Louis Vuitton Escale Expands Into High Complication at LVMH Watch Week 2026

At LVMH Watch Week 2026, Louis Vuitton introduced a new chapter for its Escale collection, one that moves decisively into the realm of high complication watchmaking while staying rooted in the House’s enduring relationship with travel. Relaunched in 2024 with a refined, time-only design language, Escale now broadens its scope through four new calibres and five additions to the permanent collection, each developed and finished in Geneva by La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton.

The expansion signals a shift in ambition. Escale is no longer solely an elegant travel companion. It has become a technical platform where movement, purpose, and design are treated as a single, cohesive idea.

The Escale collection has long drawn visual cues from Louis Vuitton’s historic trunks, and those references remain integral. Architectural lugs echo the metal brackets of vintage luggage, while each watch is presented in a dedicated trunk that reinforces the connection to the Art of Travel. What has changed is the level of mechanical expression beneath the surface.

With the introduction of four in-house movements, Escale steps confidently into haute horlogerie, prioritizing complications that feel intuitive to use while demonstrating a high degree of finishing and artisanal detail. This evolution places Escale at the intersection of technical clarity and decorative mastery, a balance increasingly central to Louis Vuitton’s watchmaking identity.

Originally introduced in 2014, the Escale Worldtime reappears in 2026 in two platinum executions that bring heightened craftsmanship to one of the collection’s defining complications. Both models display 24 time zones simultaneously, framed by a worldtime ring composed of individually hand-painted flags representing global cities.

Each dial is completed by a single artisan using miniature painting techniques that require 35 distinct colors applied one by one, with drying periods between each layer. The process takes an entire week per dial. In the Escale Worldtime Tourbillon, the flags are rendered in grand feu enamel, requiring more than 40 firings and over 80 hours of work to achieve their depth and luminosity.

The return of the Worldtime also introduces the new LFT VO 12.01 calibre, developed in-house. A jumping hour display enhances legibility, while crown adjustment allows seamless time zone changes. The Tourbillon variant adds a central flying tourbillon, its star-shaped Monogram flower cage completing one rotation every sixty seconds.

The Escale Twin Zone addresses a long-standing limitation in travel watchmaking: the ability to track time accurately in regions with 30- and 45-minute offsets. Unlike traditional GMT or worldtime watches, the Twin Zone allows two time zones to be displayed with to-the-minute precision.

Its architecture places two sets of hands on a single axis, with an independently adjustable minute hand. Local time is shown through full-bodied hands, while home time appears via skeletonized hands that can be hidden when not in use. A discreet day and night indicator completes the display.

Powering the Twin Zone is the LFT VO 15.01 calibre, developed at La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton. The movement integrates complex hand coordination while preserving a calm, legible dial. Offered in rose gold and a high jewellery platinum edition, the latter introduces aventurine stone, baguette-cut diamonds, and gemsetting that extends across the dial, case, bezel, and buckle, uniting haute horlogerie with haute joaillerie.

The Escale Minute Repeater introduces an entirely different emotional register to the collection. Powered by the manually wound LFT SO 13.01 calibre, the watch combines a minute repeater with jumping hours and a retrograde minute display, a rare pairing in contemporary watchmaking.

The dial is hand guillochéd on a traditional rose engine, requiring up to 60 hours of work. Subtle trunk-inspired details appear in the minute track and nail-like markers, reinforcing the Escale identity. The repeater slide is integrated directly into the lug design, allowing activation to remain discreet and personal to the wearer.

Inside, black-polished hammers and hand-shaped gongs are tuned by ear to achieve clarity and resonance. Assembly and finishing of the movement take more than four weeks, with techniques such as hand-bevelled anglage, Côtes de Genève, and fine snailing applied throughout. The result is a timepiece where sound, motion, and visual harmony are treated with equal care.

Across Worldtime, Twin Zone, and Minute Repeater, the expanded Escale collection shares a common philosophy. Each watch expresses travel through a different lens, yet all maintain coherence between movement, design, and intention. Decorative arts serve function. Complications remain legible. Craft is present without excess.