Following on last year’s limited edition yellow gold Monterey, Louis Vuitton has quietly released two more Monterey models — this time in ceramic — as part of its permanent watch collection. Fashion insiders caught a first glimpse earlier this year at Pharrell Williams’ Louis Vuitton Men’s Spring/Summer 2027 show in Paris, where the two watches were worn as charms, accessorizing runway looks. Cute, but we like them far better on the wrist.

The Monterey Ceramic charm at Pharrell Williams’ Louis Vuitton Men’s Spring/Summer 2027 show in Paris

Louis Vuitton Monterey Ceramic

The new Monterey Ceramic retains the iconic pebble shape of the original Monterey watches, the maison’s very first wristwatches. Launched in 1988, they were called LV I and LV II, and were created in collaboration with Italian architect and designer Gae Aulenti and manufactured by IWC. While LV I featured the smooth lugless gold pebble design that was reprised and refined in 2025’s limited edition, LV II pushed the vanguard with its use of zirconia-based ceramic, then still a new material in watchmaking. Rado had only just introduced high-tech ceramic in its Integrale watch and IWC launched the Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar, Ref. 3755, which featured black zirconia just two years earlier. Louis Vuitton’s LV II was bold and sexy, and captured the mood of the era with its glossy ceramic case in inky black or forest green.

Gae Aulenti at Palazzo Grassi, during the setup of a Marcel Duchamp’s exhibition, Venice, 26th March 1993. (Image: Leonardo Cendamo/Getty Images)

The Louis Vuitton Monterey, 1988

Louis Vuitton Monterey 2025

The 2026 Monterey Ceramic keeps to the 37mm case size of the original and are just marginally thicker at 11mm versus the 9mm of LV II, which bore a quartz movement. This is to accommodate the new in-house automatic Caliber LFTMA01.02, which beats at 28,800vph and offers 45 hours of power reserve. Like last year’s grand feu enamel limited edition, all clutter has been removed, better to focus on the signature elements that spell Monterey — the distinctive pebble shape, the syringe hands and the crown at 12 o’clock, now updated with a tactile Clous de Paris knurling for better grip. Everything has been brought in-house as well, from ceramic case to lacquered dial and manufacture movement, courtesy of the expertise at La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton.

Louis Vuitton Monterey Ceramic

As with LV II, two models of the Monterey Ceramic are available: an edgy contemporary tone-on-tone version that pairs a green ceramic case with a green lacquered dial, white indexes and a white railway track minute ring, complemented by contrasting yellow lacquered syringe hands, as well as a purist version that bears the original’s striking combination of black, white, red and blue.

Louis Vuitton Monterey Ceramic

Tech Specs: Louis Vuitton Monterey Ceramic

Movement Self-winding Caliber LFTMA01.02; 45-hour power reserve
Functions Hours, minutes and central seconds
Case 37mm × 11mm; polished black or green ceramic; water resistant to 30m
Dial White or green lacquered; black or white Arabic numerals; brass hour and minute hands in red or yellow lacquer; brass seconds hand in blue lacquer
Strap Black or green calf leather with steel pin buckle engraved with Louis Vuitton signature
Price EUR 23,000 or CHF 19,400