Louis Vuitton Tambour Taiko Spin Time Collection: Six Limited Editions that March to a Different Drum

It’s LVMH Watch Week, and the “LV” in the initials of the luxury conglomerate hosting the event stands for Louis Vuitton — which most of us know as a world-famous purveyor of handbags and leather accessories, but which has also in recent years proven its mettle as a high-horology watchmaker. For the first time since LVMH began this annual showcase for its stable of watch maisons, the Louis Vuitton brand, founded in 2002, is exhibiting alongside more established siblings like TAG Heuer, Zenith, and Bulgari — unveiling an entirely new collection within its signature Spin Time series, called Tambour Taiko Spin Time, all limited editions featuring new proprietary movements.

As a fashion house closely associated with world travel since its founding in 1859, it’s appropriate that Louis Vuitton’s defining timepiece complication is the industry-exclusive Spin Time function, developed in partnership with Swiss movement atelier La Fabrique du Temps and debuting in a watch in 2009. The movement boasts an unusual and unique three-dimensional  jumping-hour indication, inspired by the “flap displays” for the rapidly switching timetables on Arrivals and Departures boards in airports and train stations. “Taiko” is the name of a style of drum used on ceremonial occasions in Japan, and the new Tambour Taiko collection is distinguished by a drum-shaped case design that is thinner and more elegant than predecessors in the Tambour line and also exceedingly complex in its machining, assembly, and finishing. 

The commonalities among the new Tambour Taiko Spin Time watches — six in all, with two time-only models in two case sizes, a world-time model, and a flying tourbillon — include the use of 18k white gold for the cases; the use of a consistent “dolphin gray” colorway for the dials and the spinning hour cubes; and proprietary movements based on the LFT023 that debuted in 2023’s Tambour models. The Taiko cases measure either 39.5mm (with a solid caseback) or 42.5mm (with a sapphire exhibition caseback) in diameter, with a meticulously executed array of mirrored and satin-brushed surfaces and relief as well as recessed elements. The dials’ hands, typography, and vintage “Fab. En Suisse” inscription are all hallmarks of the 2023 Tambour as well. What’s different in the Taiko models? In addition to the thinner, drum-style cases, there is the reworked shapes of the cubes to be more cushion-shaped and gently curved than their straighter-edged predecessors. Louis Vuitton has also introduced a new Maltese cross-shaped gear positioned at the base of each cube for convenient time setting backwards or forwards - a rarity in watches with jumping hours.  

The entry-level model (or what Louis Vuitton calls “the purest embodiment of the complication”) is the Taiko Spin Time, containing the LFT ST13.01 movement and housed in a 39.5mm white-gold case. Its solid dial is the most clean and traditionally legible, with the framed hour cubes surrounding the periphery; the current hour is depicted by the single cube highlighted in light gray against the remaining dolphin-gray markers, while the minute can be read from a central analog hand. In addition to the core model with a sunray dial, there is a jewelled version that adds 4.3 carats of baguette diamonds to the bezel and lugs and uses hawk’s eye —  a form of blue-gray quartz prized for its luster and delicate graining — for the dial. Both of the base Spin Time models are on sporty, waterproof rubber straps. 

At a larger 42.5mm in white gold, the Tambour Taiko Spin Time Air also offers a more avant-garde, open design in which the hour cubes appear to float like satellites around a a ring of hour numerals and a minute hand in the center. That movement, the same Caliber LFT ST13.01 inside the previous model, has been adjusted to include longer shafts for the cubes to support the unusual “levitating” display. On this model, the spinning cubes each feature a letter from the name “LOUIS VUITTON” and align with the hour scale in the center. Here again, Louis Vuitton is offering a high-jewelry version, with more than 1,000 diamonds arranged via hand-setting on the lugs, the dial center, and even the cubes themselves; this model also uses hawk’s eye, here for the chapter ring. 

Several steps up in complexity — and even more travel-oriented in its character — is the Tambour Taiko Spin Time Air Antipode, which augments the jumping-hour mechanism with an all-new world-time function. In this watch, which has a 42.5mm white-gold case and contains the self-winding Caliber LFT ST12.01, the local time is displayed more conventionally — minute by a central hand, hour by a yellow arrowhead pointer inspired by the stitching on Louis Vuitton leather goods – while the current hour in any other of the world’s 24 time zones is indicated on the spinning cubes. A world-map motif in the dial's center carries on the theme. The 12 cubes in the Antipode model each feature the name of two cities, paired based upon their separation by exactly 12 hours: Los Angeles and Dubai, for example, share a cube because 12 midnight in the former location equals 12 noon in the latter. Each cube had a "day"side and a "night" side. This display of “opposites” is unique among world-time watches, and a patented innovation for Louis Vuitton.

The Tambour Taiko Spin Time Air Tourbillon, also 42.5mm in the same precious metal, is powered by the automatic LFT ST05.01 movement and offers the most dynamic dial-side presentation with its combination of a center-mounted flying tourbillon and the hallmark Spin Time hour display on the outer ring of rotating cubes. The tourbillon cage, which rotates on its axis once per minute, is made of steel and echoes the shape of a Louis Vuitton’s familiar, stylized Monogram flower; in an ingenious feat of attention to detail, the lower plate of the tourbillon has a highly polished finish, allowing it to essentially serve as a miniature mirror to show off the underside of the carriage. Like the Air and Air Antipode interpretations of the Tambour Spin Time, the Air Tourbillon comes mounted on a beige calf-leather strap.

Prices for the Louis Vuitton Tambour Taiko Spin Time models: $89,500 for the base Spin TIme model and $149 for the gem-set version; $101,000 for the Spin Time Air, and the same $149,000 for the model with diamonds; $123,000 for the Air Antipode; and $127,000 for the Air Tourbillon. Each is limited in number, though specific amounts for each have yet to be specified.