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Louis Vuitton’s Escale Time Zone, the perfect table topper

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September 2016


Looking for a travel buddy? Targeting the affluent globetrotter, the Parisian maison has produced one of the most beautiful table clocks out on the market today.

Louis Vuitton's Escale Time Zone, the perfect table topper

It seems that Louis Vuitton wants to be your one and only travel companion. We already love their bags and their trunks, and of late we’re even praising their improving watchmaking presence.

Ever since it bought out La Fabrique du Temps about five years ago, the brand has made a serious push to make some serious complications in their timepiece collection. One of the first successful examples was their stunning GMT wristwatch, a colourful take on a travel companion that went by the name of Escale Worldtime.

Louis Vuitton's Escale Time Zone, the perfect table topper

Now, the French luxury brand has made a table clock version of its successful worldtime wristwatch, calling it the Escale Time Zone.

The steel and Rosewood timepiece allows you to view the time in all 24 time zones. It’s all nicely packaged in a 65 mm case and will set you back around €950. But you’re not really talking about the Escale Time Zone unless you talk about its stunning dial.

Louis Vuitton's Escale Time Zone, the perfect table topper

The design and finishing draws on what the brand is already famous for, the colourful geometrical designs found on their iconic trunks which were also reproduced on the wristwatch model.

Using a special artisanal technique, colour bands and crests, initials and geometric shapes are applied to the dial with extreme precision. In the centre of the sapphire crystal we find a striped disc bearing the inscription ‘Time Zone’, which is meant to evoke the shape of a stylised globe. Against this backdrop we see a subtle minute hand, along with a small triangle-shaped hand showing the local time.

Louis Vuitton's Escale Time Zone, the perfect table topper

Powered by a quartz movement, the GMT clock displays the time in a second time zone thanks to an additional hand and aperture dedicated to this function. The dial is marked with several city initials, and a 24-hour disc, which can be adjusted directly from the crown, sets the reference time next to the desired city, and all the others will follow suit.

I’m almost certain that the real globe trotters out there would opt for a GMT model wristwatch simply for the sake of convenience. This table clock version is certainly small enough to easily fit into a carry-on bag, but it probably wont rack up a lot of kilometres on the road. That’s not to say that it doesn’t make for a great stay-at-home clock.