Louis Erard x The Horophile debut NY-inspired collection
La Petite Seconde Metropolis Louis Erard x The Horophile is the creative result of Louis Erard meeting an insider with a passion for fine independent watchmaking; it is a new collection base for Louis Erard’s 39 mm Petite Seconde: three limited editions of slate, salmon, tobacco on a New York-inspired Art Deco style revisited in a resolutely contemporary spirit
This watch is the result of Louis Erard, a mentor for fine affordable watchmaking in Switzerland under the impetus of its director Manuel Emch, working with Amr Sindi, better known by his Instagram handle @TheHorophile, marketing consultant to watchmakers and independent producer of limited series.
This Metropolis watch is based on the Louis Erard Petite Seconde, classic in its 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 centuries – the Roaring 20s and our own 20s – and presents a new style: neo-deco, a concatenation of Art deco and the contemporary spirit.
The starting point for the design was typography. With one line of research: “Reinterpreting Art deco numerals”. The numerals are architectural, open-worked like façade elements. A sophisticated and subtle interplay of lines that has its own visual effect. The small seconds is not indexed, but simply marked with a single dot.
The design of the dial and hands came next; the numerals are circular, as if placed on a disc. The disc motif in turn becomes central, worked graphically in two dimensions to emphasise the two time display areas: the large hour-minute dial and the seconds sub-dial. The disc is also worked in three dimensions at the centre of the watch, with a series of concentric gadrooned grooves to give materiality to the dial and catch the light.
The “Empire” baton hands feature a universal heritage motif: the Empire State Building, an Art deco skyscraper emblematic of modernity. 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.
The design comes in three variations: slate, salmon, and tobacco, with 5N red gilded hands and numerals on the anthracite and brown dials, anthracite and black on the salmon dial. The watch is presented on a strap in grained calfskin: cool brown on the anthracite version, black on the salmon, chocolate on the brown. This watch is produced in 178 pieces, 3 times 59 pieces plus a unique model for The Horophile.
