It seems that the recession hasn't affected the luxury brands' sales, since Louis Vuitton has just launched several new watch collections, with prices ranging from $3,382 to $265,000. These are completely in-house manufactured, at the La Chaux de Fonds factory in Switzerland, which is a premiere for Vuitton. Usually, luxury watchmakers prefer avoiding this process because it is costly, complex and requires a huge amount of manual labor.

The piece that everyone is talking about was unveiled on April 7 at the company's Manhattan headquarters and it is called the Tambour Mysterieuse. And yes, it costs “only” $265,000. It has a futuristic design, featuring a round dial and a mechanism encapsulated by two sapphire crystal discs, which gives the impression of floating in thin air.

The Mysterieuse has an eight-day, eight-hour power reserve and targets both men and women. Vuitton also offers to its customers numerous customizing services, like monogramming the second hand with their initials, adding gemstones or changing straps to any kind of leather. It comes in a miniature LV trunk.

A possible explanation for its price is the fact that Tambour Mysterieuse takes about a year to be manufactured. The head of LV's watches and jewelry department, Albert Bensoussan, declared that the company only sells one tourbillon a month, “It’s not that we don’t have the demand for more, but there aren’t enough watchmakers to create these masterpieces.” Questioned about the company's thoughts regarding the recession, he replied that “We are not averse to what’s going on in the market. But we are in direct contact with our consumers, so we know what sells and what does not sell right away.”

The other products launched are also Tambour styles, but in gold or steel. The collection starts at $3,382 for the Tambour Lovely Cup, which can be customized with diamonds.


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