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Louis Vuitton Supports Independent Watchmaking Creatives with a New Prize
News
Louis Vuitton Supports Independent Watchmaking Creatives with a New Prize
Held biennially, the contest will not only award the winner with a one-year mentorship program with La Fabrique du Temps and a grant of EUR 150,000, which could be used to help get their project off the ground, but will also offer guidance in areas such as commercial strategy, copyright and corporate legal aspects, financial management and communication, invaluable skills for an emerging professional.
Registration will open online on the dedicated Louis Vuitton Watch Prize website where candidates can submit their work from the beginning of 2023 through to the end of May 2023. Twenty semi-finalists will then be shortlisted from the pool of candidates and announced online in September 2023.
In the second leg of the contest, the expert committee will go on to select five finalists in December 2023. They will also elect a five-member jury among themselves to perform the final round of judging. All five finalists will be auditioned by the jury in Paris in January 2024 and the winner will be announced at a special reception hosted by Louis Vuitton.
The initiative arrives at a time when independent watchmaking has become, for many, the centre of the horological universe, but equally when the global financial outlook is dark. This exercise of influence by a powerful conglomerate appears not only to be for the greater good of the watch world but might also provide small and nascent independents critical economic support.