It’s a story of ambition – and in an industry that loves to make a meal of understatement and heritage, that’s not always a quality that’s fully appreciated. But in the case of La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton, the manufacture that unites three Maisons under one roof, cold calculation and naked determination has paved the way to becoming one of the major players on horology’s stage – and one gets the feeling that this is just the beginning.

It all began with Louis Vuitton’s acquisition of La Fabrique du Temps, Master Watchmakers Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini’s horological brainchild, in 2011. While Louis Vuitton had been gradually pushing the watchmaking envelope since its first foray into timepieces in 1988 with the LV I and LV II models, before opening its own ateliers in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 2002, for a name known for its utmost attention to detail and craftsmanship in its leather goods, there remained a sense that there was further to go in its horology. A collaboration with La Fabrique du Temps in 2009 to create the patented Spin Time movement proved to be the shot of adrenaline needed to propel the Maison’s ambitions forward, resulting in the acquisition of the manufacture in 2011 followed by dial-making workshop Léman Cadran in 2012.

Since then, La Fabrique du Temps’s trajectory has been set to warp speed. While still a young manufacture, the laurels have come in thick and fast – from the prestigious Poinçon de Genève awarded to the Voyager Flying Tourbillon model in 2016, to the additions of specialist workshops that expand the manufacture’s in-house capabilities: Microedge, a Swiss workshop specialising in the production of movement components; Art & D, a renowned atelier dedicated to engraving and artistic crafts; and H2L, an expert in high-end case manufacturing.

The Voyager Flying Tourbillon Poinçon de Genève with a dramatically openworked movement that bears the Geneva Seal

Within its Meyrin facility, La Fabrique du Temps unites designers, engineers, and master artisans whose savoir-faire extends to engraving, miniature painting, enamelling, and guilloché, performed on restored period machines that preserve traditional craftsmanship. It’s here that the Maison’s watchmaking future is written — not only for Louis Vuitton but also for its high-horology siblings gérald genta and Daniel Roth.

La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton in Meyrin, Switzerland

Orchestrating the entire watchmaker’s journey – from case to dial to movement – its divisions, La Fabrique des Boîtiers, La Fabrique des Cadrans, and La Fabrique des Mouvements, reflect rare vertical integration. Alongside La Fabrique des Arts, the métiers d’art workshop, the facility embodies a convergence of luxury artistry and Swiss technical rigour – a union that defines its narrative at Dubai Watch Week.

Louis Vuitton’s Craftmanship Excellence

Louis Vuitton reveals the new Escale Ornamental collection at Dubai Watch Week, underscoring the Maison’s commitment to savoir faire. This collection, with each model limited to 30 pieces, puts the métier of ornamental stone work front and center, shows a keen nose for a trend as well as a sense of the timeless.

Set in a 40mm case, each piece features a seamless monolithic ring in turquoise and malachite, crafted from the very mineral used for the dial itself. Not just a decorative flourish, it is a bold integration of material and form: the case ring and dial share a common mineral origin, creating a sculptural continuity rarely seen in watchmaking. The dial becomes a canvas, with the stone as both medium and motif. The manufacture’s métiers d’art team galvanises techniques such as gem-setting, engraving and miniature stone-inlay into something distinctly Louis Vuitton. In the context of La Fabrique du Temps, this technical-artistic fusion is a natural outgrowth of its dial-making and finishing ateliers.

Both turquoise and malachite have been used for dials and decorative

Also on show at the fair is the Tambour Taiko Spin Time collection, which earlier this year offered a refreshed interpretation of the brand’s patented Spin Time movement. Housed in the sculptural Tambour Taiko case, the time display is playful yet mechanically serious: rotating hour-cubes jump to display a different colour on the hour, each presenting the rollover of the current time in an instant reveal. With both Escale Ornamental and Tambour Taiko Spin Time at Dubai Watch Week, Louis Vuitton once again underscores its mastery in mechanical excellence, design and craftsmanship.

Louis Vuitton Tambour Taiko Spin Time

The three-dimensional reinterpretation of the traditional jumping hours complication

Gérald Genta’s Cosmic Creations

In parallel, the revived gérald genta brand brings two new expressions of the Gentissima Oursin to Dubai Watch Week: this time in meteorite editions. For the first time sized in 41mm, these models feature dials hewn from meteorite in blue and green, offering an interstellar twist on a design heritage rooted in one of the greatest watch designers of the 20th century. The integration of meteorite as dial material signals a confluence of design and material rarity, and for the collector, the story is compelling: Mr Gérald Genta’s legacy, re-imagined via the manufacture’s high-end workshop.

Two additions to the Gentissima Oursin collection are presented in blue and green meteorite 41mm dials, with matching rubber straps

“This is a sporty-chic watch,” says Matthieu Hegi, La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton Artistic Director. “The sporty aspect is linked to the rubber and titanium, and the chic aspect is linked to the gold accents. It is for the elegant collector who loves design and beautiful things – someone who desires a watch that is different from what is found on the market and is highly identifiable.”

Daniel Roth: Elevation of an Icon

The refreshed Daniel Roth marque asserts its identity at Dubai Watch Week with the Tourbillon Platinum, a contemporary evolution of the 1988 reference C187 that defined the brand’s golden era. The watch reprises the distinctive double-ellipse case, now rendered in solid platinum — a metal prized for its rarity, heft, and difficulty to master — paired with an anthracite white-gold dial engraved with guilloché en ligne using a restored straight-line engine.

Daniel Roth Tourbillon Platinum

Each element, from the fluted sterling-silver chapter rings to the sinuous ‘moustache’ bearing the brand name, is individually hand-crafted and engine-turned, taking several days to complete. Inside, the shaped calibre DR001 showcases exquisite hand-finishing and an 80-hour power reserve, underscoring Daniel Roth’s devotion to horological purity and architectural harmony.

Calibre DR001

The Tourbillon Platinum embodies discreet excellence — a bridge between heritage and modernity expressed through the quiet strength of platinum. “Naturally, the esteemed reputation of platinum makes it irresistible to a brand like Daniel Roth,” adds Hegi. “When it came time to animate the Tourbillon in a white metal, one thing was certain; it had to be platinum.”

A Manufacturing Movement

So what makes this presentation at Dubai Watch Week particularly noteworthy? The manufacturing coherence across all three brands, rather than representing disparate ateliers or fragmentary craftsmanship, embodies a singular centre of excellence that fuels each label’s output. The manufacture, and by extension all three brands, places its full craftsmanship story front and centre. For collectors and enthusiasts, this means an opportunity to engage not just with individual watches, but with the ecosystem of production, the interplay of materials, movement, finishing and heritage. As a showcase of what a vertically integrated manufacture can deliver in 2025 (rare stones, in-house movements, materials from outer space and platinum-executed tourbillons), La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton doesn’t just provide a hum of background noise – rather, it’s conducting the symphony. And we can’t wait to have a front row seat.