Credits: Article and images by @ Revolution Watch Magazine. See the original article here - https://revolutionwatch.com/revo-awards-2023-full-list/
First up is his creation of one of the freshest, most dynamic, best designed, most ergonomic, and most original new integrated bracelet, sports chic watches on the market — the new Louis Vuitton Tambour, which is an undeniably great watch.
Don’t just take it from me. Mike Shanlikian, otherwise known as @shani.watch, is a legend in the collector community, a guiding light in independent watch culture, and the successful winner of the last F.P. Journe jade dial Tourbillon Souverain at Christie’s 2023 thematic auction, The Art of F.P. Journe.
The last time we met up, he was rocking a platinum Rexhep Rexhepi Chronomètre Contemporain I on one wrist and a gray dial Tambour on the other wrist. He explained, “The new Tambour is absolutely phenomenal.
“It’s completely original in that it’s the only integrated bracelet sports watch on the market that has no lugs and no bezel, yet it looks amazing on the wrist and feels even better.”
But the fact that Arnault’s new Tambour pays subtle homage to the very original 21-year-old icon wonderfully demonstrates his ability to pay tribute to Louis Vuitton’s past even while blazing a brave new path into the future. The significance of the Tambour is enhanced by the fact that Arnault has decided to simultaneously stop all quartz watches as he didn’t want a “disconnect” between Louis Vuitton’s positioning in other sectors versus its position in the watch sector.
But successfully reinventing the Tambour was just the first act in Arnault’s year. On top of that, he has now positioned Louis Vuitton as the successor to Harry Winston and its Opus watches, and as the champion of independent watchmaking — though in this case with Louis Vuitton, Arnault is giving the indies an even bigger stage, shining an ever more incandescent spotlight on them.
Louis Vuitton has embarked on a series of rockstar collaborations with indie brands, and kicking things off was the hottest young watchmaker on the planet, Rexhep Rexhepi. The resulting Tambour Tourbillon Chronograph à Sonnerie is one hell of a technical achievement.
But wait, that’s not all. Because Arnault has inaugurated the LV Watch Prize, and positioned Louis Vuitton as the champion of emerging independent watchmaking talent.
If you take all three of these acts together, it’s irrefutable that Arnault has, within the span of 12 months, completely changed the perception of Louis Vuitton into a highly watch-centric brand, and even one for serious connoisseurs. And that alone would have been worthy of the Person of the Year award.
But on top of this, Arnault also oversaw the relaunch of Daniel Roth with the re-creation of the watchmaker’s signature Tourbillon. He also relaunched Gérald Genta with a watch specially made for the Only Watch auction that featured jump hours, retrograde minutes and a minute repeater, offering a sneak peek at what is undoubtedly the horological finery to come.
Credits: Article and images by @ Revolution Watch Magazine. See the original article here - https://revolutionwatch.com/revo-awards-2023-full-list/