Louis Vuitton Tambour Regate Navy Limited Edition Watch

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed)
Jan 11th 2011 at 12:01PM

Louis Vuitton is really getting serious about its watches being near water. First we see a new Tambour Diving watch collection, and now a new yacht racing piece. This is the utility focused Tambour Regate Navy, and is a true regatta watch. The point of it is to have a specially designed chronograph that is able to quickly and easily measure a 10 minute countdown. So, in a sense, this watch has a chronograph complication, as well as a timer complication.

Keen on working with other people's movements and adding something special on top of that, Louis Vuitton uses a new movement call the caliber LV 171 that is a base Dubois Depraz automatic. The movement has a few features include the date and a flyback chronograph that measures up to 60 minutes. The main dial is used for the chrono seconds, while there is a subsidiary seconds dial for the minutes. Adjacent to the sub chrono dial is a subdial for the time's seconds. The main dial has the time, as well as a hand that moves around the entire dial counting down from 10 minutes. The flange ring on the dial is used to measure the countdown period. Why 10 minutes? This is the essential period regatta boats must take into consideration when traveling toward the starting line.

The case itself is in steel and 44mm wide using a standard Tambour style case. Lovely too look at, the dial is "designer" in fashion using shades of blue, black, and hints of red. The result is something attractive, but almost industrial in feel. Louis Vuitton will not make very many of these watches as the Tambour Ragate Navy watch will be limited to only 250 pieces. Still impressive, and very much in alignment with what I have come to expect from the brand.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch reviews site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tags: chronograph, louis vuitton, navy, regate, regatta, tambour, watch