Louis Vuitton, the French luxury fashion house, recently launched its latest high-end timepiece, the Tambour Opera Automata, paying homage to traditional Chinese opera. The watch’s design takes inspiration from bian lian, a sub-genre of Sichuan opera, where performers rapidly switch masks to indicate changing emotions.
This watch has a unique feature where its movement recreates a series of mask changes on the timepiece’s face in a 16-second sequence, expressing a range of emotions through movements like frowns and winks, finishing with the right eye retracting to reveal a flower.
The Making of Tambour Opera Automata
Genève-based La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton, co-founded by Michel Navas, a master watchmaker, and Louis Vuitton, developed and assembled the timepiece. Navas says, “We wanted the Tambour Opera Automata to reflect the striking aesthetics and expressive movements of bian lian. This extremely challenging art remains a secret, just as automation mechanisms require perfect knowledge of traditional watchmaking skills.”
Louis Vuitton debuted its first high-end watch collection in 2002, and the brand’s Tambour Opera Automata is a new departure, previously drawing inspiration from Europe for its Tambour Carpe Diem watch. Tambour Carpe Diem, launched in early 2022, features a jacquemart in the form of a skull entwined by a snake, referencing vanitas, a form of still-life artworks featuring symbols like skulls intended to remind viewers of life’s fragility.
The watch won the Audacity Prize at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève in 2021. Despite being in the sector for only two decades, Louis Vuitton’s bold and innovative designs have been shaking up the high-end watchmaking world.
The Growing Market for Luxury Watches in China
China’s burgeoning watch market is fuelled by a growing appetite for haute Swiss timepieces. The Hurun’s Chinese Luxury Consumer Survey found that 49 percent of high-net-worth individuals collect luxury watches, a 23 percent increase year on year. While China’s share of the global luxury market expanded from 2020 by just one percentage point to 21 percent in 2021, consumption of high-end watches in the country rose 30 percent in the same period, according to Bain.
It’s no surprise that Louis Vuitton chose to pay tribute to Chinese culture for its latest high-end timepiece creation. To increase its exposure in the lucrative market dominated by heritage brands like Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Bulgari, Louis Vuitton is leveraging innovation and audacious designs. The homage to Sichuan opera and exquisite execution of the Tambour Opera Automata showcase the 200-year-old house’s ambition to win over Chinese consumers.
Watches and Wonders, a watch and jewellery industry trade show, ramped up its presence in China last year by holding events in Shanghai and Hainan. This move indicates that the watch industry is well aware of China’s potential as a key market for luxury watches.
The Tambour Horizon
Louis Vuitton’s innovative approach to watchmaking is not limited to paying homage to Chinese culture. In 2019, the luxury brand released the Tambour Horizon smartwatch, featuring customisable digital watch faces, interchangeable straps, and a suite of smart functions such as voice recognition and step tracking.
Louis Vuitton is not alone in exploring innovative ways to attract Chinese consumers. Other luxury brands, including Chanel, Dior, and Gucci, have also incorporated Chinese elements into their designs, such as zodiac animals and traditional motifs, to appeal to local tastes.
Final Thoughts
Luxury brands like Louis Vuitton are embracing cultural sensitivity as a key strategy to attract consumers in emerging markets like China. By incorporating traditional elements into their designs, they can showcase their respect for local cultures and values. At the same time, they can offer something unique and captivating to consumers who are looking for high-end products that reflect their identity and cultural heritage. As the luxury market continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how brands balance innovation and tradition to capture the attention of new consumers around the world.
