The new Louis Tambour Horizon Light Up is pretty much spot on for a very specific target market. It is arguably the most premium smart watch in the industry, which is exactly where Louis Vuitton would want to be. If you want to look at it as a smart watch.
Look at it instead though as an extension of the whole world of Louis Vuitton. And think not of LV as you see it now, but where it started. It started when young Louis Vuitton left home at age thirteen and learned and then created a whole industry from the ground up. The ground he walked on in bare feet and wooden clogs, by the way.
This new connected watch then does exactly what young Louis looked for when he started envisioning what would become an empire. He made trunks that protected the belongings of his clients while they travelled. He created products that were better, lighter, stronger and more recognizable (this was a time when luggage was wooden boxes rather shabbily put together in many cases) than anything else on the market. He made them customizable or made them to order for exactly what the client needed and often didn’t even know they needed. Someone once walked in and asked Louis if he could protect a clay model that had to travel from Paris to New York. That model became the Statue Of Liberty.
The Tambour Horizon Light Up brings that same level of attention to detail and LV flair and fun to the wrist. The displays of time and information are hugely customizable, not just in choice of theme but also in how each theme looks. The Chinese Lunar New Year faces are particularly fun, with the dragon romping around a classic LV trunk.
The real difference though is in the ability to link directly to the mammoth travel and destination library of Louis Vuitton. The city guides, the art books, the short stories of all the trunks used by famous personalities, all that feel comes into the new watch. If you swipe the screen when you land in a particular city, you will have access to that city guide. You will get the “what to do in 24 hours in…” experience on your wrist that is surprisingly readable thanks to a very good screen.
The watch itself is a very nice upgrade from the previous model, it is sleeker and smoother and more playful but also arguably more subtle. If you want. The crystal on the face wraps around to the sides, and there are images on the side of the watch that will light up if you choose that. The sides, by the way, use a different system than the data screen itself, so the battery life isn’t as affected as you might think. I personally would keep the sides off for the most part, then it all just looks like a nice design detail. It is fun though when everything lights up and swirls around. You can adjust everything as you wish, it is after all LV.
The watch comes either with a strap in the set or you get the watch separately and choose the strap (straps) yourself. The strap uses their own quick release system, and it is both easy and secure. We chose black alligator, and after a bit of wearing it was as comfortable as you would expect. The watch box by the way will remind you in no uncertain terms that Louis Vuitton began as a custom trunk maker for European royalty. It, like the watch, is quite fun.
Who is the watch for? Someone who appreciates the level of detail that LV brings to the world but is used to data on their wrist. Someone who may like the Apple Watches and Samsungs and such but doesn’t like the fact that they are everywhere. Someone who appreciates wristwatches but could use a connected watch as well. It is a quick, fun addition to a watch collection or a travel ensemble. It takes the need for data and adds much-appreciated flair and whimsy.
