Jean Arnault (Paris, 25 years old) is passionate about mechanics. That is why it is significant that the epiphany that has determined his professional career came to him precisely on board a motor vehicle. “I studied mechanical engineering because I have always been passionate about car and airplane engines. My first passion was Formula 1, that’s why I decided to study mechanical engineering in London,” he recalls. “I was lucky enough to spend a season at McLaren and took the train to go to Woking, to the team’s headquarters. During the journey, I began to read watchmaking blogs, to become interested in their mechanical details, in their design. And I couldn’t get out of it.”
The youngest son of Bernard Arnault, the founder of the French luxury giant LVMH, had discovered his calling. And he was in the right place to develop it. Since 2021, Jean Arnault has been director of watches at Louis Vuitton, a business division that until years ago was a minority in the luxury brand, but which has just slammed the table to show his cards. Last July, in a presentation at the Orsay Museum, scene of so many artistic revolutions – and, by the way, against the backdrop of his enormous mechanical clock -, Jean Arnault presented his first major project: a clock, but also a tabula rasa gesture. The new Tambour takes its name from its predecessors, named after the domed and voluminous profile of the case, but it is totally new and comes to replace all the others. “It is the most important launch we have had in Louis Vuitton watchmaking since 2002,” says Arnault. “Not only for the product, but for everything that surrounds it. Above all, the fact of withdrawing the rest of the collections is an important gesture for the brand. The underlying reflection is that, if we launch a watch at this price, with this quality and this attention to detail, we cannot have two or three different levels of quality in the same collection.”
In a sector marked by the obsession with the archive, where the main brands have several simultaneous lines, long-lived models and gradual updates for different audiences, Arnault’s commitment to Vuitton watchmaking is a triple somersault: from now on, The previous Tambour models disappear to give way to a new generation of unisex mechanical models that preserve the essence of the collection, but raise the stakes, prices and internal coherence. “Unlike a plane or a car, in a watch there are no safety or regulatory restrictions, and that allows us to be much more free and creative,” Arnault develops. “More than any object, a watch works if it is a whole. That is to say, it is a good box with a good monument and a good bracelet. Everything at once. And I think we have achieved it.”
The campaign images show the watch in monochrome combinations that underline that coherence: in steel with a gray dial, or in yellow gold with a white dial, as Leo Messi wore at the Ballon d’Or ceremony in October. The inaugural collection offers few variations because the fundamental thing is a high-precision design. Arnault draws attention to barely noticeable but fundamental details, such as the first five links of the bracelet. “There is a narrowing in them so that they adapt better to the wrist,” he explains. “We had two options: do it in a staggered way, with straight lines that gradually change angle, or with a kind of continuous curve. The net difference is 0.1 millimeters between both options, but 30% of the price. And we have chosen the curved option because it allowed us a more harmonious design. We play at that level.”
Arnault’s bet is not an obvious move, but rather a move to reposition Louis Vuitton as a niche watchmaker. The prices confirm this (19,500 euros for the simplest model), but also the working methods. The Fabrique du Temps, the house’s watch manufacture, is the place where these artisanal processes take place, another rarity. “When I started to get interested in watchmaking I thought that all brands worked the same, with watchmakers who made watches from start to finish. I soon realized that no, most firms work with assembly lines, like in the automobile industry. As soon as I arrived at Louis Vuitton, I saw that the production method and techniques were truly artisanal. In our workshops, the same watchmaker assembles each watch from start to finish. He could almost sign it! It is unique. “We push craftsmanship to the limit, and that is not always economically efficient.”
When talking about his references, Arnault cites Roger Federer, his childhood idol. “It seems like a simple answer, but I have been passionate about tennis since I was a child. And I admire Federer not only for his successes, but for his defeats. He has had moments of weakness, but the way he handles those defeats has always impressed me. He is a tennis player who always comes back, always tries for another Grand Slam.” His commitment to position Louis Vuitton at the pinnacle of watchmaking is also a statement of resilience that runs in the family. “My father has always told me the same thing: that, if the product is good, the results will come. Before joining Vuitton he didn’t have the vision to understand it, but now I understand it. With the new Tambour we don’t expect impressive results right away, because it’s clearly a big move. But one day collectors and our customers will realize that these products are exceptional, that we have made no compromises, and they will begin to understand the philosophy behind them.”
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