold rotor, runs at 4 Hz, and is housed behind a steel case back, obscuring its decorated bridges and finishing.
The pebble-shaped ceramic case is not made with molds but is crafted from compressed ceramic powder, zirconium oxide, and pigments, then cut, baked at 1,000°C, manually ground, and hand-polished.
The black ceramic version features a white lacquered dial with red accents on the hands and minute track, while the green ceramic version has a matching green dial with yellow hands.
The dial layout is simplified to time-only, sacrificing the alarm and date functions of the original LV II quartz watches, but retains double railway tracks and openworked, lacquered syringe-style hands.
The lugless design causes the 37x11mm watch to sit prominently on the wrist, with the strap threading through the case, maintaining the smooth profile but potentially feeling top-heavy, though mitigated by the ceramic material.