A year after unveiling their collaborative art deco-inspired capsule collection, Louis Erard and the Horophile return with a fourth rendition of La Petite Seconde Metropolis, with a sleek green dial that looks to the future rather than the past
Like all Louis Erard collaborations, the Petite Seconde Metropolis is first and foremost a human adventure, born from a close bond between Amr Sindi and his online watch-loving alias The Horophile, who has championed independent and niche watchmaking for years, and Manuel Emch, the brand’s CEO and creative visionary.
This Metropolis watch is based on the Louis Erard Petite Seconde, a contemporary classic coming in a compact 39 mm steel case, with its “LE” signature crown – the only place where the brand logo appears. Everything else is new, built like a journey between two times, between two centuries – the Roaring 20s and our own 20s. The result is the invention of a new style: neo-deco, a concatenation of Art deco and the contemporary spirit.
This watch is a tribute in spite of itself: Louis Erard was born into the Art deco fever at its height, in the darkest year of the decade, 1929. It is also a tribute to its home region: the Jura, the Franches-Montagnes, La Chaux-de-Fonds, the birthplace of the fir tree style, the Art deco of the forests, which here takes on a more metropolitan flavour. And with this latest edition, the evergreen tones render that link more direct than ever.
One of the Metropolis’ signature features is the “Empire” baton hands, inspired by the most iconic of Art Deco skyscrapers that is synonymous with modernity: the Empire State Building. Here again, maniacal attention has been paid to detail, to the proportions, floor by floor, from the foundations to the spire, and to the skeletonisation at the centre. The end result is a small, mobile skyline on a pure, logo-free disc.
After the three warm tones of the original trio’s anthracite, salmon and tobacco dials, Louis Erard and The Horophile decided to explore chromatics that are less common in the world of Art Deco, but very much in line with a vision of contemporary architecture. The dial’s green colour takes on a warm shade, shifting with the light as its metallic base adds texture and contrast. The silver Empire hands and powdery silver hour numerals on the dial recall the steel frames of today’s most impressive buildings towering over a green landscape, as if blending in with them harmoniously. The light brown grained calfskin strap completes the modern, easy elegance of this piece.
